Sunday, January 3, 2016

Ringing in a New Year



Happy 2016 all!  Time to ring in a new year, ripe with endless possibilities on the roads and trails. Finished 2015 with over 2,300 hundred miles run, which is a new yearly record for me. Have assiduously kept running journals now for the last 7 years. Got my 8th as an Xmas present from my Dad, my very first role model in the sport some 35 years ago.

Put down almost 40 miles last week. Jumped right back into the fray after nearly two weeks of complete running rest. Also started back up with the ancillary work, which each year becomes more and more vital to my overall running program. Though my upper arm/ arm pit area was killing me for a couple days after doing push-ups and lifting free weights.

Ran 8+ miles with Shawn on Wednesday. Both of us struggling in the unusually high humidity for late December; I even shucked my shirt early in the run on the new Carolina Beach State park fitness trail. Shawn wanted to do 3 x 2 mile, bringing each 2 mile segment down in time. But the workout started to get the best of him on the 2nd set, so we amended it, yet still got the mileage in. He's in the process of dropping a lot of excess weight and getting back into his old running shape. Five years ago he could break 17 minutes for the 5k on a good day.

Friday, and New Years Day I ran 11 miles with Amie. Longest run she has ever done, and the longest run I've done I think since my 30 mile ultra Labor Day weekend. Ran at a decent pace averaging in the 8:30s on a big loop that took us to the North End and back as well as part of the back side of the island by the boat launch on the canal. Bit of a colder day too, at least in comparison to the days in the 70s we've been having.

Saturday I stood in the late afternoon cold back again on the fitness trail and helped coach Patti to a PR for distance as well. Which in her case was 7.35 miles, or 7 laps around the loop. I did some pull up type exercises during one of her loops on some of the equipment stations that are location around the off road track in the woods. And read some Running Times magazine, while I kept an elapsed time going on my old, strapless digital wrist watch.

Capped the week with a 7.7 mile run early Sunday morning with Owen... mostly on the State Park trails. Cold, pristine morning with temperatures in the 30s. Ran the last 2 miles just over 8 mins/ mile. He had taken some rest as well after the end of Flyers XC season. Saw Lisa, Jill, and Carey from the Wilmington Road Runners Club back in the park by the marina. They were going to get 10 miles in. Training for the inaugural Southern Ultra 50k the end of January.

Got a core workout in Sunday afternoon to finish off the week. Plan is to try and get 40-50 miles in per week for now, while concentrating on some medium to longer distance runs. Looking forward to what the new year has in store.

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