David's Blog

I haven’t done one of these in a few years but feel like this one warrants it.

Unsurprisingly, 2020-2022 were pretty quiet years for my running. 2018 was a strong year for me but unfortunately ended in injury. 2019 was a year of recovery and rebuilding, and then 2020-2022 turned into much the same. I was lucky to be healthy throughout that time and while I wasn’t training for very many races, I was running pretty consistently. Not a lot, but consistently. A silver lining was that it helped me rebuild habit and consistently get out there even during a time of low motivation. Sure, I put in a decent training block for CIM in 2021, but otherwise I was mostly “just running” without much in the way of big weekly mileage or even too many workouts. 2023 was supposed to be different, I planned a return bigger training blocks and goal races with PRs in mind. In many ways it was a big year and I have a lot to be thankful for that motivates me for the coming year.

Highlights

Winter

• I Decided to extend my 2022 training through the early part of winter by signing up for the Kaiser half, one of my favorite half marathons.
  
• I executed a nice race with negative splits. I felt like I got the most out of myself during a race where I had little race-specific training going in. It was fun to see lots of friends and coworkers out there too!
• I took the late winter to rest and reset my running in preparation for the rest of the year.

Spring

• I put in a big training block for the Bayshore Half Marathon on Memorial Day Weekend. I was consistently running 50+ mile weeks and even hit two weeks over 60 miles. This was my first time doing this since I think 2013! I came away from the training cycle healthy and motivated rather than burnt out.
• During the build up I raced the Get in Gear 10k as a tune up and ended up running the fastest 10k I’ve run since 2018 (when I ran my PR). This was also my first race with Mill City Running!
• Race day at Bayshore was a mixed bag. I didn’t execute the race the way I wanted to right from the start and paid for it earlier than hoped. I felt like with with better execution I had more in me on the day. Still, I came away with my 2nd fastest half marathon time and beat 2013 me, back when I ran Bayshore as my first half marathon.
  

Summer/Fall

• After Bayshore I took some time down to rest and recover in order to be ready for GLR and then to dive into Summer/Fall training.
• I had one of my better years at GLR, with a few standout runs during the relay. The Fife lake run is always one of my favorites on the years I get to do it. I also became a “trail wizard” on a route that was supposed to be particularly difficult to navigate (and it was).
• After the relay, I started buckling down on training. I decided that I’d give the Marathon another go at CIM and build off of the training and fitness I had from my spring training cycle. I really went for it this time, targeting peak weeks of 70 miles.
• For the 14 of 18 weeks of the training cycle that I successfully completed, I averaged over 60 miles. I hit two weeks over 70 miles (again a first since 2013), did two of my longest marathon prep long runs ever of 21 and 22 miles (and some of my most enjoyable solo long runs, both on new-to-me routes that were point to point), and was mostly hitting goal paces on Marathon pace workouts.
• I was racing a fair bit too, which made it that much more fun: Twilight 5000 in August with my fastest 5k since 2018. Victory 10K and then Haloween Half (at MP) in October, and finally a 10 mile PR(!!!) in November right at the end of the cycle, just before the taper.
• Moreover, with all the mileage and racing I wasn’t feeling *too* exhausted after weeks of races, long runs, and high mileage. I was tired, sure, but if anything, I was surprised by how well I was recovering after the 20+ milers, etc.

Unfortunately, I didn’t run CIM after all of that work. In a trip to SF in early Nov I injured my knee. The day after running my 10 mile PR I flew to SF and then in the evening I stubbornly pedaled an e-bike with a dead battery to my hotel while carrying my luggage. This combination of things proved to be too much for my right knee and I had a lot of pain in it for a few weeks. After a few weeks of relative rest I had to accept that CIM wasn’t happening (and also that I wouldn’t make a quick enough recovery for any other early winter races).

Conclusion

I’m ending the year having run just over 2200 miles (2206.7 as of this writing, which will be the total unless I decide to risk running on fresh snow with my knee that is still not totally healed). This is far and away the most I’ve run in a year since at least 2013. I’ve had recent years in the 1700 or 1800 miles range but haven’t crossed 2000 miles for the year since at least 2012 or 2013.

I’m currently able to do ~3 mile runs more or less pain free but I still don’t have a full idea of what a recovery timeline looks like in order to begin training again so it’s hard to set goals for next year. During marathon training I was thinking that next year would be good to get back to shorter races (5k to 10k) and work on speed as that was a particularly weak point in my training this past cycle (strides and even 10k pace felt *hard*). But I also now feel like I have unfinished business with the marathon given that I had essentially my best ever marathon training cycle but didn’t get the chance to fully express that fitness. I’m also coming away with the lesson that even though I don’t feel like I over trained (not ending my cycle with an over use injury from running is a big win for me), I still need to be cautious with other things I’m doing when I’m putting my body under lots of stress for big training cycles. I’m sure that cumulative fatigue contributed to my injury during that fateful bike ride.

So, I’m thankful for a 2023 that showed me I can still put in big mileage and recover after many many years of being unable to put together this type of training. I’m also thankful for a 10 mile PR.

 In 2024 my priorities are:

1. Recover. Be patient and get back to consistent 5-6 days a week of running, no matter how conservative I have to be to get there. It’s not worth rushing it and ending up in another injury cycle.

2. Be healthy for GLR. It’s headed back to the UP next year and a brand new day 3. If I can’t be healthy enough by July, something very serious is wrong.

3. Re-evaluate other race goals as health and fitness allow but I’m still holding out hope to be able to put together a strong Fall 2024 training cycle of some kind.