An addendum to my 2010 goals

Facing a shrinking time window to be timely I kinda of just spat out my goals for 2010 a few weeks back. Now, with more time (and now that I'm back into training) I'd like to revisit those goals and add a few more.

1. Continue filling up states on the map. In 2009 I passed the 1/5 mark on my goal to run a race (Half or Full Marathon) in every state plus DC. I'm up to 11 states and have four out of town races on the calendar for 2010. (Of course, there is still plenty of space to squeeze in a fifth race this year....)
2. Keep bringing down my times. The Marathon and I are on good terms again, so I'm going to keep shooting for a PR and crawl closer to a BQ. 3:40 is the next time goal I have in mind, let's see if I can make it happen in Wilmington or Maine. As for the Half-Marathon, my next benchmark is 1:45 and given that my HM times are still on a long-term downward, I think I will definitely hit that this year.
3. Get a dog. We are finally moving to an apartment that not only allows dogs, but has a gigantic terrace that we can use as a dog run. After 4.5 years of living in this city without a dog, we are going to get one. (BTW, does any one know a good terrier breeder?)
4. Try shorter distance races. This one I add half-heartedly. For some reason I just don't really care about races shorter than 13.1 miles: I ran five HMs and a Marathon before my first 5K or 10K--and I've never run those distances again! But that nagging voice in the back of my head keeps saying that I should be better rounded and start playing around with the shorter distances.
5. Run a relay. This one is really pie-in-the-sky because I only have one real life runner friend (oddly enough, who I met via this blog). However, I would love to run in one of those crazy 12-person, pack up everything in a van, run overnight for 200 miles relay runs.

2010 goals

No flourish here, just a straight up list of wonderful bullets.

Goals--keep doing from 2009

• Write over 100 posts. Ideally I'll write more, hopefully closer to 150, but life tends to get in the way pretty often.
• Train outside as much as possible. I just feel better when I run outside/not on a treadmill. For the next couple months of Winter I'll have to do most runs indoors, but the second it gets back into the 40s pre-dawn, I'll cancel my gym membership and will be out on the roads again.
• Stay happy in my job. I'm very happy where I am now. Thanks to the recession I've been through enough employers that I now have a much better sense of what is a hiccup and what is a long-term problem.

Goals--new for 2010

• Have a 50-mile training week. I'm just curious as to how that feels.
• Integrate HR into my training. For Christmas I got the HR monitor for Fenny, so I can now join the chest-strapped elite. I've been curious about measuring my HR for a while and now have no excuse.
• Run 1,500 miles. Once I added in the balance of my December runs the official grand total mileage for 2009 is 1,318. Another 200ish miles shouldn't be that hard, especially since I'll log about 650 per training cycle.
• Keep up with Pop bits. I've only got one installment under my belt, but I'm hoping to make it a regular part of the blog.

Nothing too exciting, but I hope that's a sign that I've got lots of things going in the right direction.

First day of 2010 is all about 2009

Time for a little reflection before seeing what I want to tackle over the next 365 days.

Let's see how I did on the 2009 goals:

1. Log 1,000 miles for the year. EPIC WIN! Not counting runs from the past two weeks--because they are still in Fenny and not in my log yet--I have run 1,286 miles. The distance from my apartment in NYC to my parent's house in Miami? 1,293.
2. Get presents for family members' birthdays. EPIC FAIL! I actually did better on this one last year. Ugh. I will get there.
3. I want to be happier in my job. UNEXPECTED WIN! If anything went completely opposite to what I planned it was my career. Worked my tail off only to lose my client. Ended up getting laid-off on my first day back from vacation. Took a freelance job at an agency that people would die to work at. Interviewed for a job 500 miles from New York. Finally took a job that was a promotion and raise (in this economy!). And now I am actually happy with my job--and I don't remember the last time I could honestly say that.
4. Get more involved in the running community. DOUBLE FAIL! I didn't rejoin my running group: my excuse was always that the group started runs too late in the morning--wah wah wah. Although I have to say that my running didn't suffer because of this. I also didn't volunteer at a single race, which I have no legitimate excuse for.
5. Move to a new place. NON-FAIL FAIL! We didn't move, but I can't call this a real fail. Our landlord raised our rent only $25, so I didn't actually lose that much by staying put.
6. Become an uncle. FOREGONE WIN! This kid is absolutely adorable. Once we get back to NYC I'll post some pictures.
7. Run at least five races. FAIL, BUT ALMOST A WIN! Due to the economy and shifting jobs travel and racing plans were put on hold. Actually, the only reason I did a fall Marathon was because the race was in my backyard. However, even with all that I ran four races this year, got two states off the list, and got a redundant state (NY) off my list.

