Closing Out the Year

The Last Week of the Year
First off, Christmas was a blast! I got up and met some guys from church at 5:30, and we ran 10 miles along the Creek Turnpike and Riverside. They are a great bunch of guys, and I would run with them more if I wasn't already committed to the RunnersWorld group. During the run, Mark quoted the first 20 verses of Luke 2, which he had memorized - a perfect passage for Christmas morning.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
{Luke 2:8-14 KJV}

At 11:00 I ran with the RunnersWorld group. Vicky, Brian, Jeff, and I did about four miles or so, and the rest of the group did around three miles. It was a nice easy run.

Since then I have run twice. On Saturday we did a nine mile run just after the storm blew through. Temperatures dropped from about 70 to about 40 during the run, and my hands froze. I was running with Fred, Rusty, Bill, and Larry most of the way, but in the last couple of miles Fred just blasted off! I tried keeping up, but ended up lagging behind a bit. It was a good run.

I knew I was already starting on a cold before than Saturday run, but it hit me kind of hard on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday I felt good enough to run again, and I got in just under six miles at an 8:30 pace, and it felt pretty easy. That was the last run of this year. Next run probably will be New Years Day on the hilly roads of Ozawkie, KS.

Training Miles
My running log says I did 1734.6 miles in 2008. That is over my goal of 1600. It would have been more, except I cut back on my running in October due to quadriceps issues and in December due to knee issues. I am ready to come back strong in January. My longest training run was 52.6 miles, which I did with Ken. Kathy also ran with us, but she wimped out at mile 33 because she was still weak from the flu.

Racing
As far as racing in 2008, I think my highlight was pacing Kathy for 40 miles in the Mother Road 100. I ran two marathons this year - OKC in 3:59:06 and Rt 66 in 3:57:10 (new PR!). I PRed in the Tulsa Run 15k by about three minutes with a 1:10:19. I also PRed twice in the 5k in 2008. The first was Race Into the New Year in 23:32, and the second was Day Ohn Day in 22:27.

Sickness/Injury
In late February/early March I came down with bronchitis, which took me out of the six hour snake run and also slowed me down in training for a while. Then I did really well until sometime in September when I strained my quadriceps while running hills and started having issues with my right hip and knee. It made me cut my training in about half for about six weeks. I recovered in time to pace Kathy and to do the Rt 66 marathon, but I can't help but think it hurt my time some. Then just before Thanksgiving I did something to tweak my left knee. I again cut way back on my running. It is still a bit sore, but it is getting better, and I think I will be back to normal real soon.

Looking to the Future
I am still hoping to qualify for Boston in the fall or next winter. That's really my only running goal for the year. To accomplish that goal I hope to increase my mileage to 1800 or so for the year. I also am thinking I may add some medium long runs during the week, something like 8 to 12 mile runs on Monday or Tuesday mornings. I may also start riding my bike a little more to cross train. I will try to keep my long runs at a slower pace, at least at the beginning of the run. And I will resist the temptation to run hills too fast.