Jake already posted about all the awesome trips we took in his review of 2012, so I'll just add my running recap. 2012 was a tough year....I have officially deemed it the year of injuries for me. I barely had a single month of being healthy!
Jan - Mar : I developed metatarsalgia in both my feet.
May - Jul: Right hamstring strain that prevented me from running any faster than half marathon pace.
Aug - Dec: Iliopsoas strain, glute and hamstring pain, and a whole lot of other annoyances.
I sure hope this is the only year like this! Despite all these problems, I was able to run a few good races with the highlights being the BAA 5K and the USA 1/2 Marathon Champs.
April 21 - SLC Half Marathon 1:18:13
April 28 - Thanksgiving Point Half 1:24:15
May 5 - Provo City 5K 17:08
June 16 - USA 1/2 Marathon Champs 1:17:21
July 14 - Lavender Half Marathon 1:24:19
Honestly, the best parts of the year for me were spending time with friends and going on adventures. It was a great year for that!
This year was also a valuable learning experience for me. I learned that
- I have to take significant breaks in between training cycles, both for mental and physical health.
- I cannot ramp up my mileage too quickly. 5-10 miles per training cycle.
- I have to keep the long-term goals in mind and work towards gradual improvement, not immediate satisfaction.
- I have to back off when a "niggle" stays around for longer than a week. Unfortunately, I have become very injury prone and a couple weeks off is way better than getting injured.
- Being healthy, being able to run every day, being able to go hiking, backpacking, skiing, skinning, and all the other activities I love to do are more important than pushing through an injury and risk being stuck on the sidelines for months.
And now on to......
I didn't hit a lot of my 2012 goals, due to so many injuries. So I'm keeping this year pretty simple -
1) Recover from injury
2) Exercise a lot
3) Go on adventurous trips and have lots of fun :)
- I have to take significant breaks in between training cycles, both for mental and physical health.
- I cannot ramp up my mileage too quickly. 5-10 miles per training cycle.
- I have to keep the long-term goals in mind and work towards gradual improvement, not immediate satisfaction.
- I have to back off when a "niggle" stays around for longer than a week. Unfortunately, I have become very injury prone and a couple weeks off is way better than getting injured.
- Being healthy, being able to run every day, being able to go hiking, backpacking, skiing, skinning, and all the other activities I love to do are more important than pushing through an injury and risk being stuck on the sidelines for months.
And now on to......
1) Recover from injury
2) Exercise a lot
3) Go on adventurous trips and have lots of fun :)
Posts
Andrea this is a fascinating review - and Im inspired by how many great races you had despite all those injuries.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked your note on increasing mileage. I think people (like me) see a lot of faster/elite runners' mileage (like yours and Jakes) and dont realize that it can take years to build up the kind of strength and injury resistance required to run those miles.
Anyway, its great to see the year of injuries end. Cant wait to see the killer times you're going to run in 2013!