Saturday, January 1, 2011

Running again!


Eric Grossman and I having fun on the AT, 1/1/2011


JJ Jesse, Eric Grossman, Doug Blackford, Martha Cutler, Beth Minnick and Jenny Nichols pre run
This morning I celebrated the start of 2011 by getting together with some friends for a short trail run! What fun! It’s been 2.5 months since I have been able to run freely and the joy and freedom of this morning was very appreciated.

My GPS says we did 8.5 miles on the muddy and  steep figure 8 loop of the Iron Mountain and Appalachian Trail. Several months ago, 8 miles would be a warm-up, yet today I clocked my longest run since 10/19/2010! I am running ever other day now and spinning/elliptical/swimming on the alternate days. I am determined to get this recovery/glute retraining right and not get too greedy and do too much too soon.

In addition to aerobic and physical therapy exercises, I have discovered an interesting ½ hour class in Boone at the Wellness Center called Quick Fit. (I call it “the class that kicks my butt”). This class complements core strengthening and some of the agility work I need to continue doing to continue to heal and avoid a relapse into what I worked myself into this past fall.

The class is a combination of hurdle jumps, ball squats, suicides, ab roller, medicine ball throws, etc, etc done in a 2 lap circuit. When I am in the thick of the class I feel uncoordinated and weak, yet still like working really hard!

I have been offered and have enthusiastically accepted a spot on Montrail's UltraRunning Team for 2011. I missed many of the Montrail Ultra Cup races this past fall due to my focus on 100k training and then being injured, so I will likely not participate in the series this year. I hope to explore several new races including at least one of the North Face Endurance Challenges and a couple shorter  La Sportiva Mountain races. I am working on a tentative racing schedule for the 1st part of this year and will post some ideas soon. I do plan to run Western States 100 in June and hope to be offered a spot  on Team USA to run at World 100k in the Netherlands in September. There is much life to be lived, training and patience to work through in the meantime…

Next weekend I hope to join a bunch of local friends for a 13-mile run on the Tanawha Trail.

I am working on finalizing details for New River Trail 50k, 10/08/2011. Registration will open in mid January at Ultra Signup.

8 comments:

jennifer Nichols said...

Woo hoo! What a wonderful way to spend new years day/ morning:) great to see your smiling face as always! So glad you are back running! So excited for all the adventures 2011 holds for you! Take care!

Jenny:)

this bee's knees. said...

Yes, Annette, yes!!! Welcome back.

annette bednosky said...

Thanks friends for your enthusiasm!
Celebrate "cans", avoid giving energy to "can't", appreciate, "not yet!"!
Happy New Year!

Brandon Thrower said...

This is great news that your back running on the trails! Looking forward to seeing you out at Tanahwa next week. Looks like we are running the Lakeside 25k together as well.

Brandon Thrower

Sophie Speidel said...

So glad to see you back and running! The shorter mountain races seem like a perfect balance for you as you get ready for WS. Take care and keep us posted! Happy New Year!

Runner Tammy said...

Annette,

I am so happy you are back to running!!

I will look forward to sharing the trail with you at Western States and of course participating in your AWESOME New River Trails 50 km this fall.

Happy New Year,
Tammy

beachbum27 said...

Hey, Im a college girl and I was always an athlete, but since going to college I can't get the motivation to do anything anymore. However its a new year and Im trying to lose some wieght how do you get the motivation and endurance to run. I could really use all the support and advice. I just created a blog and im new at this whole thing. if you could leave me a comment on my page beachbum27.blogspot.com that would be great! Thank you for your time.

Rick Gray said...

I am tickled pink to see you back being able to enjoy yourself while you run. Sorry I missed running with you Saturday, but Tammy and I had a conflict. All of the pictures I have seen of you from Saturday show a great big smile on your face. That is so wonderful. See you soon!