Just another running blog: January 2019

These annual reviews are typically written in the "let's count the ways I've failed" style, epitomized by Muddy's 2016 recap. Maybe it's because we have such high standards for ourselves, or that we're uncomfortable admitting that we're satisfied with insignificant achievements, or that we're just plain negative. Whatever the reason, it goes against my nature and better judgment to say this: I am maybe just a little bit happy with my running in 2018.

While I'll never have the gaudy mileage numbers of some of my fellow runners, I still have my own modest baseline to grade against, and this was easily the most consistent year of training I've had since freshman year of college, if not ever. This is all the more satisfying since 2017 was a tough, injury-filled year, and I was starting 2018 almost from scratch. (I'd only run more than 50 miles in a month once between May and December 2017.) Despite that cracked foundation, I kicked off 2018 with a steady month of January and built from there. I would ultimately run at least 100 miles in every month (which I'd NEVER done before in a year in my life), without a single '0' week all year. And my two lowest weeks (a 10 and 11 back-to-back in March) were due to bronchitis, not to an injury. (The year is nicely recapped in the Strava video.)

The 1387 miles in 2018 were my highest since 2002, which spanned my junior and senior years of college.

Throughout the year, I'd been keeping an eye on the cumulative mileage chart provided by the Elevate app (which I highly recommend; you can download here). 2018 was neck-and-neck with 2016 and 2015 through early October, but avoiding the late-year injuries that befell me in both of those campaigns allowed some separation. Around mid-November, I realized that I would not only lock up my highest mileage in 15+ years, but I had a shot at the totally arbitrary 1400-mile barrier. It would require averaging 35 miles/week for the final six weeks. Now, I know 35 miles represents a down week for many of you, but for me it's a monumental achievement. It had taken me three years to rack up a total of six 35+ mile weeks prior to November, so it would be no small feat to do it for the six consecutive weeks at the end of the year.

This mini-mission went splendidly for the first five of those weeks (38, 35, 37, 33, 36), and I was already at 22 with four days and 13 miles remaining in the year. Naturally, I didn't get there. I came down with some nasty virus that relegated me to my bed for all four of those days. So, I ended with the uncomfortably unround 1387 for 2018. But I'm OK with it. It's something to build on, and those last 5.5 weeks convinced me that my uncooperative body might just be able to handle more in 2019 than it did this year. (That's not to say that I wasn't accumulating dozens of aches and pains during that time, but I was still going, and that's not too bad.)

2018 wins the race to the top, albeit ever so slightly short of 1400 miles. (Snapshot from Elevate.)

So, why was 2018 so much better than the many years that preceded it? There is certainly some amount of luck involved, but there were several intentional tactics that contributed as well. I'll list them here not because anyone should care, but so that future-Chris can refer back to this as a source of inspiration when I inevitably have to reinvent my running plan at some point in the future.

Reasons I was able to run with such consistency in 2018, roughly ordered by estimated importance:

I wore my ankle braces on almost every trail run. I despise the braces, especially in races, but I don't question their effectiveness. 2018 was my first ankle-sprain-free year in a very long time.
I limited myself to one workout per week, and often skipped workouts on race weeks. It took me 15 years post-college to realize that I can no longer work out as much as I used to. I practiced some measure of restraint to hold back from adding workouts when I was feeling good, but it was necessary. In the end, I did a workout of some kind in over 50% of weeks.
My workouts were at a relatively low effort. I've reluctantly bought into the 'CV' workouts espoused by Tom 'Tinman' Schwartz (described in this Letsrun.com article and this amusing slide deck). I say "reluctantly" because the guy is a noted heretic and doesn't provide much to support his theories beyond anecdotal evidence. I don't know if I agree with everything he says, but you can't argue with the results he's produced in several athletes/teams. In any case, the workouts are done at easier-than-race-pace, which helps avoid injury while seemingly still building speed. I'll likely continue with these in 2019.
I completely stopped lifting my legs and doing plyometrics. This, too, was hard to give up, but I realized I've hurt my knees and/or Achilles every time I've done a leg lifting/plyo regimen in the past dozen years. I'll sacrifice the strength and explosiveness for continued health.
No hills. Why not completely eliminate leg strength while I'm at it? This was out of necessity. My two-year-old hip injury is exacerbated by hills, so I simply have to avoid them.
Days off. I've been on a 3-4 day/week running schedule for 15 years now, and that won't ever change substantially, given some chronic stuff that requires the days off from pounding. I did move up to 5 days during the final stretch and will continue to try that out in 2019.

