Monthly Archives: December 2011
2011: Top 5 running moments
These past couple of weeks have been fun reflecting on what happened in 2011. Today I bring you the last of my lists with my top running moments of the year.
Narrowing down the top 5 running moments of the year is hard, but honestly anything longer than that is boring and diluted. Anything beyond 5 is like having honorable mentions, which I will not do. This list is completely different from my top 5 racing moments of 2011 – this list is more broad and not necessarily as focused on one specific moment.
5. Monument Avenue 10k
While this was my No. 1 racing moment this year, it’s definitely not the top running moment. It was huge though, but from an overall perspective it wasn’t as important to me as other things on this list. Gradually building my mileage in the first quarter of the year, getting back to the start line and then setting a PR, though, still make this a great moment.
4. The Holiday Run Streak
In a few months, perhaps this will be higher on the list; it’s actually tough for me to include this here as it’s happening now with another day to go. That said, my running streak through Jan. 1 is teaching me a lot about running for the sake of running. It’s fun to just go out and run with training pretty far from my mind. I’ve run in the rain, in the wind, in awkwardly warm December weather, through neighborhoods brightly lit by Christmas lights; and included a few races to close out the year.
3. “Most ever” moments
It’s important to me to not confuse “most ever” with “best ever.” When it comes to this year, I won’t touch the “best ever” phrase. I’ll just use “best so far.” And with that nod comes many “most ever” moments this year — most weekly mileage (41.5 from Sept. 5-11); most ever miles in a month (135 in August and September); most ever mileage in a year (1,040.4); most ever races (13); and most ever consecutive races (4 in 4 weeks) are the highlights.
2. Watching my son race
I’ve learned a lot this year about running by watching my son. He has fun; he notices things like barns off in the distance in a race; and he runs just to run. If you don’t have kids, I highly suggest that you watch a kids race. Not the one with 10 or 11 year olds – the real kids race where everyone is under 5 years old. You’ll learn a lot.
1. Baltimore Marathon
This “moment” isn’t about that specific October day – it’s about the rush of signing up in April with no idea whether I could run anything beyond 6 miles; the gradual buildup of mileage through June; training through summer and early fall; not feeling 100% on race day; crossing the finish line itself; and being injury free after.
As for what’s coming in 2012? I’m not making a schedule for the year like many bloggers are doing — I have my focus on the Shamrock Half in March and I may still do a spring marathon. The Richmond Marathon will definitely be huge in November, but I’m not really thinking that far ahead now. Besides, what’s the fun in telling you what I have up my sleeve?
A re-commitment for 2012
Dear Me,
Remember 8 years ago how you finally made that decision to lose weight? Remember how you looked like this:
In the past 8 years you’ve done a lot — you lost 40 pounds, you have run dozens of races including three marathons, you even like salads.
You know, though, that you’ve been saying for a while you want to lose those “final” 10 pounds. In reality, those “final” 10 pounds consist of several pounds that have been gained or lost over this 8-year span, nagging at you when your jeans get a little tighter.
Remember that drive and determination from the beginning of 2004? The running, the lifting weights, the drastically changed diet — it was truly a new lifestyle. You have done a fairly good job at keeping a lot of those things going, but there are times you let that slip.
But as the calendar changes to another year, there’s no better time than now to recommit, get back to eating much better all of the time, cross train consistently and to make 2012 an even better year than 2011.
Yes, you, it’s time …
Sincerely,
Me
2011: 5 things I did differently
My friend Jeremy (Train to Tri) asked me in a comment recently what I felt like I did differently to stay injury free during Baltimore Marathon training. When I think about this year and what went well, I like to think that the combination of what I did differently worked. Here are 5 things – in no particular order – I did that I think have contributed to my well-being this year.
Epsom salt baths
I think I started doing a salt bath once I got to 16 miles for the long run. They’re so relaxing and always left me feeling refreshed. I would usually do one the night after a long run and then occasionally during the week. For those screaming at me to do ice baths, I tried it once and couldn’t bring myself to do another one. Maybe next year. Scream away.
