2012 In Review

I end most every year thinking that I'd just lived The Best Year Ever. Aside from a depression in the first half of 2011, that's been mostly true. Every subsequent year sees greater accomplishments and bigger goals.

2012 is the year in which I raced some biggies--Triple T, IM Coeur d'Alene, Redman full and sprint, and finally the Glacial Trail 50K. Those last races were only 3 weeks apart. A few years ago, I never would have imagined that I could combine races like that and still finish feeling as good as I did. This year, I shattered all previous notions I had of lacking the mental tenacity to even race a marathon. I dispelled that notion in my first 26.2 in 2008, but in 2012 I blew it away.

The year didn't go perfectly. They never do! Three months before IM CDA I rolled my left ankle. One week before Redman I rolled it again. Then again five days after Redman. And let's not forget the minor sprain in the GT50K. By the time late October/early November rolled around (no pun intended), I was mentally shot from the stress of the injuries and burnout from training. 

But from the ashes of deep fatigue, mental tatters, and injury came a new positive outlook on life and an inner confidence I don't know that I've ever had before. At first I attributed it the lack of training and the extra energy I had. In the absence of 15+ hours of training a week, of course I'd feel good and buoyant! But so far that outlook has lasted 2+ months. I'm starting to think it's who I am now. 

I noted the same feeling after IMWI2010. I felt confident, invincible, and strong. This was a short-lived happiness as I sank into depression in early 2011. Later in 2011 I hit some high notes-- found a nutrition plan that worked for me, earned a brick, and planned for big races in 2012. The difference now is how I handle those who don't share my outlook. Before I became frustrated with them--they would state a desire to change but never act on it, preferring to complain or not even try. Now I'm just happy with my own goals and sharing them with the like-minded. I've learned to accept that not everyone wants to challenge themselves. I've also learned that people may not express an interest in challenge, but are doing so anyway and in their own way. This was a big step for me, and I've found that sometimes if I just sit back and I can find the positive, see their challenge for what it is, and enjoy this shared experience even if quite different from mine. 

In summary, I've learned to listen to the whisper of rain upon the earth. I've learned to see the beauty in others around me and appreciate it. It was over a year ago that I found this quote, and it's stuck with me ever since. But only in the last few months have I realized what it means to me:

Melko hath devised undue heats, and fires without restraint, and yet hath not dried up thy desire nor utterly quelled the music of thy seas. Rather behold now the height and glory of the clouds and the magic that dwells in mist and vapours; listen to the whisper of rains upon the earth. 

It's created a two way split, however, and I'm not sure everyone can appreciate what I've found. On one hand, I've learned to surround myself with positive people who share the need for challenge. But not everyone is like this--able to roll with the ups and downs of life while looking forward to what's next. Lately instead of struggling to understand, I've been dealing with this by just letting these people go on about their lives. But in doing so, I've put a distance between them and me. The distance is part of what keeps me happy. Maybe in 2013 I'll learn to balance it.

2012 End Of Year Numbers

Swimming: 128.9869 miles in 91:33:15
Biking: 444.48 miles in 245:40:16
Running: 1120.0 miles in 180:03:10

One TripleT, 2 iron distance triathlons, and a 50K.

Long run weekend

Friday: BIKE 2hrs 35 miles steady aerobic

Saturday: RUN 10 miles in 1:39 

Sunday: RUN 6.5 miles in 1:19

I had energy to burn Friday, I was nervous and anxious for some reason. While I would rather have run it off, or at least be outside, I did what I could. But dang that's a long indoor ride for someone who's not tri training!

The Saturday run was with TH, our first run together in a while! We did the long and short loops of CCP. The cold wind was the only downer, and even that was a pretty mild complaint. She's also signed up for the 60K and 50M, training is gonna be fun this spring.

The Sunday run was with TM at FP. I love his seriousness about training, it really gets me thinking too. He has a huge race season coming up, one that I don't even think I'd try and I think I'm crazy. So that means he's really crazy! I'm kinda jealous actually...

SO's Bday run

RUN: 4.4 miles in just over 40 mins. Commute home on a new CWE route

The title is just me trying to extend the holiday theme I had so far for the week :)

One of my early goals this December was to ramp up frequency and not just mileage. This is a rest week in the training plan (only 28 miles, which is 0.7mi more than I did last week!) so the midweek runs are 4+4+4. So instead of a Weds bike, I did the run. It also helped that DH's schedule and the holiday week at work made it easy to go in early then run home from work.

By the end of the 2nd run and before today's 3rd, I was doubting whether I was ready for this progression. Fatigue was hitting me, my back muscles were feeling some strain, and my legs complained when I went up steps. Did I already forget that this is how it's supposed to feel?! That building a base and improving on running takes work?! LOL, apparently I did. But more likely my concerns stemmed from my re-injury fears.

