I gotta say that the first 3 months of 2022 have not been so great in terms of running. Actually, this quarter has not been so great in several aspects of my life. I guess this is fine because April (for me) has always marked the beginning of Spring, which is all about rebirth and all of those other warm fuzzy sentiments.
Main targets for the first quarter
Rather than beating myself up about not hitting these goals, I guess that I will shimmy these on over to the 2nd quarter of 2022. It’s probably better than I move these goals over because I probably lost all the progress that I have made while training for and running Fred Lebow Half Marathon (Jan.) and Rock n Roll New Orleans Half (Feb).
Unfortunately, the month of March has been plagued with a couple of injuries that kept me from improving on my half marathon times.
Besides meeting the goals in the above picture, I have/had a couple of goals for 2022
-Run a half marathon each month.
-Run 2022km by Dec. 31
Running a half marathon each month:
This goal is now out of the question since I could not get over my injury in time to run last weekend’s Run Love Philly Half Marathon. I’m not going to beat myself up too badly about missing this goal because there were some things that were out of my control. When I signed up for these half marathons in December (at least the Jan – Mar ones), the college course that I teach was supposed to be virtual. However, a couple of weeks before the semester began, the college changed the course from virtual to in-person. I‘m not complaining too much about this change because I prefer teaching in person. Since I had already made my travel arrangements for New Orleans, I told the department that I made these plans before the department decided to make the course in-person. I’m not sure that I could have pulled that excuse (again) for Philly’s half marathon. That said, I did request off for April’s Brooklyn Marathon. Well . . . actually, the Brooklyn Marathon is going to be a half marathon for me because there was no way that I could train for a full marathon on a bum leg.
Image courtesy of NYCRuns
To be perfectly honest, this upcoming half marathon will be more of a walk->run->walk->run situation. Depending on how the next couple of weeks go, I plan on doing the following: walk (1mile)->run (1mile), rinse and repeat for 13.1 miles. If I can run the 1st three miles and do my walk->run->walk cycle, then great. If not, oh well . . . feet smell.
Image courtesy of NYCRuns
Taking another peek at the course, I guess that I’m not missing too much by switching my registration from the full marathon to the half marathon. After Mile 13, the full marathon pretty much is an in-and-out course along Ocean Parkway, which can be a bit boring.
Running 2022km (1264mi) in 2022
To meet this goal, I have to run about 168.5km per month. Looking at my total mileage (errrr kilometrage) as of March 31, I’m a bit off of my goal.
At this point, I’m supposed to be around 505.5km so I’m about 63.5km (40mi) off of my goal. Although I’m a bit off of my target monthly mileage (errr kilometrage), I think that I can still make 2022km by Dec. 31. Now, my target monthly kilometrage is 176km (109mi), which is about 5.8km (3.6mi) a day. If I do not have any other issues with my leg (fingers and toes cross) or other random BS, I think that I can manage this new goal, especially through easy runs.
Becoming more social:
During the next quarter, I’m going to try my hardest to get reconnected to NYC running culture through my running groups. You know, until people get on my damn nerves. Right now, I’m a half-assed member of two in-person groups (Harlem Runs and Front Runners NY) and one virtual group (Black Runners Connection). HA! I was even featured in Front Runners’ Member Spotlight in February.
For some, it might be a huge honor, but in this case, I was a bit conflicted.
-It’s clear that they wanted someone of African descent to be featured because of Black History Month. Also, I’m probably one of 5-7 (I’m being generous with these numbers) active (well . . . near active) African descent/Black members of the group.
-For the spotlight, you are asked to answer a few questions. I will admit that I felt a certain way with this question: Black History Month – Is there anything you want to see from the running industry as it pertains to Black runners? If the club is trying to show that they improving diversity, shouldn’t all members be asked this (or a similar question)? While probably an oversight, the person who sent me a list of the questions didn’t bother to keep the font consistent with the other questions.
Actually, let me stop there because this is supposed to be a positive (or a near positive) update.