Running faster
Getting quicker was not high on my priorities this year, but speed, as well as drastically improving my race times, was definitely a big factor in making this year a different year. And in this last month as I run in a non-training mind frame, I’m only getting faster without intentionally running faster.
Rotating shoes
I’ve been a big fan of rotating shoes since I started that in early 2010. This summer I added in another pair to the mix and now rotate two pairs of Brooks Ravenna and one pair of Brooks Ghost 3, which is nearing the end of its life. In addition to alternating shoes when running, I also alternate what I wear to work from a brown casual pair to a pair of New Balance to a couple of pairs of retired running shoes. I think all these combinations have kept my legs and joints from another repetition-type injury.
Walking at work
I don’t talk nearly enough about this, but the job I started in the spring has a great workout program. I generally add a couple of walking miles a day to the time on my feet Monday-Friday. That extra movement, especially on days that I feel sluggish or sore, has been key. That said, if I ever change jobs, I will insist that I be allowed walking time.
Better training log
While I was training for Baltimore, I utilized a Google Documents spreadsheet to closely monitor my weekly mileage, as well as my cumulative mileage and how it compared to what I did in 2010 when training for the Richmond Marathon. That led me to always know where I stood with my mileage at any given time. I’ll admit at times it make me obsess a bit more about things than I normally would have, but I intend on refining the process in 2012.
As I look ahead to 2012, I’m looking forward to trying even more new things and improving on what I’ve already done differently. Things such as cross training, which I did a lot of in 2011, need to take more priority, as do losing 10 pounds that I never seem to try hard enough to lose. For now, though, I’m looking forward to these last few days of the year.
The day after
After the euphoria of Christmas is over, Dec. 26 usually has this weird hungover feeling to it. The keyword is usually.
With my son now 3 and experiencing the joy of the season in so many ways, Christmas is once again more than a day. It’s a big event leading up to it — driving around looking at Christmas lights, numerous times seeing a Santa that knows his name, and decorating an Advent tree every night were just a few of the highlights this month.
And today, the day after, was a huge day for him to spend a gift card from his birthday to buy more train tracks — it’s like he had a creative explosion in the living room putting track together in so many ways.
The past few weeks of my normal everyday life reminds me so much of training for a race — there’s so much buildup for one event, but what happens after that event is just as important as everything else. I wish people’s Christmas spirit lasted longer and that everyone could be as happy and care-free as a 3-year-old, but I think what’s important is that I try to soak all this in and do what I can to keep those feelings going.
I know this may not make much sense, but the day after Christmas always puts a lot of things on my mind. I’ve never really used this blog as an outlet for that before, but these are things I think about while running, especially this year doing the Holiday Run Streak. Don’t worry, I have some more lists to share this week as I continue to reflect on 2011.
2011: A record year
Last night I passed last year’s running miles and now stand at more than 1,012 for the year. In just a few days I’ll pass my consecutive running days streak — Saturday will be the record-setting day. It’s a fitting way to end the year full of personal records. Here’s a look:
It started in April with a 3-second PR in the 10k at the Monument Avenue 10k in Richmond. You may recall this was my No. 1 racing moment of the year in my post the other day.- In July I had one goal — a PR in the Stars and Stripes 5k in Howland, Ohio. Mission accomplished by 31 seconds.
- A few weeks later, I dug deep and found a PR in the Percival’s Island 5 Miler, the fourth time I’ve done that race. I knocked 12 seconds off my PR from 2007.
- It wasn’t a personal record in the distance, but I did set a course record by more than 4 minutes on the “new” course of the Lynchburg Half Marathon in August.
- A week after that I set a new bar in the 5k in the Fab 5k, knocking off another 18 seconds off my PR.
- Perhaps the biggest PR came in the Baltimore Marathon. I never really talked about how much improvement I made in that distance, but my 3:56:17 finish was more than 16 minutes better than my first attempt at that distance in 2007.
- The final record of the year came with a course record a few weeks ago in the Peaks of Otter Christmas Classic in which I knocked off more than a minute and a half of my time from 2009.
Wordless Wednesday: Christmas greetings
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