The Year I Wrote My First Book

Funny story. Around October I started thing gahh everyone must be so tired of me posting exciting news all year. Finished my book, ran a bunch of post surgery PR’s, saw copies of my book, David left his insane job, David turned 40 and we took a great trip…it was a good, good year.

WHICH MEANT that November was ready to rock my world with the attempt to sell a house over Thanksgiving, find a house, organize my first ever book tour on my own and put together a brand new online program. HAAAAAA I’m a nutzo.

But the thing is, it was a great year. I FREAKING WROTE A BOOK. And some how managed to continue creating new content here, running for fun, traveling and knowing that there are bigger things in the works. first book

Writing My First Book

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how the book came to be and what it was like to write my first book, so while I’m sure you’ll hear it on lots of podcast interviews, here’s the low down!

How did you get a book deal?
A publisher reached out to me in October 2018. They have previously published Dean Karnazes and Matt Fitzgerald, so I felt confident they would understand the run space.

Initially, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a book. I simply didn’t want to put out a book that already existed or that didn’t feel like me. While David and I were on our trip to Croatia, I started to have some ideas bubble up and I suddenly had a whole outline around reaching the MIDDLE OF THE PACK.

How long did it take to write?
Less than 3 months.

Every morning, I sat down for dedicated writing time and closed down everything else during that time.
Once I had a chapter written then I would go back and do editing.
After finishing everything, I printed out the book and then went through with a red pen to mark it up like crazy.
Then I turned it over to my publisher…from here it all takes a lot longer.

How long is the publishing process?
It feels ridiculously long because I’m so used to the fast nature of blogging. Roughly 15 months for this one from contract to on shelves.

A couple months to review and get contracts fully signed (December 2018)
I was allotted 6 months to turn in manuscript
2 months of back and forth on clean up
Lots of waiting around
Eventually connect with my PR team and talk through plans
Pre-sale to start October 2019
Book officially in stores from Barnes and Noble to local stores March 3, 2020

Did you enjoy writing a book?
It’s freaking terrifying, but I was determined to love the process. Much like thinking about our wedding, I wanted to enjoy the process and simply do my best without worrying about perfection.

I can’t control what will happen when it’s out in the world, but I feel like I nailed the messaging that I wanted to and now I’ll do my best to promote it and pray to the running gods people buy it.

Where will it be sold?
Since I’m working with a traditional publisher, it will be in local bookstores, as well as larger stores like Barnes and Noble or Books A Million, plus of course Amazon. Pre-order info here! run to the finish book

PAST PERFORMANCE (the miles)

Linked years are a recap from that year! Unfortunately, I didn’t start digitally tracking til half way through 2007, which means I’m not 100% of my numbers for the first 5 years of my running career. I’d love to know what my true total is (but know it’s over 20,000 miles)!

As noted before I don’t look at monthly or weekly mileage until December hits then I become curious. This year, I was quite literally blown away when I realized just how far I’ve come back since injury!!!

Now here’s to hoping the speed keeps coming back and well you know…maybe another full marathon.

2008: 1423.3
2009: 1277.7
2010: 1600.3
2011: 1600.3
2012: 1458.5
2013: 1618.3
2014: 1603
2015: 1571.5
2016: 1626.2
2017: 847 (knee surgery)
2018: 1364.2
2019: 1576

Highest Month: December – 160.5- can’t lie, I just really wanted to finish on a great note

Lowest Month: February – 74 – just took some time to recover after the Phoenix half and make sure I was be real about how I recover!

Luckily I’ve been doing this post for many years now because the online tool that I used to track all of my workouts, suddenly shut down with no warning in March of 2018! It’s made the training comeback harder in some ways because I wanted to look at old logs and

I lost all my running logs, sniff!!! Now I shall use spreadsheets forever more!

	Biking	Swimming	Cardio	Walk/Hike	Strength/Yoga/PT
2019	20 hours	0	2 hours	930 miles	83 hours
2018	40 hours	0	8 hours	1033 miles	62 hours
2017	100 hours	0	5 hours	820 miles	180 hours
2016	14 hours	0	20 hours	790 miles	110 hours
2015	12 hours	0	70 hours	730 miles	118 hours
2014	45 hours	0	5 hours?	690 miles	90 hours
2013	58 hours	1 hour	13 hours?	560 miles	120 hours
2012	70 hours	3 hours	unsure	620 miles	100 hours
2011	42 hours	2 hours	29 hours	980 miles	137 hours
2010	13 hours	3 hours	30 hours	1068 miles	86 hours

Ok the lack of swimming is actually kind of embarrassing! I was on the swim team in high school after all…maybe that’s a 2020 goal. However, I did so much better with 2-3 strength training sessions every single week for the entire year that I feel pretty happy with that.

One step at a time!! While the totals look higher other years, I know the level and type of strength I was doing wasn’t on par with my consistency now.

States Run in: 7 (CO, CA, AZ, NV, IL, MO, TX)+ Mexico + Canada twice

running cancun

Longest Run: 19 miles on treadmill while watching the NYC marathon

Most interesting run: Sedona was just thrilling. It was a last minute trip to celebrate all things David and I’m overjoyed we made it happen. Photos from friends just didn’t even compare to how wonderful it was to see in person. Managed a lot of miles in our short time there.

Most exciting #runnerd moment: Doing metabolic testing was pretty cool. I love data that’s actionable and not just more data. Finding out how to shift my eating just slightly and where my cross over point for fat to carbs was felt great.

How did this year compare? Filled with a lot of joy and a lot of crazy and so many reminders that I need to trust in good outcomes.

Best race: Hot Chocolate 5K – never ever thought that would be my answer, but I freaking ran a 6:35 mile and blew my own mind.

Favorite gear: Daehlie winter pants – I mean these are a game changer!! With the standard fleece they keep me warm, fit great, but take it to the next level with this little bit of a windbreaker type fabric on the quads! I also really love their jacket for winter running too.

Goal for next year? I’m not huge on setting year long goals, but because I’ve been working so hard on some things, I will put it out there for the Universe!

Remain injury free
Create an Online Running Group program that serves more runners than I can via 1-1
Have a HUGELY successful book tour and get that potential second book signed
Really focus on figuring out optimal nutrition

There you have it, my year in holy cow, my reflections and maybe something of use for you too. I hope you’re feeling optimistic about your 2020 running.

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