November 2015 Mileage: Is this the High

Sometimes my tibia injury still hurts. Sometimes.  But mostly it is better.  This is a good thing.

You may have heard about how we went to a sale at REI, and I got some used $20 Hoka Stinsons.

I started making some big plans.  Big, big, plans.

Will's vocabulary sheet

We went on a camping trip to Pike National Forest, where I ran in the snow.

I hope to run a race here in the summer, when there will probably be less snow.

Then I ran a 45 mile week. I wasn't even thinking about it.  It just happened. I made a playlist based on the suggestions from Christina's blog and didn't even realize how far I was running.  I should have been keeping my mileage low until I'm sure the injury is gone.  It hurt again after that week, and I briefly thought I'd ruined everything.  But after 3 days of rest, it seemed fine again.

We had friends visit from Idaho for Thanksgiving, and we had tons and tons of snow.  I ran anyway.

The snow isn't helping me with my long term goals for 2016, which may include up to 3 trips to Arizona.

The first of these trips may actually happen at the end of 2015.  And that isn't too far away.  I hadn't thought I'd get in a long run this past weekend, on account of the snow, ice, and generally terrible weather.  But once I started, I felt like I could go forever.  I wished I'd brought some food and more than 20 ounces of water with me.

It occurred to me that this might be my one chance for a long run before the big, big race I still haven't registered for at the end of 2015.  The remaining weekends are full with other plans, and soon enough, it will be time to taper.

I hadn't run more than 13.4 miles at once since Bear Chase, and I decided it was now or never.  Snow or no snow, food or no food, I had to be selfish, I had to do this.  I came home for some Clif bars, Tailwind, and more water, and told Rob and Will I was going out for a few more hours.  I had to get 20 miles in.  Not like that is some kind of magic number, but maybe it would help me cross some kind of mental barrier, just knowing I could do that.  In the snow.

So I did.  It wasn't easy, but it wasn't necessarily hard either.  I just kept listening to the music and putting one foot in front of the other.  Slowly.  And sure enough, I made it 20 miles.

I still don't know if I'm really up to the challenge of those big plans looming on the horizon.  But I do think that if the weeks of injury following Bear Chase were a low, then this is the high.


148.55 miles in November.  Finally, getting somewhere.  My tibia seems to have survived two fairly aggressive back-to-back weeks despite what conventional wisdom would say about injury recovery.  1452.78 miles year to date.  If I only run another 47.22 in December, I'll make it to my arbitrary goal of 1500. That puts me way ahead of the game as compared to last year, when I was still 170 miles behind.  Anything could happen though.  I'm not going to say that my tibia injury is behind me, even though I wish it were.  I just need to listen, learn to be sensible, and keep my eyes on the prize.

Thanks for reading.