Hello 2025!
Here’s a summary of this past week’s training. And my fitness kick-off for the new year. 2025 is going to be different!
I’m doing it. That’s the best way I can think to describe how my training is going.
There are bumps and concessions, but I’m consistently getting in one to three runs and at least one strength/conditioning workout per week. This is going into month two! It would take too long to dig back through my journals and workout logs to figure out when I was last this successful (in my 50s?). I’d like to know the stats—I love data! But… I take a breath and let it go. 😜
I’m still having hip pain which is affecting my weekly mileage—not to mention testing my “discomfort tolerance.” While I do need the mental strengthening, I’d much rather these issues waited until I was hitting 15 and 20 mile runs when I’d expect to feel discomfort. It makes me worry about my aging body’s ability to recover and adapt.
Yet, it’s still early in the “adaptation” process and I’m working on the issues. More on that in a bit.
The 2025 kickoff? TWO events only three days apart.
New Year’s Day, a road 5K (3.1M). Then, Jan 4, a 15K (9.3M)1.
Preceding these in the same 7-day period, a 4.8M hike and an S&C workout. Now that’s what I’m talking about. My friend Kathy did all of it with me. We’re rockin’ it!
Photo: New Year’s Day 5K at Indian Spring Park, Waco, TX; 2025-01-01
The 15K was a challenge for me. I told the race director’s wife when she asked me how it went, “It was more than I probably should have done, but not more than I could do.”
I think that’s a good place to be at the end of any event.
Kathy and I stuck together to finish the first 5K loop . (Every distance used the same 5K loop, repeating as necessary to complete their distances.) She collected her 5K medal and shirt. I headed out solo for another two loops to complete a 15K.
Photo: I’m very happy this wasn’t part of our 5K loop. Jacob’s Ladder, Cameron Park, Waco, TX; 2025-01-04.
The last 3.1 miles, my third loop, was tough. My hips were hurting and I did my best not to limp. No jogging in that loop. Still, I finished with a pace I’m very happy with, 26:13 min/mi. Given where I’m at in my training and the struggle my body is having as I ramp up my mileage and strengthening AND that it was on the trails in Cameron Park… Yep. I’m happy with it.
This past week, I also made the decision to modify my race and training schedules. I was lagging behind the training plan in my long run distances and needed to move out the race date and extend the training cycle to recover.
In the previous weeks, I was forced to drop an 11 mile long run to just 6 miles due to hip pain. Thanks to a head cold, I’d also missed another training run. Originally, I’d shortened the training cycle to fit the race date I’d picked. This meant ramping up fast, although I was tweaking the mileage to match what I felt my body could handle.
I should have been at 15 miles last week, so I’d registered for the 25K (15.5M) event to fit the training plan. Even before race day I knew that distance was pushing it if I hoped to avoid injury.
The new modified schedules target a later marathon date (Apr 26 rather than Mar 15) and pushes my training cycle out another 5 weeks to meet that goal. It’s not that big of a slip back. An 11 mile run is on my schedule for this week. We’ll see how that goes.
Hope the momentum keeps carrying me toward my 2025 goals!
- I’m going to write a race report on the 15K and post it this week. ↩︎
You go girl
Thank you Brenda!