"Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility. It makes no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense."
- David Blaikie

Sunday, January 17, 2010

2010!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted! Lots has happened...

1) Cascade Crest 100 - Fantastic event, highly recommended! Started out with a goal of beating the sun, but just never really recovered from Hardrock and didn't have it in me. Every 100 has been a completely different experience and all amazing in their own ways. This one was about running with friends and sharing the experience. Finished with fellow Trailheads Willow and Gilly who rocked their first 100s. So proud of these guys and the whole Trailheads Ultra Distance "team" that came out to Cascade Crest: Ringo, Bobcat, Icarus, Gilly, Willow, Blade, and Gumbi.

2) Knee injury! Crap. After 3 100s and >2000 training miles in the first 8 months of the year I tear medial meniscus jumping into bed wrong. Groan. Dr. Alex Creighton at UNC described it as "a bad medial meniscus tear that was not repairable". He took out 50-60% of the posterior horn... set the expectation that I'd be able to "gradually progress with rehab, returning to running 4-6 months" after surgery and that I'd have "some risk for medial joint line discomfort in the future" if I continue to run the miles I do. This was not easy to swallow.

3) 2009 training in review - averaged almost 60 mpw through August, then dropped all the way to 7 mpw average the last 16 weeks of the year including a stretch of 5 weeks without any running at all. Biking was fun until it got cold. Swam a little, but feeling very been-there-done-that about it. Finally got in some tempo runs the last couple weeks of the year and found I'm a about 45 sec per mile off my peak. This was a little encouraging given the lack of training. In all honesty, running is still a little rough and I wonder if I'll ever get back to 100%.

4) 2010 plans. Didn't get selected in the Western States Lottery. Dang it. This year is 10 years after I ran Western as my first 100. Very excited that fellow Trailhead Willow got in though and can't wait to see how that goes. 2 more lotteries coming up next month: Hardrock and Wasatch. I'm not expecting 2010 to be a particularly good year in terms of performance, but still want to get out there and finish at least one more of the hard Mountain 100s. If I get shut out of Hardrock and Wasatch I think I'll sign up for Bear. Planning on going out to Bighorn to help pace or possibly run one of the shorter distances (and hassle them for my Rusty Spurs award from 2008 that I never got in the mail!).
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