Goals 2019: State after November

Review the original post, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October here.

It’s getting cold outside!

Goal 1: Run one Marathon per Month

✅ Result: 2 marathons, one of them a 56k ultra.

This November I had two long races lined up. On the 10th, I finished the Ultra Steinhart 666 ultramarathon in northwestern Germany, and a week later I came in second place at the small Sülldorfer Feldmark-Marathon. Both times I got very lucky weather-wise. There was no precipitation of any kind, no hard fall winds, just plan cold. Easily defeated with warm clothes. 

That makes 16 races of marathon length or more in 2019 so far.

Goal 2: Run 2,000 Kilometers (166.67 per Month)

✅ Result: 255.59 kilometers

This is down a bit from October, because after the Sülldorfer marathon on the 17th of November, I developed a painful tendonitis in my foot – possibly due to a a stone hitting my foot in an unfortunate way during that marathon and then still running strong on that slight bruise. I rested to give the foot some time to heal, and it worked out okay after about two weeks. I’m glad this injury happened right at this time and not during my ambitious training during September and October. 

Goal 3: Run Every Other Day

❌ Result: 14 runs

Also due to the tendonitis in my right foot, I came up slightly short of my goal here. Just one run was missing to hit it, but it doesn’t matter that much because I still have a good surplus. 177 runs in 2019 means just 5.5 to go in December. That’ll be very easy. 

Goal 4: Walk 5 Million Steps (13,700 per Day)

✅ Result: 16,711 per day on average

With each day passing my lack of interest in this goals grows. It seemed like a good idea at the beginning of the year, but I slowly realized the measurement says nothing. It only makes me hit that step counting app too much. 

Goal 5: Read 12 Books (1 per Month)

✅ Result: 3 books

I’m at 18 books now, but a few of them might not really count. I decided not to care about that. 

A crazy successful endurance running coach wrote a book containing his wisdom reached after 40 years of coaching multitudes of people towards national championships. His marathon training plan is considered one of Germany’s most popular ones and it’s the center-piece of the book. 250 pages of side notes broaden the picture. Some make sense, some don’t (or aren’t scientific). He was a tough coach and his writing is full of strength and funny alpha charisma. Obviously nothing special in a literary sense, but many things to take away. If you’d like to know more, here’s my post about following through with his main marathon training plan.

A comedian’s translation of some parts of the Old and New Testament into the German modern idiot’s internet slang. For the first 50 pages it’s hilarious and I laughed tears and was surprised by great puns and ideas, but then it got boring. Good idea to make the book very short. 

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November 2019. A slight setback due to a minor injury on my foot, but all is well in general and I’m bouncing back. December is going to be a good month, too. I have just one marathon planned, because there aren’t many available in the area.

It feels good that the year is coming to an end now – I’m looking forward to new goals and challenges in 2020. The race plan is coming together, so far I have signed up for exactly 10 races of marathon length or longer. I’m sure the “12 marathons per year” goal will stay with me for a while. As for the other four goals, I’m not yet decided, but there are going to be some changes. 

To new beginnings!