2015 Year End Review

So because it's the year end, I thought I would take the time to review my initial goals that I made back in September to see where I'm at and what needs more work.

Here are my original goals:
1.  Lose ~50 lbs & change my body composition
2.  Incorporate strength and flexibility
3.  Distance, distance, distance

So how am I doing with each goal? And what can be improved?

Goal #1

• I'm almost half way to meeting this goal. The original plan was to focus on losing before training got too heavy or intense.  During that point, it's important to eat enough calories to properly fuel the training or I won't see any speed or distance gains.  If I can maintain this pace, I should meet my goal in another 3-4 months (March/April) which will be perfect timing.
• I'll continue my focus on health eating, cutting out unnecessary empty calories (mainly from added sugars) and pre-planning meals.

Goal #2

• I've already been doing Pilates on a weekly basis and some Yoga.  
• Starting next week, I have Pilates classes scheduled for 2x/wk with an instructor who knows how to challenge me.
• I'm planning on adding some upper body focused resistance band workouts 1-2x/wk

Goal #3

• I've been systematically increasing my distance each week, no more than 1.5 km/wk for running to avoid injury
• Over the past three months I've mainly been swimming 1x/wk.  Next week I plan on swimming 2x/wk.
• Monday's & Wednesday's indoor treadmill runs will get longer and tailored for interval or tempo runs.

2015 Training Distance Totals (using Garmin Forerunner 910xt, not including twice weekly treadmill runs)

October Totals             November Totals             December Totals                   Overall 2015 Totals
Swim - 3.67 km             Swim - 1.32 km                 Swim - 3.47 km                      Swim - 9.47 km
Bike - 50.43 km             Bike - 232.01 km.              Bike - 241.61 km                   Bike - 524.01 km
Run - 37.59 km              Run - 32.26 km                  Run - 58.93 km                      Run - 128.78 km

Luckily for me, I've remain injury free and relatively healthy (only 1 mild cold so far), so training has remained unimpeded this far.

The next phase of training (Jan-Mar) will continue the focus on indoor training, intervals and building my base.  I'll have two scheduled races during this time (Chilly 1/2 & ATB) that will drive my running distance.

The race is no longer 'next year'.  It is 10 months away, which seems like a long time, but as a friend & training partner always says '"each weekend counts".  I need to keep moving forward to meet my goals and finish in 15:30 ... or better ;)