2012 IN REVIEW

My weekly run totals in 2012.

I thought it would be a good time to reflect on 2012, the "Year of Running" for Thomas. While my first race was in 2011, I didn't really dedicate myself to running until December of 2011 or so, and really picked it up early spring once I decided to eventually do a marathon and become pretty serious. Deep down inside I was probably really hoping 2012 was the end of the world, but it wasn't, so now I am stuck still alive running. Oh well!

The first quarter of 2012 is very easy to analyze because every run I did was 3.2 miles. I had my 5k course at my apartment and that was all I ran. It was such a simpler time. As you can see, most weeks I ended up running just twice with a couple 1-fers and a couple 3-fers. On some of those days "off" it was raining and I chose to do the elliptical inside instead.

The two weeks after Shamrock (the red run early March) I slacked off a bit before picking it up and really training hard for the Earth Day Run, which I did very well at (the next red run). After that I started to mix in some different types of runs, easy runs, hilly runs, long runs, etc. Eventually I worked my way up to the Rum Run, my first non-5k.

My running really peaked while training for the half marathon, as you can see. Included in this training was that long 15.4 mile jaunt that still is my longest run ever. Surprisingly, the week after, I still ran 15 miles. I remember being gimpy, so that is pretty impressive. Touche me. After that, three pretty solid 25+ mile weeks and then my awesome half marathon, which I rocked.

Looking back at this chart, it's no wonder I was in better shape during my half marathon. Look at how much I ran! I don't remember that! :P Anyways, after the half, it's been kind of "on again, off again" and not super dedicated. I hit a 20 mile week every three weeks or so. For a while during the late spring/early summer I hit 20 miles in 9 out of 10 weeks.

It won't be hard to get 2013 back on track. Two runs of 10k during the week and a 10 mile long run is 22 miles. Ideally, I'd like to be doing 25+ miles a week pretty regularly. I'll definitely need that for marathon training and I expect that to be a huge motivation, just like the half marathon training was for me. Right now I can run a 10k no problem so I need bigger motivations. Although, I think I signed up for a half marathon in like... March? April? It's in Corvallis.

To close things off, I want to mention I ran THIRTY TWO (and a half) MILES this last week! Wohoo! 7.2 at group Monday, 6.3 on Wednesday, 7.0 on Friday, and 12.0 on Saturday. That is officially only the second time I went over 30, as you can see in the chart above. So a great week! I'm a little worn today but I'll take it easier and then I think I'll feel great.

Here's to 2013!