The year that was 2011

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that there's a little more than a day left to 2011. Crazy. It went fast. There were some highs and lows. Some triumphs. Some struggles. A pretty decent year.

January

Nothing like starting out the New Year with a disappointment. Yes. Watching my Badgers lose to those Horned Frogs from TCU was hard. But it could only get better. Right?

I decided to join a training group. I was scared. I had never run with a group before. But it turned out this was one of the best decisions I made this year. Not only did I find that accountability and guidance I needed when it came to preparing for a half marathon, but I met the most amazing group of people. People I logged countless miles with. Who I learned from. But most importantly, people I call my friends. And with the training group and a group of friends in hand, I set out to accomplish a goal for the spring half marathon season and adopted the Dream Big Work Hard mentality of former Badger J.J. Watt.

February

The Green Bay Packers won a game. You might have heard of it. The Super Bowl? Yeah. That was cool.

Crashing my car during a snowstorm and less than 2 hours later putting it in the ditch? Not so cool.

March

I ran through some pretty crappy weather this winter: Snow, sub-zero temperatures, wind, ice. But the day I tripped over a water main cover and did a face plant on the sidewalk wasn't icy. Heck, it was down right balmy. I walked away with a pair of bruised knees, but a pretty spectacular 11-mile run. And that in itself was pretty nice consider that face plant happened somewhere around Mile 2. Speaking of running, I logged my first 100-mile month ever! I finished with 111.7 miles for the month.

I learned it pays to go to traffic court. Goodbye $200 citation I got when I crashed my car in February.

April

Like I said, I ran in some pretty cruddy weather. Well I guess it prepared me for the Oshkosh Half Marathon since I saw rain, sleet, snow and an icy cold wind from the north on race day. All of the work I put in must have helped though since I finished in 2:30! An almost 14-minute PR baby!

May

I've been chasing a sub-30 5K for what seems like forever - OK, maybe just since I started running in 2007 - and I finally got it in May at the Sole Burner 5K.

And then there was the Green Bay Half Marathon. After turning in a 2:30 HM at Oshkosh in crappy weather, I thought sub-2:30 was in the cards. Well, it could have been if the steady 40 mile per hour winds didn't show up right around Mile 11.5. So close.

June

I ran my first 10K ever.

July

It was hot.

And I manged to fall off a 12-foot wall during Tough Mudder. While the fall hurt, Tough Mudder ended up being a pretty cool event, especially with the group of teammates that I had. Will I do it again? Uh, not sure.

In non-running events, I got to take part in an Honor Flight during AirVenture. It was me and a plane full of WWII Navy vets and we spent the day in Washington D.C. An absolutely amazing experience.

August

I never thought I'd be able to do this, but I decided at the last minute to run a half marathon. We're talking 5 days before the race I registered. OK. It was because I won a free entry into the Madison Mini, but still. I never thought I'd be in the running shape like I was where I could just decide spur of the moment and be ready.

September

Nothing like heading down to Madison and spectating at Ironman Wisconsin to get you in the race mood. Some friends and I headed down to watch our friend Jeff complete his 10th Ironman. Absolutely amazing and inspiring experience. It totally got me ready for the next week.

Then I toed the line at the Fox Cities Half Marathon. With inspiration from IMWI going through my head, race day advice from Jeff and my own determination, I gutted it out and finished the race in 2:19:27, another new PR! So happy.

October

I did my first organized bike ride in a couple of years when I tackled the Trek Breast Cancer Awareness ride with my friend Peggy. There was a Badger game with a Twitter friend Renee. And I lost my running mojo. Mostly due to burn out from all of the training I did all yearlong.

November

Still missing the running mojo, but that was OK because there was another Badger game with my friend Nicole.

Then an unexpected trip to Lambeau Field with Peggy for a Monday Night Football game to see the Packers crush the Vikings.

December

My IT band decided to hate me this month. So lots of quality time spent with the foam roller. My third go around with the Fleet Feet group started

So I guess it was a pretty good year. Can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for me.

