Cherry Blossom & 210 Days Until NYC Marathon!!

I haven't posted in awhile- correction: I haven't ran in awhile. And it's all Polar Vortex's fault!! Hehe.

This weekend, I ran in the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler Race in DC. It was chilly out and disappointing in the sense that cherry blossom has not bloomed yet, but the weather was manageable (low 40s is OK... nothing below freezing please!). I finished the race with a PR time of 1:39:04 (which was only a few seconds better than last year's). If I had pushed myself on the course, I would have definitely gotten a better time (I think), but given that next Sunday is the Raleigh Half, I did not want accidentally get hurt. I'm happy to report that I truly feel that Cherry Blossom marks the start of my running season and I am ready to buckle down and truly make running my priority for the rest of the year. Only 210 days until the New York City Marathon!!!

Completed Races
Jan 19th: Rock n Roll Arizona Half Marathon
April 6th: Cherry Blossom 10 Miles

Upcoming Races
April 13th: Rock n Roll Raleigh Half Marathon
May 25th: Rock n Roll Liverpool Half Marathon
June 15th: TBD
July 13th: TBD
August 31th: Rock n Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon
Sept 28th: Rock n Roll Montreal Half Marathon
Oct 5th: Rock n Roll San Jose Half Marathon
Oct 19th: Rock n Roll Denver Half Marathon
Oct 26th: Rock n Roll Vancouver Half Marathon
Nov 2nd: NYC Marathon!!!

The goal is to run a long distance race at least once every month. My Rock n Roll tour pass is good until year end 2014 and I'm trying to make the most of it. I'm excited to check off so many states this year- :)

2014 is the year that I will run my first marathon and I'm really excited! Who knows? If all goes well, I hope to complete all the major marathons across the globe, including Tokyo Marathon, Boston Marathon, Virgin London Marathon, BMW Berlin Marathon, Bank of America Chicago Marathon and ING New York City Marathon. Call me crazy, it's always on the back of my mind to maybe one day try to qualify for the Boston marathon!!!

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the qualifying time for women (from this year):

Almost 10 years ago, I set a goal to complete a full marathon before the age of 30. Do I dare to believe that I can possibly qualify for Boston marathon before I turn 40?? 

OK OK, enough day dreaming, first things first. 210 days until NYC Marathon and I need to get it going with the training. I need to be eating healthy every day, increasing my mileage run every week, losing weight and strengthening my core. I will be scouring websites and articles for interesting running advice and sharing my progress regularly. 

I'm so pumped! If anyone is out there and want to join me in my running endeavor, please leave me a message and join me! 

Happy New Year! My 2014 Running Goals

Happy New Year! Happy 2014!

Running Goals

• Do a full 6 week program of Kettleworx. I want to really take the time to do this, partly because I want to prove this guy's statement wrong and also because I want something that will help me strengthen my core and make me a better athlete overall. 
• Run regularly. I use this table as a guide for my marathon training but I may have to improvise given there will be some weeks when I won't get to exercise enough. During the wintery months, I will dedicate my lunch time to gym time. When the weather becomes nicer, I plan to commit to a running team and run outside on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 2014 is the year that I will complete my first marathon!! I am so psyched!!
• Continue my goal to run a half marathon in every state. Here's my heat map to give you a better sense of what has been done (Red = ran in 2013, Purple = tentative plan 2014). This, of course, will be made easy through my commitment to run using the Rock n Roll half-marathon tour pass.