It's also possible that the back muscles were feeling my 100 days of push-ups challenge. I think that's the first time I've mentioned that here. I started on my bday, what a great gift . Today was day 64. Yesterday 63. Tomorrow 65. I know there's some math equation that will tell me how many push-ups I've done so far...but I'll probably visit Excel to figure the number out. 

Anyway, this 3rd run was poorly planned and a good idea in the end. I forgot gloves and ear coverage, but figured it's only 30-40 minutes and I'd survived. Then I took a new route home and early myself 3-4 "Hey Baby" call-outs. Speaking of equations, there should be an equation for whether or not a route is safe to do based on how many call-outs like that I get. Safety on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being In The Ghetto and 10 being Running In A Bubble (seems my Safety Scale will be using log values). I'll think on that.

The good idea aspect of it is that in the end I was tired, cold, hungry and yet still did the run. A boost of confidence, an HTFU lesson, and the satisfaction of knowing I'm not only hitting the mileage goal but also frequency.

Boxing day run

RUN: 4 miles,  39 mins for a 9:47 m/m pace. commute home from work

Another constant gray sky, but the bright spot in it is my NEW running shirt from DH. It's a Brooks Nightlife shirt. Super bright!! The snow storm forecasted to cover us overnight missed by about 50 miles, so it's another calm, quiet, gray day. The storms will come soon enough! Be patient! In the meantime, I have the glow from my new shirt to brighten my day. And everyone else's near me ;)

For breakfast today I took the chopped chicken liver and cooked them in a chicken egg omelette. To amp up the genocide-ish recipe, I splashed chicken stock in for some salt flavor. Then I nom'd some roasted chicken breast on the side. This was surprisingly good, but the dead chickens might start haunting my dreams if I keep that up. Yesterday, DH and I read up on cooking cornish hens. These are little personal sized chickens, my kinda paleo! Wrap that thing in bacon...cook it up...NOM NOM.

Christmas Run

RUN 4 miles in 38 mins, TGP loop

This was a fun run. I put on my Santa hat and took off out the door. It was also lonely, I saw only one other runner the entire time, but there was a peace and quiet that you don't often find running in town. Even though it was around 10am, there were few cars. No Metro bus, no commercial trucks. Just a calm, quiet run under constant gray skies.

It was also one of those runs that had me smiling most of the time. Everyone I did meet in the park was willing to smile back and say Merry Christmas. Many other days they just look at me and give a perfunctory, uncommitted answer. One thing I do like about the holidays is how 99% of the population (there's always a few bah-humbugs out there) has their mind dedicated to a common thought. Today it was Christmas morning, and most everyone realized it was special. So even though I don't know 99.9% of the people I'd meet on this run, most all of us shared this feeling.

Later in the day DH prepared a roasted chicken and some prime rib. For the first time, he cooked the liver from the little packet for me to try. It tasted about how I remember liver tasting. Good!

Week Summary

Zero swimming
12.3 mi biking
27.3 mi running, of that 8.2 on Saturday and 8.6 on Sunday

That I'd hit 27 miles of running last week was a surprise. My weekend goal was 16 and for some reason I thought I'd end up around 20-25 miles. OK so 27 is only 2 miles more...but just like I lose track of time it seems I can also lose track of mileage.

The big news of the week is that I finally registered for my 2 ultra's next spring! Why did I wait so long to register? I kept worrying about the injuries, repeat injuries, burnout, and all the like. Seems I'm still not over the 2012 burnout. But any other year I'm planning the next before the New Year!

Either way, when money is spent I get serious. For about $150 I'm going to get a LOT of training in the next few months!

More good news from last week--I met another ultra runner in the next lab over! So now I'm geeked out over that :) I try to be less one dimensional than I already am, try to find something other than training and racing to talk about, but in all reality that's me--I love training and racing and so that's where my mind goes.

Anyway, now that I'm registered and geeked, let's review the 50M training schedule. The Googler says I haven't updated it since Nov 29! Reviewing the past months, I see that what seemed to be an interminable break for recovery only last a few short weeks. Since the GT50K, I've done 6.4, 21.8, 0, 0, 3, 16, 9.2, 15.3, 21.3, 27.3 mile weeks. So really only 3 weeks off.

The next few weeks will be a reversal of that. This coming week has a 10/6 planned for Sat/Sun, from there the miles only go up. By the plan, I'll be over 40 mpw the week of Jan 14th. Of course, it all depends on how I'm feeling. I'm not going to push this stupidly and get injured.

At the same time, I need to get some variety into the running. I've been run commuting. This is a great idea because it keeps me from having to pay parking and gets the run done. But Wednesday's midweek long runs (currently a bike ride, soon to be a brick) will need something more imaginative if I'm going to stay interested in running this winter. A lunch run in FP looks like the solution to that.

For the weekend runs, sooner or later I have to get back to trails. Between the injury and the snowy/icy weather expected in the winter, I will have to be cautious! In my perfect world, I'd have group runs planned for every weekend. Until the bedroom is done, nothing like that will happen.