Three Things Thursday

1. I don't want to complain, but I'm going to for a moment. Numbers. I like looking at them. How many miles I've run in a day, week, month, year. How fast I ran those miles. But lately? I don't like the numbers. Leading up to the Fox Cities Half Marathon I could bust out a 4-5 mile run with sub-10 (barely) minute miles. The last month? The pace has been closer to 11:30 minute miles for a 4-5 mile run. And it feels hard. I know the colder weather plays a little bit of a role. I know my mileage has decreased. And I know I've been babying my IT band and slowing down. But still. It's frustrating to see those kind of paces. And I know right now I'm at the point where I'm just building a base and maintaining endurance and that speed will come in a few months as the spring half marathon season gets closer. But still. It's frustrating to see those numbers.


2. Continuing on the numbers theme, with one run left in 2011, I'm 6 miles from hitting my (adjusted) goal of hitting 900 miles for the year. Back in January I was aiming for 1,000, but then there was 9+ months of pretty intense training and four half marathons. And by the time I hit the massive PR at Fox Cities, I just wanted a break. So I cut back on mileage in October and November, ran when I felt like it. And watched the goal of 1,000 miles slip away. But I'm still pretty happy with hitting 900 considering my previous yearly high was 590-something. So one run left on Saturday. And it just happens to be 6 miles. But I might just make it 7 so I can say I ran 901 miles. :)

3. I always thought New Year's weekend was supposed to be the slightly less hectic weekend of the holidays. Not so for me this year. A family gathering after work Friday, that early morning long run on Saturday followed by a New Year's Eve wedding. Then the Packers on Sunday. And of course - the highlight of the long weekend in my opinion - the Badgers in the Rose Bowl on Monday. Should be a good weekend, but I may need a vacation to recover from the holidays!

Where'd Christmas go?

Wait. What do you mean it's already Dec. 27? I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. You typically spend weeks preparing for Christmas and then it's over in a blink of an eye.

The Christmas highlights:

• The long holiday weekend started off with a Christmas Eve morning run with Peggy and the Winter Warriors group. And get this. There was even a fresh layer of snow! So happy. Needless to say that 6-miles was a great way to start off the holiday festivities.
• There was lots of family time. And I may have been the aunt that got her niece and nephews hooked on Angry Birds. To the point where they really didn't want to give me back my phone Christmas Eve night and it was the first app my niece wanted to download on her new iPod Touch that Santa Claus brought her. 
• Of course after not having a migraine for months, one arrived just in time for the Christmas Eve/Day festivities to begin. Great timing head.
• I got some pretty nice gifts. And about 75 percent of them may have been Badger-related, but I'm perfectly happy with that. :) There was a nice Wisconsin hoodie (just in time for the Rose Bowl next week!), a Wisconsin pillow pet, some Wisconsin duct tape, a headlamp (no more fearing for my life when I go running at night), a little DVD player for my bedroom and a cool medal hangar from Gone for the Run to hang my half marathon medals on were among the highlights. I'm happy.
• Oh, and you can't forget that Green Bay Packers win over the Chicago Bears Christmas night to wrap up home field advantage during the playoffs!

Today it was back to work. And I swear it took me all day to realize it was Tuesday, not Monday. Thankfully it's a four-day work week. Granted next weekend? It's going to be crazy: A late family Christmas gathering, a weekend long run, a friend's wedding on New Year's Eve, a Packers game to watch on New Year's Day and then the Rose Bowl on Monday. I may need a vacation just to recover from New Year's weekend!

Three Things Thursday

1. It snowed! Finally! Granted it was only a inch. But still! When I woke up this morning the ground was white! It snowed! And then it promptly melted by lunch time. Looks like Mother Nature isn't going to be very helpful either and I've got to prepare for a not-so-white Christmas. More like a Christmas with greenish-brown grass. Not cool, Mother Nature. Not cool. Especially since I live in Wisconsin.

2. I've kind of lost the running mojo this week. Other than the 4 miles I ran with the group on Tuesday night, I've managed to skip all of my runs this week. Oops. Monday I needed to finish Christmas shopping. Wednesday I needed to wrap presents. And tonight? I just wasn't feeling it. And it probably didn't help that I didn't eat decent all day. Another oops. So I didn't run.

3. And considering I'm 18.7 miles from hitting 900 miles for the year, I probably shouldn't be skipping runs. But I think I still might make it. There's 6 planned on Saturday morning and another 6 planned for the final day of the year. That leaves me with 6.7 to sneak in between Dec. 25 and Dec. 30. Should be do-able. I hope.

