A Look Back - 2012 In Review!

It really is amazing to look back a year ago and think "WOW... that really wasn't that long ago!"

But so much happened last year - it was a great year!

In January we started our expedition into PRIMAL living - a slightly modified version of the Paleo or Caveman lifestyle - and we have loved it! Not much happened in January other than that... I didn't even keep the blog updated or anything! Total Running miles tracked that month - 5.02!

In February I did a bunch of Crossfit along with Primal living - and much to the annoyance of pretty much everybody due to the freakin number of pictures I took in it... I accomplished the Peacock pose!
Here's the first ever - in me underwears!

Total running mileage increased (which isn't hard from 5 sheesh!) to 14.4.

In March I again increased my running miles to a Marathon for the month (26.3) including a 2nd place finish in a St. Patty's day 10k. I think I can do better!

I tell ya I do this everywhere now!

 

In April I turned 33 year old,

We got Giant Tires for workouts;

The family trail runs started to pick up momentum and frequency,

AND my wife and I finally got a picture of us doing Astavakrasana together!

While the frequency had increased, the total mileage for April only went up a little, to 26.9

May was a fantastic month. I went to BJJ for the first time with Micah, and that has been one of the experiences I'm most glad I started this year!
The Running with Ed Relay was a disaster, we were not the slowest team at all - but they had us scheduled late, so we were the very last one on the course, and they took down most of the exchanges before we even got there! Still had fun running with the family, but I kind of don't think we'll be doing that one again!

 After RWE we had a GREAT vacation up in Park City where we were reminded of the awesomeness of Ninja Warrior - with nonstop American Ninja Warrior. I even got some Devil Staircase in after a trip to the swimming pool:

I still need to find a good place to train that more! Total running in May - 48.3 miles!

June had two big events that were a TON of fun this year.
First up was our first Dirty Dash - Such a blast to do this with my beautiful wife and these pictures even won us an entry into the Fall Dirty Dash!


Our 'official' pics were so awesome that we had to buy them too... we look great!

Next up in June was the Ragnar! Clan McRagnar was a lot of fun! (I still like pirate themes more!)

 

I like my Hulihee Beard! It's great!
Total running miles for June - 54.6!

July was another busy month. I FINALLY finished my pullup bar in my backyard (and look forward to using it more when it gets warmer again!)

I ran up to Flag Rock for the first time AND got top ten in the Flag Rock Run 7 mile trail race

 The family trail runs got even MORE frequent, even though the reason for them (Ragnar) was done

We even got my family to do some crazy HIIT workouts with our new tires and sledgehammers and pull up bar!

 Dang this is making me miss summer!

July was a fantastic month. It was my record month for monthly distance so far with just one more mile than June - 55.7 miles. A big part was preparing for the Flag Rock run, and then a run my brothers and my dad and I did at the end of the month after witness amazing performances at the finish of the Speedgoat 50k. That was a beautiful 11 mile run along the peaks of the mountains past some way cool lakes. I need to do that trail again this year!

At the beginning of August I realized how awesome the influence of constant fitness has been - I mean I am shocked at the differences from 2007 (left) to 2012 (right)

 We thought we were in shape!
Also in August we got dirty again with Cahoots! GO MUD PIRATES!! We were awesome super-heroes.

I hope that company continues improving - they have a good idea going - required team cooperation! The lines were a bit silly. (Okay... they were ridiculous!)
August marked the beginning of more constant BJJ exposure for me - I finally overcame more of my trepidation at just grappling - getting in there and LOSING! (99% of the time anyway... that's starting to change a little!)
Family trail runs continued, but with vacations and general end-of-summer busyness, they tapered off some, so I ended up with 32.7 miles for the month. Lots of other fit activities though, so it was a fantastic month.

We started September off good by getting people to join us for more HIIT workouts in our backyard and others' back yards as well!

We also ramped up on Tough Mudder training - usually it was just me and my buddy Justin who came to these - and in the end it really helped us out!

There was still a decent amount of trails run, and we felt (and looked) fantastic!

September also added the 3rd mud run of the year to my resume - Dirty Dash take TWO. This time they turned the course around and it was a great time. Next time we do it we'll make sure to get a big group - THAT one is a fun group run.

 

We recorded a few videos during BJJ in September which were very useful - but after those the guy who was doing it had to stop so we lost our camera man.
The very end of September had one of my absolute favorite adventures of the year. The Narrows in ZIONS!! I want to go back there very badly!

 14.7 miles total for the month - but almost half of that was technically hiking the Narrows. SO COOL.

October bumped the mileage up again mostly from TWO events alone.
The first was TOUGH MUDDER. I mentioned before that some of my HIIT trainings and workouts I'd done were in preparation for this event. I did NOT want to fall on Funky Monkey (I didn't) and I wanted to make it up Everest (I did!). Honestly the workouts were definitely useful - Justin and I were a LOT more prepared than the other guys.

It was a lot of fun - but we could have done it in half the time. I also was not a fan of the last obstacle - ElectroShock Therapy. I'm not currently planning on doing a Mudder again for a while!

One week after Tough Mudder - the other event happened. My brother ran the Pony Express 50 miler, we were his crew and his pacers. I ended up running 19 miles straight and definitely had over 20 miles total running back and forth that day! It was a lot of fun to crew for him - and we probably will again this year!

Finally - for Halloween I was Wolverine. That's always a fun costume. I didn't go to work like this:

Although that might have been fun! October Total Mileage: 43.3


In November Micah gave me my first BJJ Gi (older used one,s sure, but I still almost cried!)
The weather stayed fantastic, and we were able to still keep heading up into the mountains, and it was hot!

We ran in the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Leg - I improved my time a little bit to 21:33 and achieved my goal of beating my younger brother!

The day after Thanksgiving was my first run (since the Half Pregnant Half Marathon in 2011!) with the (now called) Wasatch Mountain Wranglers! The name was actually decided on during this run, which came to be known as the Black Friday Bushwhack! Somehow the trail got lost! We still had fun.

November finished with 27.2 miles - still more than March and April!


That Black Friday run kind of set the tone for December - I actually made it to the tops of some peaks running with those crazy fellas. Grandeur Peak, View Benchmark, Mount Olympus, Lake Mountain - all were a lot of fun, and the first 4 summits possibly ever for me! Crazy fun and you can scroll down a bit if you want to see pics and the entries!
I finished out December with a few more wintery runs up to Elephant Rock in Mueller Park

and along the BST to Fernwood Castle on New Years Eve:

Total Mileage for December - 4th Highest month with 48.7 miles! It was a LOT more fun than I thought could be had running around in the snow as well. It's amazing how beautiful it is!

I just realized that I didn't mention yoga much in this recap... which is a shame because without Yoga I don't think I could have made it through this year. I have been able to very consistently attend Yoga 2 to 3 times a week almost the entire year and it has made a HUGE difference. I don't know that I 'progressed' too much, or as much as I thought I wanted to with specific poses or anything - but that's not really the point of yoga! I am still a little disappointed that I didn't spend as much time learning handstands as I thought I would!

2012 was a fantastic year. Runkeeper shows me at 402 miles for the year - and that's just what I tracked - I know there were a few runs I didn't track, and I'm okay with that. I think 2012 was a great springboard into this year and I am SUPER excited for what is to come this year.

In some ways I'm still figuring out what I WANT, but I'll share my plans and thoughts in the next entry!

Onward Two Thousand Thirteen!!!