Some final ATY thoughts and on to 2012

The final results for Across the Years have been posted.  My final mileage was 131.226 and I placed 4th woman out of 19 and 11th out of 45 overall.  So I guess that's a sold top 25%.  Pretty unheard of for me.

The official results were about the same as the unofficial so no surprises there.  I was most interested in seeing my splits. I copied them into a google document...you can see them here. I suspected that I didn't have any big chunks of time off the course, but it was really great to see that was true!  I only had five laps over an hour and my longest lap was 1:28, the time I overslept, but maybe by not as much as I thought. Those times include one lap and my rest time. I had two more laps that were nearly an hour and can see that I really did waste a lot of time around New Year's midnight.  Great to be able to learn where I can improve.  Also nice to look at other racer's lap times.  I can clearly see that many of the experts are rarely off the track. 

Recovery has been going okay.  I started back up with weights last week and put myself in a world of hurt.  I think I was more sore from the weights than I was in the days after ATY.  Serves me right for slacking on the weights all fall.  I'm determined to keep it up, even if I end up doing an easier workout. I need to stick to twice a week.  The muscle soreness really made my motivation to run take a nose dive.  But I did get out for a few short runs this week for a total weekly mileage of 16 miles. Woohoo!  I'm still having trouble with my feet.  The initial continual aching went away in one to two weeks. But since then I've had good days and bad days.  They'll feel fine one day, but then I'll wake up with really stiff and aching feet the next.  And my legs and feet have been cramping randomly.  I think my electrolytes are off so I've been working on that.  Also had one massage which really helped so I should probably get another one soon.  I'll keep my running mileage low for the next few weeks.  I know some people can bounce right back, but apparently that's not true for me.

Which brings me to my running plans for 2012.   I registered for the Mt Hood 50 Mile at the end of July since it looked like it would fill.  This will be the 6th year we've gone as a family and made it a weekend camping trip, so it's become a tradition, I guess.  And I think I can do a lot better with the proper training.  I'd like to finally run the Peterson Ridge 40 Mile in April and am thinking of MacDonald Forest 50k in May and Beacon Rock 50k in June.  McKenzie River 50k in September is on my birthday and I'm thinking that might be a fun birthday run. However I might rather stay closer to home and run Bunker to Bonneville 50k the week before (which I had to DNS this year). 

But honestly, right now I'm not really excited about any races this year.  My general plan is to finish recovering and work on my trail running for the first half of the year.  Then switch gears mid-year and work toward Across the Years (either 48 or 72 hour) with more walk training again.  But I don't care at the moment about doing a lot of racing.  If those other races I mentioned above fill before I decide to register, I won't be crushed.

So maybe I just need to get my mojo back, or perhaps I'm just feeling like running how and when I want without the pressure of racing or traveling too far out of town.  

Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure 2012 will be a good year.

P.S.  Guess who's not so little any more......