2011 Recap and 2012 Plans

In 2011 I ran 4 Marathons!

March: Virginia Beach Marathon

May: Cleveland Marathon

September: Presque Isle in Erie, PA

November: Marshall West Virginia

Each Marathon brought it's own challenge. I ran Virginia coming off a week long stomach bug and was so excited to set a new PR at my second marathon. Cleveland was the perfect marathon and will probably be the "easiest" for a long time. I wish they could all feel that good. Erie was a bad race : ( I started getting focused on breaking 4 hours and had a major meltdown when it did not happen. I could have had a bigger PR but let my emotions get the best of me. West Virginia was great and I loved running again! So close to that sub with a major PR of 4:03:00.

I only ran three 5Ks this year since I was focusing more on long runs and trying to save money on race fees. I do not see myself going back and doing lots of 5Ks anytime soon. They are fun but cost $15-$25 and I can easily save $200 by not doing all the 5Ks around here. I did do 2 of my favorites plus one with my family this past year.

May: Jennie Carol 5K

July: Buffalo Trace 5K

August: Railroad Days 5K

I will always run the Jennie Carol race since it is where I started running and this year I had a big goal for that race; break 24 minutes and I did! 23:30! I ran Buffalo trace with my mom and stepdad so that was a great race to be out there with them. Last, the best 5K around because it is fast... Railroad days where I broke 23 minutes!

In October I was on a team of 12 that ran in the Bourbon Chase relay. Hands down one of the best experiences I have EVER had. There are no words to describe how much fun our team had doing this race. There was nothing fast or speedy about it but we had fun being runners.

I ended the year with some great family time and less time "training". I have still been running and working out but I do not have a "plan" that I am on for the moment. I did some extra cross training, bike and even swam a few days. I am not one to make big resolutions and will not do it this year. We all know our shortcomings and know what we need to do to fix them. I am going to steal 2 goals from Racing with Babies and Redonkulous Runner...

#1: Stop having FOMO (fear of missing out). My race calendar is MY race calendar. I make it based on my goals, my needs and my schedule. I can NOT race every race I hear of and I need to focus on my training needs. Races will happen again the next year and it is not possible to race every race out there.

#2 Stop having food guilts. I am not vegan, gluten free, raw dieter, organic eater or even healthy for the most part. I eat what I eat and it is what it is. Another area of known shortcoming that I can work on but I will not feel guilty for them. I will run my 14 plus miles on the weekend and eat my cupcake with zero guilt : )

The rest of my goals will come from here..... The 2012 Race Calendar!!!

January: training

February: training

March: Publix Georgia Marathon on March 18th

April: Derby Festival Marathon on April 28th

May: Jennie Carol Memorial 5K on May 12th

June: Training

July: These are tentative and not set in stone due to the challenge level

July 14th Grandfather Mountain Marathon

July 22nd Pirate Triathlon at Fairport Harbor Lake Park

August: Railroad Days 5K (date not set)

September: Bourbon Chase on September 28th and 29th

October: Tough Mudder in Mayesville, KY on October 21st

November: training

December: St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, TN on December 1st

Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama (hopefully on December 8th; date not set)

I have worked on this A LOT and this seems like the best fit for me personally. It gives me 5 more states and 10 total at the end of the year. I wanted "12 by 2012" but I can not find 2 more races in 2 more states that are within driving distance. I want to do Bourbon Chase and ToughMudder so that cancelled out some races. But I will have 19 more years to get in the next 40 states so I think I can make that work!

The Grandfather Mountain marathon is ONLY if I can get Monica to go with me since there is weird lodging and I want someone to almost die with as we "run" AKA power walk up a mountain for 6 hours. Since I have some extra training time this summer that will not be consumed with marathon training I am going to attempt to get into one of the local gyms and swim for 6-8 weeks. IF I am feeling ready I am going to do the above mentioned Tri. Monica is planning on that one as well so it will make it easier in terms of travel. These are the two races that I am not set on.

Obviously cross training and strength training are two of my goals since I am going to be doing more than just running this year.

I am going to set my ticker at 1,500 miles since I easily ran 1, 000 miles this past year and I think I can manage the 1,500 miles next year. I am going to end this year just shy of 1,300 miles.

I still want my sub 4 marathon and will always have that on my brain. I have not picked a race for it to happen because we all know each marathon brings it's own challenges and I just need to train hard and see what race conditions are. It will NOT happen at the mountain marathon!

I have enjoyed reading all of the other recaps out there and can not wait to see where everyone else is racing in 2012. I am so excited to meet some other bloggers in Atlanta and would love for some people to put the Derby marathon on their agenda.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from my home to yours! Hope you are spending lots of time with those you love. So far my best gift has been a five mile run after SIX days off (thanks flu!) and it was at a pace that I am not ashamed of!

