Hey, welcome to April end of May. Only *checks watch* 5 months late on the start of this. It’s fine. It’s fine, let’s just pretend this is January. I’ll set the mood. It sucks. It’s cold out. Your body is never going to be warm again. It’s persistently grey-skied, and it’s seemingly always night. OK, now that you are sufficiently depressed, let’s get this train wreck a-rollin’.
In summary, 2018 was a good year for fitness for me. Thanks for coming everybody!
Fine, let’s dig into the numbers a bit. This is what we are known for here at Killer Tofu HQ, data dives and frequent, on-time posts. The two things.
I personally approached 2018 as a makeup year for 2017. I really felt like I slacked off in 2017. So, did that show in the numbers? Well, let’s start with the baseline, the number from 2017.
2017
Running:
Total Runs: 86
Total Distance (Mi.): 650.47
Average Pace: 10:42
Average Time: 1:12:14
Full Marathons: 1 (1 failed)
Half-Marathons: 2
10ks: 2
Lifting:
Total Weight Lifted (Lbs.): 129,741
Days at Gym: 80
2018
Running:
Total Runs: 114
Total Distance (Mi.): 874.81
Average Pace: 10:55
Average Time: 1:25:13
Full Marathons: 2
Half-Marathons: 2
10ks: 1
Lifting:
Total Weight Lifted (Lbs.): 83,896
Days at Gym: 74
I definitely put more miles in. 224.34 more miles! I’m very happy with that. And I will say, it shows in the race outcomes.
I PR’d in Chicago, and then turned around and beat it in Indy. I am so stoked with those races. I also PR’d for a half during the Santa Hustle. I never broke 2 hours for a half-marathon, and I just crushed it by 8 minutes. I am ecstatic how I finished out 2018. I wish the weather didn’t turn because I felt like I was in such a good groove. I would very much like permanent fall please. A breeze 65 degrees at all times would just be peachy. Alas.
The average pace went up, which is not great. It didn’t jump a whole lot, but speed continues to be my weak point. I think that is going to be my goal. I really want to speed my runs up. At the very least I’d like to continue to beat my PRs.
At least for this year, I’ve changed up my Marathons. I’ve done Chicago and Indianapolis for the past few years, trying for NYC. Well, I didn’t get into NYC again, and also Chicago this time. I still want to do at least two marathons, so this year I’m running Minneapolis, Minnesota and Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve never ran Minneapolis, but Madison is one of my favorite towns in the few times I’ve been there. Great running town.
Sidebar, last time I ran in Madison, I ran around one of the lakes, about a half-marathon. I parked at some public garage, near a support. Well, after I was done, and when I was pulling out, I wasn’t paying attention and dented the passenger-side fender on that support. Normally, and understandably I would be extremely upset at myself. This time however I was on such an endorphin high that my reaction was basically, “Oh well, cars are made to be broken.” That was until hours later when I calmed down and then realized the damage I did and had the proper reaction, you absolute idiot (me to me).
Now for lifting. I definitely spent less time in the gym this past year than I did the previous year. It was a 32.6% increase in the number of runs and a 34.5% increase in number of miles. It was also a 8.1% decrease in the number of times I made it to the gym and a 35.4% decrease in the amount of weight I lifted.
These are rough measurements, but it seems like the more I run the less I left and vice-versa. This should be apparent with just how time allotment works, but now it’s in the data! It seems to correlate at roughly the same rate. Glad we can confirm the obvious here at KT HQ.
With any hope 2019 will be better than 2018 with more improvements. OK, I’m going to stop writing or this post will never get out. BYE.