End of 2019 Musings

2020, eh? My reaction to that number is, “where the heck did my life go?” Alas, I’m still kicking and still running. All things told, it was a great year, with a new noteworthy hiccups.

• Only ran three races this year. One first place finish, one fifth place finish, and one noteworthy DNF. 
• 1542 miles on the year. Not great, but not horrible considering I had to take nearly four months off and then take another couple of months to ramp back up.
• Somehow, I’m in better shape than I was a year ago, despite being a year older, having run less mileage, badly broken my leg, and had two surgeries on my ankle.
• I like the kind of running I do now. Lots of short runs, some doubles, and a decent amount of tempo and light speed work. It's manageable with my schedule, and it seems to work for me.
• Through sheer necessity, I’ve started to do nearly all of my runs on dirt roads. Single track is great and all, and Salida’s famous for it, but for the majority of my running with my injury history, dirt roads make a lot of sense.
• In 2017, I ran about 2800 miles and had an underwhelming year of racing. In 2018, I ran over 2000 and did ok. This year, I ran 1542 and got a masters PR in the 5k.
• I ran a 17:13 5k this year. That’s only about 40 seconds off my lifetime 5k PR, set my junior year of high school (I ran an unofficial 16:15 on my way to 8k in college, but never ran faster than 16:30 in an official race). Could I get under 16:30 someday? My first coach, the great Doug Bell, ran a 14:36 as a 44-year-old. That makes me think 16:29 as a 44-year-old isn’t such a crazy thought. Time will tell. 
• I may have had some good fortune in my return to running this year, but make no mistake, my ankle is not fully healed, and it may never be. Swelling and scar tissue are still problems. It’s manageable, at least for now. But there might not be many races with technical downhills in my future. 
• In 2020, I plan to go much more aggressively into the short speed work. Feed the cats!
• I suspect I’ll run a few more races in 2020. I’m already signed up for the Bolder Boulder and Pikes Ascent. Keeping the calendar open to accommodate life and fitness developments. 
• Coaching Salida XC was a hoot. There are a lot of great runners and great running minds in this town. Fun being a part of that world. Looking forward to many more years of it. 
• I’m one of the coaches for Salida track this year, or at least I think I am. I have fond memories of running track, but I haven’t been to a meet in 20 years. We’ll see how that goes. 

Here's to 2020! To one more year of running and running against Father Time!