Anyway, enough speculating. Saturday's late afternoonrun was 8.2mi in 1:20. I felt good but the left orthotic is still not perfect. I admit to not having adjusted it. Sunday's morning run with RM was a comfortable 8.6 mi in 1:40 that left me energetic and feeling better than I did Saturday night. There's something to be said for doing a longer run at a pace that doesn't beat you up. Why can't I remember that every weekend?

First post in a long time!

Last week: no swimming, 17.3 mi biking, and 21.3 miles running.
So far this week: no swimming, 12.3 mi biking, and ...7-8 miles running?

I lose track of the tenths. And in case you can't tell, I'm still Garmin-free.

But I'm not losing track of the slow yet steady progress back into running. Last weekend I did a 6-something and and almost-8 for a grand total of 13-14 miles back-to-back. 14 was the goal, and I'm happy with that!

The 6-er was in my old Adrenaline 12-2, my feet were hurting by the end. These shoes just went flat so fast, they were only at 250-ish miles. Lucky for me, BRR was able to get the new 13's transferred to my local store. So Sunday's run was their first break-in run, no break-in required as usual for these shoes. They need a little adjustment in the left orthotic and they seem good to go!

After much debating and excitement, I think I'm now leaning away from doing TTT in 2013. This is intended to be an "off" year for me--no irons at least. I still have lots of big ideas for the year--aside from the 60k and the 50-miler races early in the year. I'm wondering if I can do a 13 in 13--13 sorta-big B+ races? 13 half distances--half marathons, half irons, half centuries, half 100's--stuff like that.

But probably not TTT. I had a moment the other night in bed waiting to fall asleep. I realized I didn't want to do the race. The idea sounded good, but the desire wasn't there. I didn't want to swim that much, train that much, travel that much. I'm just not there yet.

I'm hearing about other new half irons in the midwest and they sound appealing. I read about a relay in Iowa and that sounded fun. I'm thinking about new races, new challenges, and new routes. THAT sounds appealing and fun.

First long run in a long while

RUN 8.3 miles in just under 80 mins.

I hit goal today! While the training plan called for a 8 mi/4 mi BTB weekend, my reduced overall milege and to-do list limited me to just this 8.3.  I'm happy with it! No problems, no pain (OK there's some pain, but it's pretty mild), and I feel great.

My goal mileage for the week was 23, I did 15.3 instead along with a 17.5 mi bike. In a way, the 1hr bike ride was my aerobic equivalent of a 6 mile run. So I'm doing good!

Sorry, I'm tired and my hubby is cutting up a freshly roasted turkey right next to me on the counter. Distracted...

Settling into a rhythm?

Weds BIKE 17.5 miles in 60 mins, trainer
Thurs RUN 4 miles in ~38 mins, commute plus

These last two runs felt great. I can feel some tightness in the legs around the calves and knees, but no pain or problems. I feel fast and light.

I'm trying to settle into a pattern of run TWT and SS, with the W run being a bike for now. Or for awhile?
But for now, I'm just enjoying the fact that I don't have to be training. And I'm getting a lot done on the house!

Run commute

RUN: 3 miles in about 28 minutes, to work from the house

Light rain, cool but not cold temps, and a run on the schedule...all adds up to a great run! What's the hold-up lately? I'm a mental case about getting re-injured!

So I K-Taped the ankle and the knee, thinking that if I can tell myself that the tape will help hold things in place while I run, I can take my mind off it. Mayhaps I can break the mental habit I have of thinking about re-injury instead of thinking about the run?

Only time will tell if that works.

Otherwise, it was a great run :) I felt fast, and light, and strong.

Rebuilding in what is usually a PR time of year

Thursday run: 5.2 miles in 46 mins, 8:51 pace
Today's run: 4 miles in 35 mins, 8:45 pace

I love running. I love the raw naturalness of it, the feeling of flying, and the power of self-propelled locomotion. I love how can think while running, the mental meandering from topic to topic.

What I love even better is the surprise of mapping your run and finding out that even after a few weeks off of serious running (or running at all as was the case for most of November) I can knock out sub-9 runs out of no where. Really, where is that coming from?

And today's run, on the 2nd day of December, was in shorts and a bra top. My t-shirt didn't last long on me :) WOW what a day.

I'm finding that my hesitation to get running again has a substantial mental aspect. My ankle and feel feel OK, not 100%, but OK. My head however is maybe only 75% back, and it's not burn-out any longer. Rather it's the fear of getting re-injured. I keep having mental movies of the ankle coming down wrong and rolling again. I'm watching the sidewalks, cracks, roots, curbs, etc waiting for something to mess me up. I'm also afraid to run in the dark (Thursday's run was in the afternoon) and to run with others for fear I'd be too distracted.

Stuff like this can become a self-fulfilling thing, if I keep thinking about the ankle coming down wrong it will probably happen. So I need to start re-writing my mental scripts to more positive movies.

And the Icy starts tomorrow, so I also need to get to the pool!