By the numbers: last week and 2011

And so the year ends.

Dec. 26: off

Dec. 27: 5.5; 45:00
Main Street, Glenwood, Monks, Warren. Only missing Stadium Road and that's all the big hills in 'kato. Maybe the most compact hill-run around.

Dec. 28: 4.6; 38:00
Up Main Street, down Glenwood.

Dec. 29: off.

Dec. 30: 4.6; 38:00
Up Main Street, down Glenwood, again.


Dec. 31: 15.5; 2:57
Afton State Park 25K loop, slow and easy with Steve S. Planned on doing two, but left Achilles said otherwise. I'm still feeling it two days later. Also, lost my hat from 2011 Voyageur 50 Miler and a glove. Likely fell out of waistband of shorts. If you find them, please comment below. I'll pay shipping from you to me.


Jan. 1, 2012(!): off
Ice storm the evening before froze everything. Running outside was a little too dangerous for my liking.

Miles: 30.23
Time: 4:58
(YTDs below)

And with that, 2011 is in the books. Here's what it looked like:

Running days: 207

Days injured: ~ 75 (ankle sprain in May; hip flexor one week post-Sawtooth)

Miles: 1,703

Time: 272:52:54

Miles/running day: 8.23 (skewed about a half-mile high due to by races)

Time/running day: 1:19:05 (skewed about for minutes high by races)

In short, I ran ~600 miles more this year than I have in any other year. I also raced more, knocking down ~210 miles of races (2x 50k; 50M; 100M). I stayed relatively healthy. I had one acute injury, a sprained ankle in May during the Superior Trail Races Spring 50K, and one semi-chronic injury, the pulled/strained/etc. right hip flexor post Sawtooth. I ran through the former, and rested through and after the latter.

I am heading into 2012 with high goals in mind. I'm going to do two 100 milers, likely doing the FANS 24-hour run in early June (with a tentative goal of 100 miles), and the Afton 50K. 2012 will also be the first year I will be carrying forward a significant level of fitness from one year to the next. Last year, I carried only ~250 miles from 2010 into 2011 - this year I'm carrying a much more significant base forward even though I was off for eight weeks post Sawtooth. Once the hip issue cleared up, I was free to run long and hard and have done so.

I'm pleased with the 2011 stats. I didn't run as many days as I wanted to - who does? - and I'll work to improve that. I'm not a fan of running streaks because sometimes you just need to rest, but I value consistency.

Next week is another ~40-mile week. Obviously I fell a little low this week and did 30 miles in four days, but I'll pick it back up. This week has already started off on the right foot.

Finally, Minnesota runner Steve Quick has posited the question: how do you finish Sawtooth (well)? I'm going to tackle that question with a look back at 2011 and how I'm going to train to finish Sawtooth (well) in 2012.