Running 2011 summary.
I have had a lot of things to be proud of this year in my running, least of all the fact that I am still running despite now having two children only 20 months apart. I am proud of myself for keeping it up and getting back to it as quickly as I did post baby. I wanted to start running sooner than the allowed 6 weeks but I forced myself to wait and get the clearance from my doctor. And now I’m proud to say I’m running regularly and am still loving it. I almost think I love it more now because it provides me with some sanity and time to think in addition to giving me a way to drop the extra baby weight.
In today, I did alright this year considering. Distance wise I went 802.91km but considering I couldn’t run for 6 weeks at all, and was pregnant and on reduced running for 6 months. I ran for a total of 109 hours and 18 minutes. That is a total of over 4 and a half days of running! In 2010 I managed to run 1,594.8km but I had 10 months to run instead of 5 so I think I rocked it.
My speed is pretty great though. My fastest speed was 8.29km/hr in September 2010, just before I found out I was pregnant. This year, my fastest month was December at 8.28km/hr! I couldn’t believe when I did those calculations. But what makes it even better, is that I am back at my pre-pregnancy running speed while being 24lbs heavier, so just imagine how fast I would be if I was the same weight. I think a lot of it is thanks to my amazing friend Cecilia who’s encouragement and pushing me to do tempo and speed runs is what got me back so quickly. I never did any special runs and I really feel like they are making all the difference. I can run at 6.0mph for my speed runs, and before I was lucky if I could hold that for 2 minutes, and now I do it for a half mile!
Because of this, my plans for 2012 are big! I’ve going to do the Waterloo half marathon in April and I hope to complete it in under 2:22:22 (which means I need to run about 9km/hr to hit that). I’ll be running some smaller races and hope to break my 10k record. That shouldn’t be too hard seeing as I’ve only run 1 officially before hand. Then in October I’m hoping to run my marathon in under 5 hours (which means I need to run 8.44 km/hr for that race). I know I’m a distance runner so I’m actually more nervous about the half in under 2:22. Holding a slower pace for a longer time is what I’m good at, which is why my 5k and 10k times suck so much. But 2012 will be different. I have an amazing coach and a super supportive husband (I think he liked the confidence I had when I was running after Lillian and was getting fit) and two amazing little girls who inspire me everyday.
Over the next few weeks I might not be running as much, (I’m on a rest week this week, next week starting a boot camp and my husband is on a business trip) but I’m going to write a lot about my plans for hitting my goals and about the individual races and activities I’ve signed up for.
So wish me luck and I hope you have lots of great physical goals for 2012. To end is a CRAZY adorable photo of Katrina from this weekend.
