July Monthly Recap and August Running Goals

The month of August is well underway!  Did you meet all of your running and fitness goals for July?

Things didn’t go perfectly for me, but I really enjoyed my running off-season.  I thought I’d share how I did with my July goals and what I plan to tackle in August!

I’m joining Patty, Erika, and Marcia for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup! Check it out as fellow bloggers talk about their training and share products review, race recaps, and training tips!  I’m also linking up with Susie, Debbie, Lora, and Rachel for the Running Coaches Corner!

[bctt tweet=”How did you tackle your running/fitness goals for July? What are your goals for August? #runchat” username=”Janelle_RWNR”]

July Running Goal Recap

July was overall a pretty laid back month for me because for most of the month, I wasn’t training for a race.  It was great to give my attention to other things that I enjoy, though I have to admit sometimes it felt weird to not have busy weekends!  So how did I do with my July goals?

• Run up to 40 miles in July.  Grade:  B.  Unfortunately, I fell a bit short on my running goals, only making it to 38.26 miles for July.  I didn’t get in any long runs for the month but I’m okay with that!  I enjoyed having the freedom to not be tied to a training plan…no regrets!
• Do knee rehab exercises 2x weekly.  Grade:  F.  I had the best intentions to aggressively rehab my knee and it just didn’t happen.  I think I did my exercises once in the month of July.  Bad Janelle!
• Continue cooking meals with the farm produce and meat shares.  Grade: A.  We did great with this goal in July!  We had plenty of meals utilizing the meats and veggies from the farm share and it was fun to make weekend meals on the grill!  Who knew eggplant could actually taste good?
• Focus on quality family time.  Grade:  A.  We had lots of great times with the family in July.  My sister has moved to Philly for her new teaching position and there’s nothing like having my big sister/best friend closer than a phone call away.  Bret and I also had some good times on a couple of dates!  It was a really fun month.

August Running Goals

Now that we’re in the first week of August, I already feel like things are moving so fast!  But I’m looking forward to working on these goals new goals.

• Go to barre at least 1x/week:  I have an 8 class membership to my yoga and barre studio and I went to barre class 7 times in the month of July.  Now that I’m in training mode for the Rock ‘n Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon, I’ll have to cut back a bit on barre.  I think this goal is very reasonable.
• Practice yoga 1x/week:  I’ve loved having lunchtime yoga every Wednesday, but that will be coming to an end after this week.  I can’t use that as an excuse…I’ll need to look online or On Demand for some good yoga videos, probably with a focus on runners.  Do you have any favorite yoga videos/websites you’d recommend?
• Foam roll/stretch after each run:  I’ve definitely gotten better about using the foam roller, foot roller, and The Stick, but since I’m running 4 days a week again, I need to make this a priority and not skip it, even on the shorter runs.  Sometimes my shins are grumpy the first mile of a run, so I need to make sure my muscles are nice and loose!
• Continue to limit empty calories during the week:  If you regularly follow the blog, you know that I did a No Empty Calorie Challenge for 4(!) weeks.  Thankfully I survived it and learned a lot (which I’ll share on Wednesday)!  But one thing I did learn is that I can definitely cut back on the junk during the week and save drinking for the weekend.  I won’t be nearly as extreme as the challenge, but I’ll definitely keep my eyes open!

How did you do with your running goals in July?  What goals are you working towards this August?