January 2013 Goals & Challenge Update

It's time for my first monthly Miles Update for 2013!
Reminder in case you weren't paying attention at the first of the year:
My official goal for 2013 is to run, walk and / or bike 500 miles as quickly as possible.
The other Challenge items for this year are:

1. Ultimate mileage goal is to run/ walk 500 miles (excluding bike miles).
2. Complete my first half marathon race.
3. 5K race time under 35 minutes.
4. 10K race time under 1 hour 10 minutes.
5. Test Mile time under 10 minutes.

"Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about." 
-PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian 

I ran this month's miles for:

Ellen Bruno	4.0
Cari Landreth	5.0

Ben Willis

3.0

Joe Wolford

3.1

Peg Stark

13.1

Maryann Thomas

1.0

Cheryl Kagemann Williams

10.0

LRC Kelly McBride

15.0

LoseIt! Ashley Grace

16.0

Terry Patterson - SUB 11-min miles

3.0

ME!

3.12

Total mileage for January

76.32

For anyone who's a freak for stats & data analysis like I am, here's how it breaks down:

Any stats I forgot?? 

How about these random notes:  four runs in the snow, three trips to the lake, five group runs, one run cut short by an incredible thunderstorm, and seven gym workouts.

"Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'." 
-Paul Tergat, Kenyan professional marathoner

So here's the thing:  I've ALREADY MET ONE OF MY 2013 GOALS.  

See that stat above that says Best Test Mile time:  9:50?  Yup, that's the one.  That's better than the 10-minute pace goal I set!  I'm pretty excited about this, but a little disappointed in my goal-setting skills.  I have seriously underestimated my ability to work on speed.  This means I need to revise my 2013 1-mile pace goal, and I need to get aggressive about it.  Or at least it should feel like I'm being aggressive about it.  I'm thinking 9:00 but open to suggestions.

And as long as I'm looking back at progress for the month, here's a graph of my weekly weigh-ins from January 1 to January 31.

The chart helps me, with the slow progress I've been seeing weight-wise over the past few months, it's nice to see that, yes, over time, the weight is coming off.  It's just s...l...o...w.

Thanks, January:  despite the RIDICULOUS weather you keep throwing at me, that was a pretty awesome start!