Resolute

Is it too late to do a new year’s resolutions post?

It will be short and sweet.

I don’t really believe in new year’s resolutions. You see, will power is not really my strong suit.

But there is one thing that I”m determined to do this year, so I’ll call that a resolution: No injuries in 2013.

No injuries in 2012 was a failed mission. I hurt my hip in June and then an old knee injury flared up in September. And that’s why I’m so determined not to injure myself this year.

2012 was the year that I got back into running after an 8-year hiatus. (Jeez, how old am I?!) I was delighted to discover that I still loved running and was still pretty good at it… so I overdid it a bit. I set my sights on races, probably trained a little too hard for them, and injured myself along the way.

So as odd as it sounds, my new year’s resolution is to run less. But get more out of it.

I would still like to run all the same races I did in 2012 (a 5K and 10K in Park City, UT and a half marathon in Moab, UT). I’d even like to add another 10K in there somewhere. But I am determined not to run more than 4 days a week.

This summer, before each of my injuries, I was running 5x/week and doing yoga twice a week. Yoga is good, and I will continue to do that twice a week in 2013. But I don’t know if my body can handle so much running after being away from it for so long. So unfortunately, my plan is to cross-train on the elliptical once a week, even when it’s nice out… wahhhhh.

Right now, while it’s cold and dark and the air quality is bad, I am running 1-2x/week (and the elliptical is actually a savior). When spring comes (with daylight savings time!) and I can run when it’s light out, I’ll increase this to 3x/week. And then to 4 when I’m training for a race.

Between that, yoga, and cross-training on the elliptical, I hope to stay healthy throughout 2013! Oh yeah, and run all those races faster than I did last year.

Knock on wood, but this is one resolution I’m pretty confident in!