What else went down in 2009?

• After a year and a half of running with the Super Runner's Shop weekend running groups I finally got my free shoes.
• After about 10 attempts, I finally had a successful 20 mile run.
• PR'd in the HM distance by five minutes.
• Did an entire training cycle outdoors and it felt really good. Getting off the treadmill felt like dropping junk food from my diet. I felt like I got more bang for my buck on every run and that everything just worked better.
• Ran my first Marathon that I had to fly to--which proved to be a great experience
• Had my first celebrity sighting while running.
• Surpassed 100 posts in a calendar year, 106 to be exact

Looking at this 2009 doesn't sound all that bad. But were definitely plenty of things that can make 2010 better.

Happy ending

I'm not talking about this this kind of happy ending--although, let's be honest, I would immediately think of that too. But I am rather talking about the happy ending to my rant on the New Balance Harrisburg outlet store.

About a week after posting that entry I got an email from Heather at Consumer Relations at New Balance Corporate. When I read this it completely made my day:

"We were recently made aware of your blog and more specifically the unpleasant experience you had with New Balance Harrisburg. This store is independently owned and operated and the experience you have had does not reflect our company's high standard of customer satisfaction and service. We would like to speak with you directly so that we can follow up on this issue with the NB Harrisburg store owner and store manager. We would also like to extend an offer to send you the shoes you should have received for free as they had originally promised. We do hope that we can correct this, as we do not want this experience to keep you from considering our products in the future.

"Please contact me directly by phone at your convenience. I will be away from my desk today from 11-12 and 2-4pm today. If you cannot reach me, please leave a voicemail with the best phone number where I can reach you. I will call you back as soon as possible."

Wow. First and foremost, this was totally beyond anything I expected to get out of that post. All I wanted to do was get the anger off my chest and warn others. So way to go NB Corporate for actually monitoring social media and engaging with it.

Second, this was just great customer service. When I called Heather to follow up she was extremely apologetic--to the point where I was getting embarrassed because I knew she had nothing to do with the incident. She explained to me that while this store wasn't a corporately owned store there are still standards in place that the store neglected and that that wasn't right. Also, she was going to share my post with the store manager so that they could see exactly what happened (yea for meticulously detailed posts!). Finally, she right then and there put in my order for free shoes--she even had a cheat sheet to know which shoes best matched up to my Brooks!

Third, about a month after returning the shoes to the NB Harrisburg store I still hadn't received a credit on my credit card. Of course my attempts to reach the store directly didn't work, so I dropped an email to Heather. In less than two hours she wrote back saying that she had spoken with the manager and had confirmation that a credit was issued to me AND had shared my blog with him as well. Whoa. Way to go Heather!!

Now, about these shoes.

The first thing I noticed about them is that the laces are bumpy. It looks like the latest generation of NB shoes have these bumpy laces that help the knot stay in place. I actually found that the shoe feels looser with these laces (which I don't like) but I do think it's a great idea, maybe it just needs some tweaking.

When I started running in them it was like a dream! I guess because I've run in the same Brooks model for so long I don't notice the cushion when I slip on a new pair. But these guys were support all over the place. They didn't make me feel fast, but they sure as hell made me feel like I could run forever.

My biggest critique of the shoes was that I started to get a pain in my arch from wearing them. I rotated in these shoes at the peak of training for The Flying Pig, which meant they came just in time for the longest tempo runs, the hardest hill work, and the most punishing speedwork. Around the same time I started developing a pain/soreness in my arches that I hadn't gotten before. However, now, almost a month post-race, I'm feeling fine in the shoes and my arches don't hurt. So I will probably just regulate these shoes to the shorter and slower mileage and hopefully avoid any further pain.

So overall: a good shoe for the short easy midweek runs and for the LSD Saturday runs. Bad shoe if you want to rock out some 800s on the track.