HBBC catch up

I've been slacking on posting the HBBC recaps.

Let's see, I've covered Week 1 and also Week 2. That means I need to give you Weeks 3 and 4. You'll notice there's still a lot of points coming in from stretching, once again, credit goes to keeping the IT band happy. Although I have to admit, it hasn't been as angry with me lately. That's a good thing. Which means I'm going to continue to roll.

Week 3
Dec. 3 - 7 (5 run, 2 stretch)
Dec. 4 - 1 (stretch)
Dec. 5 - 5 (3 run/walk, 2 stretch)
Dec. 6 - 6 (2 run, 2 stretch, 1 FV*)
Dec. 7 - 5 (3 run, 2 stretch)
Dec. 8 - 5.5 (3.5 run, 2 stretch)
Dec. 9 - 2 (1 FV, 1 walk)
Total: 31.5


Week 4
Dec. 10 - 7 (5 run, 2 stretch)
Dec. 11 - 1 (walk)
Dec. 12 - 4.5 (2.5 run, 2 stretch)
Dec. 13 - 6.5 (4.5 run, 2 stretch)
Dec. 14 - 2 (2 stretch)
Dec. 15 - 6 (4 run, 2 stretch)
Dec. 16 - 3 (2 stretch, 1 walk)
Total: 30

*FV = fruits & veggies

Weekend long run fail

This is the story of the weekend long run that was supposed to happen but never did.

Before I went to bed Friday night I did what I always do. I gather all of my stuff and put it in piles so I didn't have to hunt around in the dark for that random pair of running tights or my Road ID or figure out why my Garmin wasn't turning on.


Note: If you find yourself with a fully charged Garmin that refuses to turn on, plug it into the computer and press reset and mode for 10 seconds. This "soft reset" should work. It did for me. And yes, I realize everybody probably knew this trick, but I was the one freaking out and scouring the Garmin website at 11:30 p.m. Friday night.

My Friday ritual included setting the alarm for 6:15, which would give me plenty of time to get dressed and head out to Plamann Park to meet up with my running group.

Except there was a problem. My alarm either never went off or I've gotten really good at turning it off in my sleep. Because when I woke up it was light out and the clock was reading 9 a.m.

Oops.

After posting a status update on Facebook - because everyone really needs to know I slept through my alarm and missed my long run - and answering a few Facebook messages that were worried why I wasn't at the group run that morning, I got up and got ready for the day. I could have done the 5-6 miles I needed to do solo, but I had to head over to a friend's house and help him pack a moving truck. I there until dark and then needed to go to a benefit for a family friend's son who's got some kind of tumor on his brain.

So there were plans to do it today. When I got up I didn't feel like running, so I told myself I'd do it after the Packer game. And, well, as I'm sure you've all heard, the perfect season is no longer. And I really wasn't in the mood to run after watching the Packers play like poo and loose to the Kansas City Chiefs.

So I didn't run. And that, my friends, is the story about this weekend's long run that never happened.

This doesn't surprise me

So I was putzing around on Facebook the other day and I came across the app that pulls your Top 10 status updates of 2011. Here's what mine were:

Why does it not surprise me that even in my real, non-blog life, running, the Badgers and Packers are what consume my life?

Three Things Thursday

1. Took advantage of this not working thing and snuck in another mid-day run with Peggy and her pooch Belle. And let me tell you, if it wasn't for our plan to meet up and run I probably would have headed to the nearest treadmill today. It. Was. Windy! For most of our run the wind wasn't too much of a problem, but when we made that final turn and headed west straight into the steady 30 mph winds? Yeah. That was brutal. And I forgot to mention. It was straight uphill. Double brutal. But we finished.

2. I think I'm still thawing out from that run.

3. Other than nearly getting blown away, it has been a productive vacation day. Doctor's appointment. Check. Oil change and tires rotated? Check. Instructing my Dad to find a cheaper place to get the rest of my car repairs done? Check. Dropped off my Toys for Tots donation? Check. Spend the rest of the afternoon watching Season 3 episodes of Glee (there's 9 of them and I've only got 3 more to watch). In progress. And I think there's even a Badger basketball game on TV tonight.

Happy Thursday everyone!