Looking back...Looking forward

It's Dec. 31, 2010, and I'm looking back on the year.  First of all, I thought I ran so much more.  However, in 2009, I logged a whopping 440 or so miles, which included a marathon.  I did not do much running, except in June, July, August, and September.  Add October, and those are the only months over 30 miles all of 2009.  Somehow, I swore I trained harder, and ran farther last year.  Yet, at the end of this year, I have logged over 600 miles, including workouts on the elliptical last winter.  The grand total was 600.23 miles, according to dailymile.com.  I would imagine that the only person over 25 that I know that logged that many miles would be my MinL.

Since February, every month was over 35 miles.  I remember last January being crazy, as usual, and using the elliptical because my hips hurt again.  Compared to last year, my peak months were, again, July and August.  In 2009, I ran 113 and 107 miles respectively in those two months, but just 82 and 83 in 2010.

Looking back on this year, I thought I had accomplished so much.  I still think I improved as a runner.  For instance, my MRR is a testament to that.  Also, I found myself racing a lot, but still running shorter distances.  I've been thinking a lot about resolutions.  Last year, I made a few resolutions and held to one.  Thankfully, I logged all my miles this year.  The crunches and push-up resolutions failed.

Over the past few weeks, my mind has been going back and forth about can I resolve to run 1000 miles this coming year.  That's an average of a little more than 19 miles a week.  This would seem doable, if I didn't live in New England, or have the upcoming outdoor track season to coach.  I can get mileage in, but averaging that over the course of 52 weeks is daunting.  I struggle to make that little bit of mileage during the average work week.  Adding in coaching could make it more difficult.  However, seeing the strides I made towards improving this year, I think a moderate resolution is in order.  I feel that it is well within my grasp to hit 750 miles over the course of 2011.

If there is anybody out there actually reading, I'm counting on some support.  No longer should you be anonymous.  Please, let me know.  I don't update regularly, and for that, I hope to have at least bi-weekly postings.  That's my second resolution: we're talking baby steps.

The weight didn't work out for me over the past year.  I've gained and lost and gained and lost and gained for 52 weeks.  We'll try again.  I'll try to do more crunches, as well.  I'm not setting myself up for anything, though.

With more cold weather gear and gear for running in darker conditions, I think this will be my best year yet.  My latest doctor's appointment was moderately successful.  Since June, I had lost weight, but not much (3.5 pounds).  However, I had dropped my cholesterol levels by many points.  I proceeded to pig out since Christmas.  So, that's the other resolution.  Get some self control.  I have it with running, so I'm going to apply it to the rest of my life.

Finally, with that, I hope your resolutions go well.  Best of luck to you this New Year.

On a side note, you'll notice the "donut meter" and "cheezburger meter" at the bottom of the page.  These measure how many donuts/cheeseburgers I've burned since joining DailyMile.com.  Can anyone figure out for me what the conversion rate is in donuts to cheeseburgers?  THANKS!