Saturday, December 31, 2016

2016 final thoughts

Its new year's eve, 2016;  Today I ran for the first time in about two weeks, having gotten hit by a flu or cold that progressed into bronchitis.   I was laid out for a good two weeks.  I felt well enough today to give running a try despite the rain and I felt surprisingly good.  The run helped me clear out my chest I think;  I felt good enough to do a much needed core workout afterwords.

Looking back on my running in 2016, I certainly had some great runs training for SD100 and learned a lot working through the issues last spring associated with my hip injury.  Unfortunately SD100 was a DNF for me, the short explanation for which was that I disrespected  the course:  I went into a race with record 100+F heat with a fixation on time.  The mountains get the last laugh always;  it was a good lesson for me.

Later in the summer I took an extended break to allow things to heal up from about 4 years of pretty solid training.  I took the time saved to spend with my family, and I worked, a lot, on some theoretical physics problems that an old friend and research collaborator had asked me to look at.  It was fantastic, rewarding work, of a kind I haven't done for fifteen or so years and I'd forgotten how much I loved that sort of  work.  It was also as difficult and consuming as ultra running and just as rewarding, if in a different way.

Having started running again the last few months the break seems to have paid dividends;  I am running in the minimalist Merrells again without any toe issues and the achilles and hip are solid.
I'm looking forward to 2017 and I plan to enter the SD100 lottery for a shot at correcting the mistakes I made last year.

Happy new year to you, reader, and best wishes that you achieve the goals you set for yourself in this new year!