Closing Out 2016

I wasn't sure when or if I would get around to this post because I have had serious motivation problems lately. I woke up this morning intending to do it but then decided to do other work first including putting all the horses out to pasture for the day. In fairness I didn't put them all out, my brother-in-law put one out. So I finished and now here I am looking back at the past year or actually as the title says, Closing Out 2016.

Statistically the year would be considered a bust in some areas and a success in others as far as running and fitness are concerned. My weight, I won't even get on a scale, has certainly increased as I spent to much time using stress as an excuse to overeat and more importantly, eat the wrong things. Additionally my consumption of beer was to much for the amount of activity I was doing. I'm not going to make specific resolutions but I do hope to improve in all of those areas. All of this is connected to my knee injury that happened in October of 2015. I finally had to stop running in December and I had surgery to repair a ruptured meniscus and also what they call micro fracture surgery to "regrow" cartilage. I was on crutches for almost 8 weeks and did nothing except physical therapy. The day after I got off crutches I left and drove cross country to visit friends and family. It was a good trip that included some minimal walking that I didn't even document but near the end of the trip I decided to do a "race". It was an 8 mile trail run in Colorado that I walked in crazy adverse winter conditions. That was my first race of the year though and it felt good to get something under my belt. That was on April 30th and was the total of my documented "mileage" that month. I had a total of 36 documented walking miles up to that day.

I continued doing races even though I only walked them fast because I wasn't supposed to be running. I walked 3 more events through June and in June my walking mileage increased to 113 for the month. After that I walk-jogged a few races until I got to where I am mostly running them again. My first race that I decided I was going to attempt to run it all was August 21st in St. Louis and I did run the majority of it. I walked my next two in Colorado with friends and since September 17th at a race in Pleasanton I have been running and my training has been running.

For the year I participated in 20 Races bringing my total to 195 since turning 60. I documented 428 miles walking and 195 miles running for a total of 623 miles for the year.

My reading total was 65 Fiction and 46 Nonfiction books during 2016.

While this is a brief "Look Back" it serves its purpose of documenting my miles and my reading two things that I get a kick out of recording. My next post will be after the first of the new year when I am scheduled to race in Richmond, California. I hope to do a better job getting motivated to write this year as well as continue running, reading and visiting family and friends as time and money allows.