Happy New Year!

Hello 2012.

Or, the year of the MARATHON!

I know it has been way too long since I last posted, but the month of December was very busy for me and I didn't run a lot due to my knee. I did manage to get a nice 16km run in on Christmas Eve morning and ended up topping out the month at 96km run (um, wow! I didn't realise I had run that much!) and 10h16m48s. I didn't run any races in December but finished the month (and year) with the annual resolution run on New Years Eve out of my local running room. I ran with my friend J who was running her first official anything and took my time and stayed with her through the end. She was amazing and never stopped!

In terms of 2011 as a whole, it was an AMAZING year of running for me! I completed my first and second half marathon and managed to get some very nice PBs in the shorter distances of 5 and 10k. In total, I ran 1427km without ever setting a goal in that department (something I'll be sure to do in 2012). I managed to keep my love of running and joining the community at the local Running Room and on DailyMile has really helped with that. I'm really looking forward to the year ahead.

Speaking of which, Marathon training started today! I hit the treadmill at the gym while my kids enjoyed the child care services (well, my 5 year old enjoyed himself, my 16 month old cried pretty much the entire time). I forgot my earbuds so decided to keep the run interesting by throwing in two 10 minute bursts of tempo at 5:17 pace per km. I felt good and it was a great run.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the free run at the RR and we'll run 10k (let's hope this -21c weather goes away) and on Thursday, the clinic officially begins when we have our first clinic night.

The marathon isn't my only goal for 2012, but it is my first half goal, so I'll talk about what I want to do after May 6th sometime later.

In the meantime, get ready to hear more from me as training ramps up again and I discover the joys of long-long runs!

Vastus Intermedius

No, no, I haven't started to speak/write in Latin. Rather, I've found the cause of my knee pain. After a wonderful physio session on Friday, the diagnosis is that I have a very tight muscle in my quad which is causing pulling on my knee which in turn is causing the pain. The therapist didn't feel any "clicking" or "crackling" like last time which means that the knee isn't damaged in the same way it was after the Bread and Honey 15k race. She did admit that my charge down the Red Hill Valley Parkway likely didn't help me at all.

So, with my therapist's blessing, I'm going to keep running. I'm very sure I'll be able to end the year at 1400 if not 1420km which is obviously my highest mileage ever for a year. I mean, in 2009 I wanted to get to 600 and had to give up when I keep puking during every run (I was newly pregnant at the end of that year).

This morning, I enjoyed a solo 13km run around town in the freshly fallen snow. I left the house just after 7am and enjoyed watching the sky brighten and being joined by other runners, dog walkers and church goers from time to time. There is something so fulfilling about being outside in the still morning and reminding yourself that you're alive (through running and a bit of knee pain!). I'm especially proud as I didn't want to get up when the alarm rang at 0630, but instead of using all of the excuses I came up with, I let the truth get me out of bed: I would have felt so guilty for missing the run.

By the time I was following my footprints back home like a breadcrumb trail, I was very happy to have gotten out of bed and out the door, even if my knee was feeling some of the effects of the 13k.

Totals for the week: 3 runs, 24k, 2h33m running.

No, I haven't fallen off of the planet

I've just been busy.

Work has been MADNESS all of November. I've been in back to back meetings all day long and then I've been coming home and putting in another 2-3 hours just to catch up.

It is a good thing that my knee really bothered me after the Hamilton Half Marathon as it forced me to take a bit of a break and I didn't beat myself up about it.

This means that my November stats are not that pretty:

# of runs: 7
Total KM: 54.67
Races: Hamilton Half Marathon
Total time running: 5:32:22
Fitness classes: 4, my fave being BodyPump followed closely by Gravity - both are strength training classes.

I'm going to continue to try to get to those fitness classes throughout December and I'm slowing starting to build up my mileage again as my knee is no longer bothering me. My goal is to hit around 30k a week with two fitness classes until marathon training begins in January.

I'll also try not to be such a stranger!

Cheers!