2008 ramblings and thoughts on 2009

With 2008 almost behind us I like to start thinking about and planning for next year about this time...but first what was good and bad about 2008.

Good:
Wasatch Speedgoat Mountain Racing Team
Hardrock Finish
ChiRunning
Fairly successful year of racing

Bad:
Knee injury from road racing late in the year

Good things about 2008 was I was able to finish all of my ultras and I learned some good and new things. I learned that water only is the best thing for me when running ultras. I like to put one NUUN capsule into each bottle to get my electrolytes, but other than that, at least right now my stomach can only handle that. I will usually have soup at the aid stations and occasionally grab a sandwich to eat while walking out of the aid station. Another thing I learned from my friend Mike Dobies is to carry a baggie and put some things in it to munchon like raisins, nuts and pretzels. Even at my ripe older age fo 57 I can learn some new tricks.

Good thing also was a quick recovery from the knee injury late in the year due to some aggressive road running and also running two road marathons. I've been able to run several multi hour trail runs with Deb this weekend, so the knee is happy again. I still think running roads can help you in trail running as it does make you a little faster. I will continue to run roads, but only beween the trail runs.

We had a good Thanksgiving day. No Turkey for us! We had some running friends over, went for a nice 2.5 hour trail run, then returned to the house for some homemade soup, bread and cheesecake. We followed that with some Guinness and a watching of the Massanutten movie to get ourselves psyched up for entering this week. It was a good day!

...so as I now think about 2009, what I have planned so far is to enter the Massanutten 100 on Dec 1st and enter Hardrock in January. Both of these are lottery, so I don't know if I will be running one or both or neither. I think I have a good chance of getting in both and my race season will surround and be planned around these. I will be running the DRB50K in April, that's a given. Deb and I are also planning on going down to Va. in Feb to run the Reverse Ring, which is a 71 mile run on the MMT course without all of the road sections and very limited aid. This will basically kick off the serious training for MMT, which in in May. That and possible several other trip down there for some of the Massanutten training runs.

Another biggie for us for 2009 is the hope to sell our home and move back to New Mexico...this is something I really hope happens, but due to the economy I don't think our house will sell, but time will tell.

For training, I will continue to run easy and low mileage until after the first of the year, then will begin to ramp up the miles, adding hill repeats in there sometime when the roads are clear of snow. Then in the Spring I'll start to do some tempo runs, preferably on the trails to keep the knees happy. My mileage is usually in the 50-60 mile per week range with most of it at a low heart rate. I log all of my training at RunningAHEAD.

Deb and I are planning a trip to Texas for the week between Christmas and New Year to visit her family in Fort Worth. That will be a nice trip and it'll be good to get in some warmer weather for a week. We'll do some training with her brother, Drew (Meyer) who is also planning on entering Hardrock. Drew is a good ultrarunner and ran sub 25 hours at Leadville at age 60 a couple of years ago.

I will continue with the ChiRunning. I feel that going in this direction is the right thing to do for my future running health. I was initially too agressive in doing it and developed some knee pain because of all the new stresses, but as my legs gets stronger this shouldn't be a problem.

I guess that's it for 2008....probably no more posts here until after Jan 1. So I wish all of you that are reading this a Happy Holiday season. Be safe!

Until next year...
Steve