My 'best of running ' 2008

Not in any particular order.

• My running partners. It's wonderful to have running partners that are great friends.
• I ran 4 races of marathon distance or longer. I enjoyed all those events, the good parts and the bad.
• The Afton Trail Run 50K. I ran this one by heart rate, and it took a long time, but I finished it. I had a great time and I'll run it again.
• The Fall 50 Relay in Door County. Five people and only 50 miles so we started in the morning and finished in the afternoon. All you can eat/drink pizza/beer after the race.
• The Fall 50 long sleeve cotton shirt. My favorite long sleeve shirt of the year. I wear it all the time while my Fargo and Twin Cities marathon shirts go unworn. My favorite short sleeve cotton shirt was from the Bear Water Run 10 mile race.
• The Afton 25/50K T-Shirt. Best short sleeve technical shirt of the year. Awesome design.
• I met my goal of running 2000 miles this year. Over 1000 more than last year.

I look forward to more good things in 2009.

--Mark

ouch

My running is quickly tapering down to nearly zero miles per week. I went to my Dr. last week to have a painful bump looked at that is on the bottom of my foot. Seems to be a plantar wart. I'll see her next week too and then a different Doctor during the third week in January. I think it 'started' about 4 weeks ago. Due to the stress on my feet from ramping up to 60+ miles per week? Maybe. Due to the drier weather and my foot skin 'cracking' a bit? Maybe... Better put some lotion on those dogs. The good thing is that it's not painful all the time..... only when I walk or run. :-) I need to mostly switch over to non-running activities. I can tolerate some time on the treadmill so I hope to keep running at least a few miles a week but this will give me a chance to crosstrain.

Non-running activites I'm switching over to are spinning and weight training and I may even try the eliptical machine.

I can see this painful little thing affecting my winter to spring/summer running. I think I'll skip the Securian Half Marathon, I may do a half marathon instead of the Eau Claire marathon on May 3. Not sure of anything until this pain goes away.

--Mark

Back to the treadmill

I've been running outside since last winter. This morning's near zero temperature with a windchill near -8F were cold enough for me to get back on the treadmill for an hour. There is definately an adjustment period when hitting the treadmill again after several months. The weather forecast shows some cold days ahead for the middle of next week. I may be on the treadmill then too.

Some of my running partners had planned to run long this morning. They braved the cold and ran 21. I waited for them at the club to finish. They were a little 'frosty' but were in pretty good shape with no frostbite.

--Mark