See, proof that I was sweaty. And proof that I finally learned to use the iPhone's front-facing camera. I'm smart. And proof that I'm not superstitious because I still wear that race t-shirt even though the race resulted in a broken fibula.
Let's recap January, shall we? First of all, I ran 95 wonderful, blissful miles. Okay, not all of them were so lovely, but at least a few of them were awesome! Last January I was coming off of a severe ITB (illotibial band, for those of you lucky enough not to know) injury stemming from Sub-4ing the Portland Marathon on 10-10-10 (worth it!), and I only ran a sad 31 miles. This year I am feeling good (knock on wood!), running more consistently, and running only 3 days a week (kind of following the Run Less, Run Faster plan). So the 95 miles were across only 14 running days, an average of 6.8 miles per running time! Pretty good doncha think?
Proof that I ran 95 miles this month! What do those little colorful arrows mean? Anyone?
I also swam a lot and cycled some, but that's boring. So let's look at some of my other 2012 goals:
- The Year of the Marathon: Well that's not happening until June, so let's just ignore that one for now.
- Volunteer at a Race: Nope, not yet.
- Finish My Degree: That's part of everything that hit the fan today! So although it's stressful, things ARE FINALLY HAPPENING! And that is the most exciting thing ever. But things didn't start happening until February 1, so I guess that's another fail for January. Man this is a depressing recap so far, eh?
- Travel to at Least 8 New Places: Although I didn't technically travel anywhere new (yet), I did travel somewhere I love, Sunriver, Oregon, where we celebrated the New Year, and I had two new experiences: cosmic tubing and cross-country skiing! So I think that counts as a WIN!
- Read 26 Books: This month I read 6 books, so right on track to reaching 26+. These books included a few running books: Once a Runner, Racing Weight, and Relentless Forward Progress, a book club book The Story of Beautiful Girl, plus The Maze Runner and A Good Dog.
- Run 1,015 Miles & 12 Races: I'm right on track with my 95 miles to exceed 1,015 and would be extremely happy to keep up with the consistency. I haven't run a race yet but I have 5 I'm signed up for (3 half marathons, 1 full marathon, and 1 relay) in February, March, May, June, and July, respectively, plus plans to sign up for a sprint triathlon, beg someone for a spot on their Hood to Coast team, and am in the NYC Marathon lottery (woot!). So I don't think I need to be too worried about my lack of success here just yet!
Okay, so when I wrote it all out it was way less impressive than when it was in my brain where I was only comparing 31 January 2011 miles to 95 January 2012 miles. The fact that I have accomplished pretty much nothing EXCEPT running well in 1 month out of 12 would look way cooler if I had just talked about the running! But what's done is done.
In other news, if you looked up loyalty in the dictionary, you would see this:
Here's to February and summer hurrying up and getting here!
How'd you all do on your January goals? I sure hope you did better than I! How many miles did you run this month? Are you looking forward to summer as much as I am?
