Off-Season? More Like AWE-Season, Amiright?!

As in "awesome!" AM I RIGHT?

Okay, so maybe it's not awesome for everyone. But I love me a good off-season. I always make a list and formulate my goals for both the off-season and the next year in general. First, define "off-season." This is the time in the winter when races are either none, or few and far between. For me this year, this is December through April. I have two races in this time set up: the first is a 5K road race that I will be doing this upcoming Saturday. The second (well, and third) are the Abominable Snow Race, where I will do both the long and short courses on the same day.

My off-season goals are both specific and general, and are as follows:

1) run this upcoming 5K as quickly as possible, ideally in under 30 minutes (which would be about a 3-minute PR over the last time I seriously attempted a 5K, which to be fair was almost 12 years ago)

2) continue to develop my cardio endurance and speed, building on the foundation I have established. To that end, I plan to run approximately a half-marathon distance every other week. In the words of RuPaul, if you STAY ready, you ain't got to GET ready. My goal for 2019 is to go under 2:20 for an official half marathon. I'm about 9 minutes away from that right now.

3) develop grip strength. To that end, I am participating in the December Dead Hang challenge that I saw on Instagram. On December 1, I did a 1-minute hang. Today, 1:10. You add 10 seconds a day the entire month until the last day is a ridiculous 6 minutes, which will definitely not go flawlessly. But no matter how many sections I need to break it into, it will help my grip immensely.

4) improve flexibility. Now that my weird collarbone injury is getting better, I can actually participate in hot yoga again, and I am pleased to report that not only did I not lose any flexibility in my off time, I have improved it. I want to continue this trend until by the end of 2019 I can do "an ugly split." This is the 2019 goal I am least confident about achieving.

5) go from 2 chin-ups to 4. This would be just great.

Note that these goals are all actually objectives. They are actions that I can take that will directly create a positive outcome. Off-season is a fantastic opportunity to shore up your weaknesses, and you should seize it! If you have to take workouts indoors due to weather, so be it. Find binge-worthy shows and specials on Netflix and get on that treadmill, gurrrl. Or boy.