Muddy Calves

Welcome 2012!

As I sit around in my underwear watching Doctor Who & waiting for 2012 to roll around, I’ve decided to post some of my running goals for 2012.

• Train for a spring race. I have one in mind (Grandma’s Marathon) but similar to what I did in January, 2007–when I didn’t commit to attempting a 365-day running streak and ended up running 456 consecutive day–I’m not going to officially declare this a goal quite yet but don’t be surprised if I act as if I’m going after it.
• Lose the middle-age Gut.
• Run 1,438 miles.
• Volunteer at at least one race–perhaps the ALARC Legends 10K.
• Run a sub 5:30 mile
• Run a sub 20:00 5k
• Run a sub 1:30 half-marathon
• Increase my number of quality splits:
• Sub-6:30 (3 in 2011)
• Sub-7:00 (6)
• Sub-7:30 (32)

With 17 hours left in 2011, I’m sitting around in my underwear waiting for some daylight so I can sneak in my last run of 2011 and evaluating how my running went in 2011.  Overall, I’m satisfied with how my running went–I ran over 1,000 miles for the first time since 2004 (holy cow, I didn’t realize it’s been that long since I put together a full year), performed reasonably well in some races (including approaching a sub-20:00 with a 20:17 at the Rockford River Run 5k in August despite having struggled with an injury for a couple of months prior to that).

In January, I posted some goals for the year, let’s see how I did:

So while I met some goals & didn’t meet some others, I met the important ones and came close enough to the performance ones that I’m mostly satisfied.  One thing I hadn’t set as a goal but ended up doing that made this year stand out, though, was getting more involved.

Taking the RRCA Coaching Class and making some great new friends (Rebecca & Ann), coaching a kids Running Club, meeting up with a virtual friend I’ve known for over a decade, using Daily Mile, and even reaching out to members of the Run-net community like Norm, Steve, and 3 Non-Joggers.  These relationships help make 2011 a great year.

To review my racing, I ran 13 races, a new personal high if you exclude high school track & CC.  The races were:

• Waconia Winterfest 5k (2/5/2011)
• Ron Daws 25k (4/2/2011)
• Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon (5/1/2011)
• ALARC legends 10k (6/11/2011)
• Bjorklund Half Marathon (6/18/2011)
• Oulu Rock Run (7/23/2011)
• Rockford River Run (8/13/2011)
• Salomon Autumn Trail Series 1 of 4 (8/31/2011)
• Salomon Autumn Trail Series 2 of 4 (9/14/2011)
• Salomon Autumn Trail Series 3 of 4 (9/28/2011)
• Salomon Autumn Trail Series 4 of 4 (10/12/2011)
• Jack-O-Lantern 5k (10/29/2011)
• Chaska Turkey Trot (11/12/2011)

So overall, I’m happy with my how my running went in 2011. My life has settled down some from previous years and allowed me to focus more on my running. I did struggle with some minor injuries in the second half of the year but think I’ve worked my way though most of that.

• How did your running go in 2011?
• What were some of the highlights/lowlights?

Once I finished coaching the Run Club this Fall, my focus changed–I put up my own shingle and started offering online coaching services under the name "Tundra Running".

When I signed up for the RRCA coaching class, I did so because (a) I had wanted to for awhile for my own personal interest  and (b) because I could justify it for the coaching I was planning to do. But deep down, even if I hadn't really admitted it to myself yet, I wanted to give professional coaching a try.

Now, I have helped friends in an informal basis for years, I study running a lot so I consider myself knowledge, and having run (albeit on & off) for decades, I think I have a lot to offer.

But wow, similar to coaching 30-some kids, just getting going was more work than I expected. I wanted to keep my expenses low so I did all the webwork myself and for some geeky reason, I decided to do it in Drupal, something I hadn't used before.   And while there several things I would change about the website, I had to, at some point, just launch it and go with it.

As a promotion, I gave away a Garmin Forerunner GPS Watch–an awesome tool for measuring your runs and watching your pace.

Through the help of some friends, the response was pretty good–had 168 people register to win.  And while I've been able to quit my day-job I haven't had anyone sign up yet, I've met some great people and think I've laid the foundation some future opportunities.  I am, in training terms, building base.

Now for some provocative questions:

• Have you ever or would you ever a hire a running coach?
• What would you look for in a coach?