My 2020 Running Goals!

2020 is going to be my year. I feel it.

Starting in 2017, Aaron and I decided we wanted another baby. It took (literally) a month of being off birth control to get pregnant with Lynnleigh, so we figured baby 2 would be the same situation. I'm not going to go into much detail about this on this post, I'll save that for it's own post one day, but Reid didn't make her grand appearance until October 8th, 2019, so you can gather that I didn't get pregnant nearly as fast as we figured I would...

Needless to say, I was frustrated with the entire situation and basically just pouted for two years, let's be honest.

When I finally did end up pregnant, I was ecstatic! I planned to run the entire pregnancy like I had seen so many other women do. However, my body generally sucks at the whole pregnancy thing and I'm basically sick for the entire 9 months.

Needless to say, I ran basically 5 miles for the entire first trimester and that probably happened in two or three days. After I started learning how to better deal with my nausea (read: MEDS, BABY), I started running more. I even got in a 7 miler around 20ish weeks pregnant. BUT THEN I GOT SUPER FAT and everything was hard and I was tired and I just wanted people to wait on me hand and foot.

So after a really easy labor with Reid, I went to my 6 week postpartum checkup and was cleared to run! I immediately came home and ran a mile as fast as I possibly could.

It. Was. A. MISTAKE. I was down for a week. Everything hurt. Labor was easier to recover from than that run. I decided I needed to ease back into running and chose to complete the Couch 2 5K program like I did after I had Lynnleigh. It would force me to walk some and ease back into the running I once did. SOOOO that has been my plan since mid-November. Yesterday I completed Week 6 Day 2 and I am feeling pretty great. Not where I was, but I'm getting there!

Since it's the start of a new year and everyone is setting goals, I decided to set 3 running goals for myself for 2020. Here they are:

1. Run 500 miles this year. That is roughly 42 miles per month. It sounds like very little considering there were some weeks where I ran 40 miles alone. However, I plan on coming back slow, but strong, and pacing myself is what is going to help me set those new PRs I'm looking at!

2. Run 2 Half Marathons this year. I have already been gifted my first registration by my parents. I am running the Hatfield and McCoy Half Marathon in June. (Thanks, Mom and Scotty!) I also have my sights set on the St. Jude Half Marathon in December. Many of my friends ran this one, or one in the same set of races, this past December and I was so jealous. But I was also tired, so.... I skipped it, for good reason.

3. Run a mile at a 7 minute pace. Not 7 flat, just a 7 something. My fastest was a 6 something (my watch reset the mile record, for some weird reason, so I'm not sure what it was exactly). I just really want to see a 7 minute-ish mile again. Even if it's on December 31, 2020!

I have other goals for this year. I have life goals and spiritual goals to go along with these running goals.

General Life Goals:

1. Be present

2. Have one family outing a month

3. Have one date night per month

Spiritual Goals:

1. Start each day with a devotion

2. Read the entire New Testament and journal passages that really speak to me (I love Bible Journaling!!)

3. FINISH two devotions/books. Not just purchase... FINISH.

Another goal I have is to watch The Office as much as possible this year since Netflix is taking it off in January 2021... Rude.

So those are my goals for 2020. Hopefully this blog can help me stay accountable ;)

What about you? What are your goals for 2020? Have you decided on any races this year? Do you have other life goals, or just running goals? Let me know in the comments!

Have a great weekend!!

P.S.

Here is a picture of my girls. You're welcome.

#running #postpartum #goals #2020