2014 Goals - Mid Year Check-in

We are officially halfway through 2014 (holy cow is it going by fast!) and similar to last year, I thought I'd do a check-in on how my goals for 2014 are coming along.

Complete the Dopey Challenge 
This is a pretty obvious goal as I spent most of 2013 preparing for this.  I can't believe it is only 8 days away!
COMPLETED
It was nice to start the year off completing a goal right at the beginning.  In case you missed them, you can read my recaps here: 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, Marathon, Final Thoughts.  It's been almost 6 months and I still have trouble believing that I did all that and how well the marathon went (second fastest at the time, third fastest post Grandma's).

PR in the Half Marathon 
My current PR is a 1:51:52 set back in 2010.  I ran a 1:55:03 this past September, so I am hoping to make this happen.
COMPLETED
We can check this one off the list!  I set a new Half Marathon PR at the Nike DC Women's Half with a 1:50:04.  Since I reached it, wouldn't it be fun to get under 1:50 sometime in the fall?  Challenges are good for you.

Check 5 states off my list 
I've already got 3 states on the schedule (Kentucky, DC, Oregon).  I have a couple of ideas for the other 2 states and will let you know once they are finalized.
ON TRACK
3 states down and 2 to go.  Eugene is already on the schedule and since we are talking 50 States, I can tell you all that as of Monday, I am officially registered for state #5 for 2014 - Maryland.  I'll be running the Baltimore Half Marathon on October 18th.  

Race a marathon 
I am not running the Disney marathon with a time goal with Dopey going on, so I would like to actually race a marathon in 2014.  I already have an idea for a race and will let you know once it's been decided.
COMPLETED
As you might remember, I just raced Grandma's Marathon during which I set a new marathon PR (which wasn't even a goal, so I feel extra good about this one).

Run 1,250 miles total 
I ran a total of 1,145.77 in 2013 according to my Garmin, but I did a lot of my Jan-Mar weekday runs on the treadmill (without my Garmin) and they are not counted in that number.  So I think this doable.
ON TRACK
As of July 1, I have run 689.90 miles or 55.19% of the way towards having this goal completed.  I'm a little ahead, which is good since I won't be training for a marathon in the fall and won't be putting as many miles in.  I have to do about 93.35 miles a month, which I think is  (probably) doable.  Got lots of halves to train for so it should be fun for the second half of the year!  This was always a stretch goal, so if I come close but don't reach it, I'm okay with it.

Commit to core work 
This is one area I have definitely been slacking on.  I really want to get back to this and to get it started, I am taking part of the Athleta 30-Day Plank Challenge.  You should join me!
SLACKING
There had to be one I wasn't doing well in right?  I started off well, doing the Plank Challenge for the first week (wow, it's sad that I just said 1 week was doing well).  Then Dopey came up and I didn't want to do anything that would interfere with that and then I just didn't go back to it.  I would do some ab work here and there, but nothing major.

This is one I definitely want to work on for the rest of the year (and I'm adding stretching in.  Man, am I inflexible).  So to help me accomplish those goals, I am going to be doing PiYo for the next 60 days (I officially started this Monday).  PiYo is a fast paced yoga-pilates combo from Chalene Johnson and Beachbody (the company that does P90X).  It's low impact (which will be good for my knees and joints) and focuses on core and flexibility, two things I am in desperate need of improving.  Moving foward, you'll see PiYo included in my weekly training recaps.  I'll still be running, so some days it will be doubles, but I think committing to this will help me get faster in the long run.  For most of the 60 days I'm doing PiYo, I won't be doing any speed work so it'll mostly all be easy runs.  I might throw in a couple of tempo runs to change it up, but not at race pace or anything.  Just slightly faster.  {Side bar: in case you are wondering, I bought and paid for PiYo myself.  I'm not being sponsored or anything - although that would be nice, right?}

Not too bad half way through!