It has been a while since I’ve had a fitness goal that excited me. During my pregnancy, my goal was to stay active and healthy. Following Katie’s birth, my goal was once again to stay active which helped me stay physically and mentally healthy. While I was able to achieve both of these and benefited greatly, now that I’m 11 months postpartum, I’m excited to focus on a goal that helps me return to my fitness roots – running.  While I’ve run more than 25 half marathons, 5 marathons and over 50 shorter races since beginning my running journey in 2006, I’ve never been able to break 2 hours in the half marathon.

I’m hoping to run a sub 2:00 half marathon at the NYCRuns Brooklyn Half marathon on October 20th!

Over the past few years, I’ve striven to improve my half marathon times. While I had a few highlights of running 2:01 half marathons along the way, I’ve had more than a few disappointments.  As I look back and read multiple race recaps, a few things stand out: over-training, lack of training, lack of strength training, or lack of recovery time.   I laugh as I read through prior posts and see that I was running 4-5 times a week in addition to taking boutique fitness classes on Classpass or when we lived abroad, traveling every single weekend. I wasn’t allowing my body anytime to recover. Then, when I read other recaps I realize that I went into a race with a stretching goal on very little training.

This time around, I am doing a few things differently:

• I’m balancing motherhood and a career which means my training needs to be efficient and effective.
• I have given birth and gone through a level of pain that made me stronger mentally and physically.
• I am starting my training early so I can build a strong base.
• I am reading to gain knowledge and insights so that I can train smarter. In fact, what is your favorite book or resources? 
• I am working with my friend Theodora, who is a run coach. As I train for my sub-2 this summer and fall,  she’s putting together a training for me. FYI, she is making plans for both remote runners and those local to NYC. Email her at Theodora@preppyrunner.com for more details.
• I realize the importance of strength training, core training, and recovery in addition to running.
• I am going to record EVERYTHING using Strava and my GPS watch.

So there you have it! I’ve shared my goal with you guys as well as with Bo and I am so excited for the training along the way. It has been a dream of mine to set an example for Katie and I can’t wait to run towards her and Bo at the finish line in October!