2011 Goals Recap

So I looked back at my 2011 goals and I really did not set a lot of goals last year. I had some statement like "here are some fitness goals and I have some other goals"..... yeah I have no idea what "other goals" I had so I am sure they were dropped by January 5th like most people. So I started my year like a crazy person and ran my butt off for a long time and kept really strong until fall. Fall came and I knocked out some big races and set some good PRs but then I hit a major wall : ( Not sure why but my workouts have gone to crap since my November marathon. BUT back to the good stuff...

PR some distances! Totally did that in a half (training runs, no real ones), 5K (sub 23) and 26.2!

Run some races : ) YEP! 4 marathons and a 203 mile relay and a couple 5Ks

Run 1000 miles.... and then some! Wanted to get 1,300 but the flu has me shut down.

Eat less cupcakes..... WTF! Who wrote that $#!+ on my blog..... yeah eat MORE cupcakes

2011 was a great year! I am very proud of my running this past year. I think I accomplished a lot even though I did not have specific goals.

What will 2012 hold? more running... DUH?!?!? and some PRs? Well I would hope so : ) Maybe some other races.... like an IronMan : )

Totally kidding about the IronMan but I am looking into some "other" races for fun. I might even tackle that swimming thing again for some stupid reason. I am hoping to have a set race calendar soon and I will post closer to the new year.

On the 5th day of Christmas....

Okay I have no idea of how the Days of Christmas work but I know my early gift is the FLU! Yep, I tested positive for the flu yesterday : ( Hoping rest, fluids and tamiflu are going to work wonders and have me feeling before Christmas. I am exiled to the bedroom to keep the rest of the family from catching it.

The Christmas spirit is going strong in the Montgomery house! Parker is so excited for Christmas! We mark off days on the calendar each day and countdown the days left. We have Elf on Shelf and he loves seeing where "O" (that is the elf's name) is every morning. Check out our festivity schedule:

Saturday, 17th Christmas with High School girl friends (check)

Sunday 18th @ 1:00 my dad's Christmas (check)

Sunday 18th @ 5:00 Mom's extended family (check)

Friday 23rd @ 5:00 My parents

Christmas Eve morning Scott's dad breakfast

Christmas Eve supper Scott's mom's dinner

Christmas morning: our own Christmas at our house

Christmas night: stepdad's family

December 28th/29th: go to Nashvile for ICE and stay at Opryland Hotel!

WOW! We are busy people but so blessed to have so much family to celebrate with. Gaining that 5 to 7 pounds will not be a problem for me! I was planning on being proactive and getting in 5 to 7 miles most days in hopes of fighting the holiday weight gain and getting closer to 1,300 miles for the year. But I will not be running for a few days with the flu diagnosis. Glad I had a good 12 mile run last Saturday.

Kona on DVR

Who has Kona on their DVR??? Me! Me! Me! I love watching Kona. I actually watched Kona before I was a runner. I randomly found it on TV and watched it thinking "WOW, that is crazy!" Running a mile was impossible for me at the time and I had never any hear of triathlons or Ironman. Obviously I already knew who won the race! I love both Craig Alexander and Chrissie Wellington so I was thrilled when I saw that they won. I did not read a lot about the race because I wanted to enjoy watching the Kona recap.

I love the fact that Chrissie and Craig did not flat out win it from the beginning so there was a little bit of excitement watching them win; even if you knew they were going to win the whole time. They are amazing athletes and showed up to win it and they did! I also love Mirinda Carfrae and love to watch her run.

I was disappointed in some of the age-grouper stories. I could have cared less about the Indy racer. I am glad they talked about Biggest Loser Tara but I think there could have been more coverage. I was really moved by the lady with colon cancer because it made me think of my mom since she was so close with her daughter. However, I always think there should be more coverage of the age groupers!

I did not think I was going to cry but when it showed the two older men at the end who were in so much pain and still trying to finish I was crying. Every time I see people of "older" status pushing themselves beyond anything I could ever do I get emotional. They were pushing past some serious pain and it was amazing to watch. Lew Hollander is amazing! I will cry whenever he passes away but I think he will make it to like 105 easy!

Overall I enjoyed it and will watch it a few more times! Who else watches Kona??

Recovery! Why Didn't I think of that??

Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway, Greg McMillan, Bart Yasso and basically any famous runner or author in Runner's World all talk about this thing called RECOVERY. Yeah, yeah, yeah I do that, right??? I mean I don't run for a few days and I just run 5 or 6 miles the first weekend back from a marathon. Then my long runs are just 10-12 miles for a while : )

Okay! SO that is not exactly what they are talking about. There is this funny little rule about taking a day off for every mile that you race. HUH? So if I run 26.2 miles I should take 26 days off. Well not really but I should not do anything extreme or push myself. Well I did just that for the past month against my own will. I have been hitting the pavement, treadmill, bike, yoga mat etc... but I have been STRUGGLING! Runs have been awkward and not fluid. Cross training has been taking a beating on my body which is actually because I don't use any muscles besides the ones you need to run. I was out there trying to retrain for spring marathons on broke down fall marathon legs. My body basically forced me to recover no matter how much I was out there trying to work out and train.

However, tonight which happens to be a month after my marathon in West Virginia I RAN. Like I stepped on the treadmill and ran 5 miles without stopping to grab by side, drink water, take a break, walk for a minute. It was a fluid 9:00 pace with some dare I say it... speed work at the end. Don't get me wrong I have had plenty of decent runs the past month but they did not have that "Runner" feeling to them.

I truly underestimated how much I had put out there in West Virginia. That 4:03 (7 minute PR) must have kicked my butt because my legs just now feel like they used to. Hoping this is the start of a new trend! I am ready to sign up for some spring marathons and kick some 4 hour butt!

PEA-NUT BUT-TER!!!!!

So GU announced the other day that there would be peanut butter flavor GU! WHAT?!?!? I was so excited and was ready to drive to Lexington to find some but I decided to wait until I knew John's had some. I was able to get my parents to pick me up a few packets and I was excited to take one on my long run last Saturday. Since it was "just" 10 miles I really did not need a GU but I wanted to try it. So here is the review...

Smells like.... wait for it.... peanut butter : )

Looks like... watery peanut butter : (

Tastes like.... peanut brittle/the peanut butter in protein bars

Texture.... less sticky than other GUS and "goes down" well

My running partner tried it too and he agreed that it was pretty good. I think this might be my new no caffeine GU #2 to take with my on longer runs. The taste is not overwhelming good but honestly no GU makes me want to eat another one. The best part is the texture. The chocolate ones take too much water to get down and I was end of with a string of chocolate GU on my face. I think this GU would be great for a marathon because I would not wishing I had more water after I had left the water stop. I am going to try one or two more before I buy more but I have a feeling I am going to stock up for my next round of marathon training.

Jealous

Read Skinny Runner

Read SUAR

Read Running off the Reese's

Read Sweaty Emily

Read Sarah OUaL

So I totally blog stalk ALL of the above running blogs! Guess where they are all running at today?? VEGAS! When I saw the advertisements for Vegas. I wanted to go run it SO bad. But the cost of the race, getting there and the hotel was just way too much for this girl. It is on the bucket list and will stay there for sure. One day I will be running less marathons a year and I will be there. I just hope all the other "famous" runners are still there.

Granted my blog is nothing compared to theirs BUT it would have been my version of celebrity sight seeing in Vegas : ) Hoping all the Vegas runners do great this weekend and I will be there soon!

Well.... IT Happens

What Happened? Well....

Beth talks about it a lot and Cely hopes it does not happen in Vegas after binge eating and drinking.

Looks like Paula couldn't wait until the finish line back in 2005...

Yep I had "to go" and had nowhere "to go"! If you are saying "eww gross" or "I can't believe she said that" just remember Karma is unkind! If you run long distances and run a lot then you know running is unkind to the stomach and we have all been there done that. Most runners have had that nice 10 minute warning their body gives them and been able to head to the nearest potty. Well I had mine 10 minute warning and stopped at a gas station. Alright lets finish these last 2.4 miles, right?!?!?

NEGATIVE! Coming onto the last mile of my run I came to a dead stop and thought "OH MY". I looked to the left and right and I was in the middle of a road so I preceded to walk very carefully up a hill. Whew... pain is gone. Lets run again??? Made it about 50 feet and I was stopped again. At the point I am 1 mile from my truck but a couple tenths from my house. So I decide to running like a crazy lady to the house. Not so much I was stopped again by "THE PAIN" and eyed some bushes but thought that was not the best way to meet new neighbors so I hoped for the best and took off. Well the husband was not home so I had to open a gate, find the hidden house lady key and open a door. Which means...

I did NOT make it : ( Guess I can knock that one off my bucket list. Best part is I was at home with my truck still in the parking lot down the road. So I had to go back out for the rest of my run so that I would have my truck. Quite the 10 mile run : )

* Note to self: You can eat Mexican on Friday nights but NOT pizza! Stick with what works people!