Monday Dec 31, 2007

AM- 24 miles (3:24) Garden-Intemann-Bear Creek-Monument Loops (Nike Waffles)

I got about 10 hours of sleep last night and it really helped.  I woke up this morning unsure how I would feel after being so wiped out yesterday, but within a block or so I could tell that things were pretty chipper.

Because I slept in and my legs were feeling pretty good, and because I like to eat a lot of food, I decided to just do a single 3ish hour run today instead of splitting it up into my usual Monday of 2hr/1hr runs.  This ended up being great because I got to enjoy one of my favorite trails--Intemann--instead of just tooling around in the Garden.

The only real thing of note about this run--other than the blustery, cold nature of the weather--was exploring the brand new trails just on the other side of 21st street in Bear Creek.  They probably only added about a mile onto the run, but new trails are always fun.  Also, I would've preferred to finish off the run with some barefoot--the weather hasn't allowed any barefoot running for me since August--but there was still a good bit of snow on the infield of the track.  However, there's supposed to be a decent stretch of warmer weather later this week, so hopefully I can get back out there again, soon.

2007 Year in Review

Well, first the pure numbers, I guess:  5412 total miles for an average of just under 15 miles per day and 105 miles per week.  However, I missed basically five months for two major injuries this year--my meniscus in May and June and a metatarsal stress fracture for all of September, October, and November.  If I were to throw out those months (just for the pure interest of it), when I was healthy I actually averaged nearly 170 miles per week.  Obviously, a big goal for 2008 will be to be a bit more disciplined in limiting periods of super high mileage and thereby being able to actually run for the whole year instead of just two-thirds of it.

In terms of racing, it wasn't bad despite the two injuries.  The two 100 mile races I did--Rocky Raccoon and Leadville--were both pretty solid, except for the fact that they were both prefaced by only 5-6 week build-ups because of sickness or injury (mono before Rocky and the meniscus before Leadville).  I will say that 16:14 at Leadville is a quite a bit more impressive performance than 13:32 at Rocky.  

I'm excited to see what I can do with a little less hurried, more consistent block of training before a big race.  Even Rocky this time will have an accelerated build-up once again because I'm coming back from the stress fracture.

Analysis like this always seems so self-evident and crystal clear---hopefully I can learn something.

All in all, though, 2007 was my most enjoyable year of running to date.  Particularly, the five or six weeks of running this summer in preparation for Leadville were an absolute blast.  There were so many incredible runs in that time period that it would be impossible to narrow them down to just a handful.  I can only hope for an opportunity like that in 2008 where I can live my life exactly the way I want to for a certain period of time.