November in Review

Before I get into my recap I just want to say that this is the third time I've put on this outfit in the past 24 hours and the first time I've actually gotten out for a run in it.

Sleepy, sweaty, morning run goodness

Yesterday morning I woke up at 6 am to go out for jog, but after getting all ready I decided that I was too stressed out about a lecture I had to give a work and just decided instead to into work early and prepare. 12 hours later I put the same outfit back on to make a second attempt at running. I got all the way out my door, stood there for about 45 seconds watching the torrential rain pour down, said "hell no," and went back inside. Finally this morning I actually got out and ran (hence the thumbs up). Third time's the charm! There's nothing like two days of not running to make you go freaking crazy.

On to the recap now!...


2011 Mileage Recap:

January: 66.62

February: 75.69

March: 109.97
April: 103.58
May: 96.99
June: 124.2

July: 151.95

August: 172.61

September: 193.06

October: 125.05

November: 148.0

What went well:

First of all, I RAN A FREAKING MARATHON. So yeah, that was a good thing, and it actually went pretty well too. As in, I didn't die and I'm pleased with my finish time.

Other good things include not injuring myself again and recovering nicely from my shin splints. I was even able to squeeze in one last, late 20 mile training run post-injury to make sure I was back in the endurance game before the marathon.

I also planned out my 2012 race calendar, which is starting to come together in real life as registrations are opening up!

I've really enjoyed my post-race recovery runs. It's kind of nice to run whenever I want for however long I want at a nice easy pace.

In the non-running world of things I had an awesome engagement photo shoot, Thanksgiving, and engagement party.

What didn't go well:

I think this is the first month that nothing really went wrong. Let's see how long I can keep this up!

December goals:

I do not have any races scheduled for December (sad face), but I am planning to start a new training plan next week in preparation for big things 2012!

My biggest goals for the month are:

• Start new training plan
• Listen to my body and stay injury free
• Keep up the good eating habits from my taper period
• Keep up the cross training 2-3 days per week (1-2 days swim, 1 day spin)
• Remain calm and stress free as I approach finals in the next two weeks (ahh!)
• Start looking into hotels and color schemes for the wedding
• Enjoy the heck out of my winter break
• Work on new Running Through History posts for the beginning of 2012

A side note to the last bullet point there, which I've been meaning to address for awhile - I really, really enjoyed writing these once-a-month posts when I first started my blog this summer. If you haven't experienced the full dorkitude of them I encourage you to check them out here and here. That said, they each require quite a bit of time and research and it just became way too overwhelming for me once grad school started. I'm hoping to work on several posts over my winter break and relaunch the series in January to appear on the first of every month. So stay tuned for that!

Also, this happens to be my 100th post and in honor of that I've launched a new Facebook page. Make sure you "like" me next time you head over there! :)