11 Miles to End 2011.

My training plan said I was supposed to go 10 miles today but I felt like it was a bit more fitting to end the year 2011 with an 11 mile run!  I also wanted to try out my new Garmin Forerunner 405 a bit more (still not figuring out how to get it to display current PACE…anyone???)  I feel like I must be getting old now that technology is stumping me and I need to read directions…. man!  I also may have been called Grandma by a 10 year old last night.  And I will most likely be in bed WAY before midnight tonight.  Getting old is rough – lol!!

My run went pretty well this morning.  I tried keeping a 10:40 pace, per my training schedule, but after about 1 mile of being totally off, decided to just forget about that and keep a slow, steady pace for how I was feeling today.  Turned out to be in the 9:40 range for the first 4-5 miles and then about a 10:20 pace until mile 9.  Mile 9-10 was run at about 8:30 pace because I realized I really needed a bathroom break – oops!  And then the last .85 of a mile was run very slowly after coming home and resting a minute, then thinking the pup wanted to run with me until he planted his butt on the road and then turning around, putting him in the house and leaving again…so like 11:00 pace maybe?  All in all, my average pace was about 10:05 so a bit faster than I should have been going but still slower than normal so hopefully that’s close enough?!?  :D

As much as my Garmin confuses me right now, I really love the Garmin Connect website that shows you your route after completion!  It’s so cool having a record of where you went, knowing your elevation gain (115 ft today – woop!) and also your best pace (7:33 what, what??).  If I can ever get smart enough to use the watch, I know I am going to really love having this for marathon training!

And since today is the last day of 2011, I figured it might be a good idea to think up my top memories from 2011.  By top I am not necessary implying good – as you will see, some of these are certainly better memories than others but will be what I remember when I think back to the year 2011.  (Which by the way I thought was going to be a really great year for some reason – apparently fortune telling is not my strong suit…)

In no particular order…

1) Going to New York with Sister in January!

This was a really fun trip and involved LOTS of walking around New York.  Looking back through the pictures make me want to go back SO BAD!!  Soon hopefully!

2) Going to Hawaii with the family!  This will probably always be one of my favorite trips ever!  I still feel a little sad and wish we were still there everytime I think of it and remember how much fun we had!  I also got to spend my birthday here.  Tradition anyone?

3) Running my fastest and slowest half marathons to date.  Both these halfs, while having drastically different out comes taught me a lot about myself and myself as a runner especially.  I now know I can do things I once thought I had no chance of ever doing – keeping on going when I felt like I am dying and someday running a half in under 2 hours.  I also learned that I am not a quitter even though it feels easier to give up then to keep running, I have chosen to keep running.  Hopefully having learned this lesson will help me finish 26.2 in May!

My sister is the best

4)  Attempting a vegetarian diet.  While I applaud people who can exist on a meatless diet, I learned that meatless+me=epic fail.  I think I must just be one of those O type blood people that just needs me some meat!

5) Coming to the realization that I need to try every day to be less stressed.  Even though I don’t think I have that much of a high stress life, I seem to make mine very  stressful.  Hopefully this is something I can work more on in the coming year.  And this is probably 99% of the cause of 6…

6) Having a year long stomachache…(ok, maybe not all day everyday but still) I have been avoiding gluten since June and this has helped matters but I still need to work on de-stressing to help this whole issue become a distant memory…

7) Re-doing my laundry room.  I have not talked much about my house on this blog but its an older ranch and was mostly redone before I moved in but this spring (after a lovely end of the year 2010 complete fail of my washer with a load of clothes in it) we finally redid the basement laundry area to make it look load better!

8 ) Discovering Insanity!

I am sure there are quite a few other little things that happened this year but these are the top 8 items that I will probably remember for many years to come!  So now I am off to veg out for the last 8 hours of 2011.  Can’t quite believe it’s over but I am ready for a new year to begin at the same time!

Happy New Year!