As I look over the data from 2011 and compare it to 2010, my first thought is that I should be a little let down considering how fewer miles I did in 2011 than in 2010. But the truth is, I don’t feel that way at all. In fact I finished the year strong and feel good about myself. Here is a comparison of 2010 and 2011:
2010
2011
Run Miles 668.91 277 Walk Miles 4.96 131.28 Cycle Miles 0 298.04
As you can see my running miles went from 668.91 to 277, but the numbers do not tell the whole story. At the first of the year, I was training for (and signed up) the Dry Creek 1/2 marathon and the Lake Lowell Marathon. The Dry Creek was the first of April while the Lake Lowell was the first of May. About two weeks before the Dry Creek, I started having chest pains. To me they felt like a pulled muscle or bruised rib. They started on Wednesday and by Friday I could barely move. After a trip to the Urgent Care (that ended with a night in the hospital), they found I had fluid in my lungs (pneumonia) and blood clots in both lungs. We never did figure out why they struck me then since I was in the middle of training for the 1/2 and full marathon and I had not gone on any long trip (where I sat for a while).
Well, this meant I had to miss the Dry Creek. I was able to change my Lake Lowell from a full to the 1/2 marathon and was able to do that. After that, I found the blood thinning medication made running a little painful (what would normally just be a little achy joint would turn in the a nice bruise on the medication). I will admit that I did use this as an excuse to not exercise. As such, I put on 30 extra pounds that summer: not good. I was to come off the meds in September so in August, I started walking to help get me back in shape. And in September, I started running again.
You can see in my monthly numbers what I am talking about:
Month
Run Miles
Walk Miles
Cycle Miles
January 36.53 0 44 February 36.61 0 39.12 March 17.28 1.99 21.22 April 37.15 5.95 52.15 May 13.10 2.58 49.41 June 3.23 20.49 37.93 July 3 15.5 0 August 2 65.23 0 September 21.86 7.18 0 October 22.85 7.32 12.67 November 35.77 0 41.54 December 47.62 5.04 0 Total 277 131.28 298.04
Although the 277 might be low, I prefer to look at the last 5 months, where the running number is building. Here is a graph that shows that:
From September on, the number of miles just climbs.
I have a very aggressive plan for 2012 as far as my running goes. My ultimate goal is to do the Goofy Race and a 1/2 Challenge in Disney World in January of 2013. This is a 1/2 marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday. I know the key to this is going to be endurance so I will be focusing on building that up. As such, my plan is to do some type of race every month in 2012. My original plan was to do a 1/2 marathon a month but I had some trouble finding 1/2 marathons for every month. Besides, a couple of new friends introduced me to trail running. I have to say, I love trail running. My new plan is to still try to do some type of race each month, but I also want to do my first 50K trail race (should be really good for building endurance). Check out the right side of this blog for the list of my planned races.
In summary, 2011 might have been a year of injury but I refuse to let it stop me from running. I am back at it and just watch me go in 2012.
Happy runnings!
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