March 1. Where did the past two months go? This year is officially flying by. It seems each year goes a little faster. Kids keep getting bigger, the guy in the mirror keeps getting older, and recovery keeps getting harder. So life goes.

The last few months in North Texas have been fairly bizarre. We saw multiple days over 80 degrees in February. February is always a wild card month. It can be anywhere from 90 to 9 inches in snow. Sometimes in the same week. The wind keeps shifting (north / south / north / south…) which means a few things. First it means the temperatures swing back and forth between hot and cold. Which is maddening. The other thing it means is that allergies stay stirred up. Plants bloom every other week. Stuff that’s supposed to die in a hard winter just won’t. Luckily I’ve made it through with minimal impact. Still, I’m ready for the weather to settle into some kind of norm. Preferably not scorching hot.

2017 GOALS

My primary goals for this year are running related. Last year was supposed to be one of a major run focus. Then my knucklehead buddy Wakin went and signed up for IMNC. I followed suit and my run focus was officially disrupted for the year. So this year I’m picking it back up. Sarah and I are training for the Big Sur Marathon in April. We’re using an advanced training plan that includes three weeks of 50 miles with long runs of 20. I’m still biking and swimming a few times a week for maintenance.

My official goal for the year is to PR at every run distance (5k/10k/13.1/26.2). That and beat Wakin any time we line up against each other. But that’s pretty much a goal regardless of year.

COWTOWN (ONE DOWN)

Last weekend Sarah and I ran the Cowtown Half Marathon. We both set out to PR in this race. Given the training plan we’re on for Big Sur our training was solid. Our longest runs had been 16 and 17 miles and we had done some form of speed work for the past eight weeks. She was wanting to break 2 hours and I was out to break 1:45. She ended up at 1:57 and I hit 1:45 on the money, a PR by 10 minutes. Needless to say we were both pretty excited to wind up in the top 15% of out age groups. We both nailed the execution and had pretty good running weather to boot.

NEXT UP…

As of today we’re nine weeks out from Big Sur so there’s still pleanty of training to be done. As well as Cowtown went there’s one lingering thing that haunts me. Over 13.1 miles we climed ~400ft. Big Sur will be 26.2 with ~2000ft of climbing. We’ll recover this week and starting next week focused hill work will begin. Good times there. For the record I’m not looking for a marathon PR at this race. I’ll save that for later in the year. On a much flatter course.

We’re also in the process of raising funds for the Children’s Tumor Foundation. I’m currently at just over 20% of my goal of $1500. If you are looking for an opportunity to donate to a great charity you can do that right here.

Three weeks after Big Sur I’ll be racing the inaugural Tri Fort Worth. I’m excited to have a 70.3/140.6 race here in North Texas. I’ll be doing the 70.3 and hoping I’m recovered from Big Sur by then. If I’m going to beat Wakin I’ll need to be firing on all cylinders. We’ll see how it goes.