2012 Mid-Year Review



Freezing on the trails in January

Wow, what a crazy 6 months it's been so far this year!!  A lot has changed for me with my running so far this year and it has been amazing.  I started off focusing on marathons and thanks to the accomplishments and inspiration of several friends that focus changed.  I am now in the midst of training for my first 50 mile race (Hawk 50 on 9/8) and my first 100 mile race (Rocky Raccoon 100 on 2/2/13).  My confidence has been increasing as I've been able to add more miles to my training, get better on trails and improve on hills.  I've made new friends, joined new groups and learned quite a lot.

 

As many of you know, I am a business analyst.  That means I love numbers and tracking numbers.  It's no surprise I have a big spreadsheet that I use to track my numbers!  Here is a month-by-month section of the sheet which highlights some of what I've done so far this year (you can click on the image for a larger size).  As you can see, I've hit new highest mileage months ever 3 times this year (February, March, June) including my first 200+ mile month.  I've already done 852.67 miles so far this year (66.57% of what I did all of last year) which puts me at an average of 4.69 miles per day and on pace for 1,714.71 by the end of the year.  I think it will end much higher than that since I am now training for the 50 & 100 milers, but even that would put me well over my original goal of 1,500 miles.

 

Going by week, it's easy to see where I ramped up and where I rested.  The gap in week 20 was the week off I took after the Lincoln Marathon then started my 50 miler training.  Talk about doing a world of good!  From Jan 15 - May 6 I ran 4 marathons so I took a week off before hitting my Ultra training.  I hit new highest weeks ever 4 times so far (weeks 10, 11, 17 & 26).

 

I started trail running more regularly in January after the Louisiana Marathon and It quickly became a passion.  Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy running on pavement from time to time, but it just doesn't come close to the enjoyment of running out in nature.  Trees all around, rocks & roots to avoid, hills, mud, animals, the sounds of nature are all fuel for my runs.  So far this year I've run 555.9 miles on trails, 276.34 on pavement and 20.43 on the treadmill.  This opened my world up to some new running groups that I only had limited interaction with before.  I joined the Trail Nerds and Trail Hawks and have been running with the Mud Babes (a group within the Nerds) as well.  These groups are full of fun people, great runners and tons of experienced ultrarunners.  These groups along with the Olathe Running Club I joined last year and the Sunday Runday group that I've run with a few times have meant I don't have to run solo as much as I used to.  Even when not on a group run I often have someone from one of these groups running with me.  So far I've run 309.66 miles in non-club runs, 260.71 with the Trail Nerds, 142.74 with the Trail Hawks, 39.05 with the Mud Babes, 82.3 with the ORC and 18.21 with Sunday Runday.

I've run the following 9 races so far this year:

• 1/15 - The Inaugural Louisiana Marathon
•  3/3 - Mrs. Robinson's Romp Trail 10k
• 3/4 - Pi Day River Rotation Trail Half Marathon
• 3/17 - Run For The Bridges Trail Marathon
• 4/21 - Garmin Marathon
• 4/28 - Run wYLd 10k
• 5/6 - Lincoln Marathon
• 6/16 - Trail Nerds Summer Intro 2.8 Mile
• 6/29 - Rock The Night Away! Trail Half Marathon

That adds up to four marathons, two half marathons, two 10k's, and one 2.8 mile.  These races total up to 147.1 miles.  I've also run a 50k and a marathon distance training runs.  I've also volunteered at the Psycho WyCo Run Toto Run Trail Race, Brew To Brew Relay/Ultra, Rock On! Lake Perry, Free State (course sweep), and at Run wYLd, Summer Intro & Rock The Night Away! I worked some before and/or after running.

So far this year Ive accomplished a lot, made great new friends, grown existing friendships, set huge new goals, had some tough stretches of runs and some great stretches of runs and generally had an amazing time!  I have lots of great training planned for the rest of the year to get me ready for my first 35+ mile run (my birthday in Aug), my first 50 mile (Hawk 50 in Sep) and my first 100 mile (RR100 in Feb '13).  Baring the unexpected, the last half of this year should be even greater than the first half has been!!  I'm looking forward to the journey and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you all!!  See you out on the trails and/or the roads!!