And so it begins...

I am a Seattle runner whose current 2014 focus will be on the 5k distance.

I consider myself a competitive runner. However, when I say competitive I definitely do not mean it in an aspiring running professional sense or even amateur professional sense. Rather, I am referring to competitiveness which is directed at myself and the love of what only competition and a competitive atmosphere like a target race, can bring out in a runner. 

A brief recap of 2013:

At the beginning of 2013 I made two important decisions that would affect the rest of my year: 

1. I set up firm 5k race goals for the year (under the 20 minute threshold as goal A, and then if that was achieved, work to get as close to the 18:30 threshold for goal B).

2. I decided to start attending a local running group that met weekly on Mondays called The Monday Night Run (go figure) hosted by the Super Jock 'n' Jill running store at Green Lake.

A friend who I met at The Monday Night Run has worked with me throughout the 2013 year, providing training suggestions and tips to help me achieve the goals I set out at the beginning of 2013. My development started off with increasing my weekly base mileage to run as close to 40 miles per week as I could get. This took a couple months as I took it slow and steady to avoid injury (increasing mileage two consecutive weeks in a row then dropping mileage the following week, rinse and repeat). It took a good couple months before I started seeing noticeable improvements at races, but it was worth it. In the second half of 2013 I also began experimenting with the more technical and indirect aspects of racing the 5k distance such as mile splits, warm-up routines, and finding the right balances in sleep and nutrition.

I will take all I have learned and started to learn this past year, and hopefully continue to build upon it this year. Bring on 2014 (without any injuries please)!