Racing

I ran 15 races - my most since 2014 - winning three of them, placing second five times, and third thrice. In fact, I placed no worse than sixth all year. That says more about the type of race I tend to do (small, local) than about the kind of year I had. To wit, I did not set any PRs or have any particularly standout performances. Still there were a few things I'll fondly remember about 2018:

Returning to races I hadn't done in years. I participated in the South County Fourth Season trail series for the first time since 2015, Run4Kerri and Li'l Rhody for the first time since 2014, and the Pfalz Point Trail Challenge for the first time since 2009. These are all special races, and I was so glad to be able to do them again.
Finding success at 4 miles. It's an odd distance, but it's the one I ran best this year, placing second at the Four on the 4th (21:18) in Bridgton, ME, and 6th at Run4Kerri (21:13). Both races are pretty competitive and were run in brutal conditions this summer, so despite just missing a PR, I could not have been happier with both outcomes.
Discovering some lingering speed. Generally, the shorter the race, the better I do, but I also realize that my fast-twitch is in rapid decline. So, I was a bit surprised to run a 4:37 road mile on the Bottone course without any specific training. While this is a low-key event, I nonetheless walked away more satisfied than after any other race this year.

Injuries

As mentioned in the opening, this was a relatively injury-free year. That doesn't mean it was pain-free, though. (Check out the injury heat map in the chart section below for data!) While I was able to keep anything major from creeping up and affecting me for long periods, I was reminded of a few chronic areas that are becoming as much a part of my running life as my Garmin losing signal on trail runs. I'll stick with the numbered list here for consistency, even though just two items probably doesn't merit one:

Right hip. Originally injured during an October half marathon in San Luis Obispo, this injury is now over two years old. I feel it on quite literally every single run. The pain is rarely severe, but, as my old boss used to say, "Something's fish." (He's not a native English speaker.) I took many months off to heal this when it was first injured, did PT, saw doctors, and nothing worked. So, I'm going to continue running on it as long as it doesn't get worse. [I also have a torn labrum in this hip that generally doesn't hurt when I run but probably needs to be addressed at some point.]
Right foot. A misdiagnosed Lisfranc fracture in 2003 left me with a dislocated bone and arthritis in my foot that only seems to cause pain when my mileage creeps into the 30s per week. This is an injury that won't ever go away, and, if nothing else does first, will be the thing that eventually gets bad enough to end my running career. I hope that doesn't happen for many decades, so for now it's all about managing the pain and keeping my mileage permanently low.

Some random year-end charts

None of these have any particular significance, but between Strava and my personal spreadsheets, I have lots of data that can be visualized. I wish I had more time to perform more interesting analyses, but these will have to do until I'm retired in 80 years.

Injury/Illness Heat Map, Mileage, and Weight, by week

Darker colors in the heat map represent a more significant injury in terms of its impact on my running. Fortunately, most injuries were short-lived and relatively minor. There's much more activity on the right side of my body, which is fairly typical. Note: I keep track of my weight just because I like numbers.

Given that I don't have a set running schedule each week, I was curious to see how things broke down across the days of the week. Not surprisingly, weekends are the big days, with more time and flexibility in my schedule. I didn't expect Wednesday to be next on the list and don't really have a good explanation for that. Note that this counts the number of runs, which means that race days, with their extra warm-ups and cool-downs, will get some degree of bump.

The data here reveals my tendency to just cross the Jeff Walker Strava Kudos Threshold of 5 miles on most runs. Most of the 0-4-mile activities are the WU/CD mentioned in the chart above. (Apologies for the unnecessary decimal places; I forgot to remove those.)

I have somehow accumulated running shoes to the point that I now rotate through 5-8 shoes at any given time. This makes my shoes last a long time (one pair I am currently using are older than two of my children) but also presents an interesting chart opportunity. You can see that I fell in love with my Hokas after getting them in March, while a couple other pairs were tolerated throughout the year but never rose to the top-dog level.

Strava Activity Pictures

I took hundreds of pictures on runs, rides, and other activities this year and tried to whittle that down to my favorite (or, in a couple cases, favorites) of each month. Most of these are from trips away from RI, for a variety of reasons.