Tuesday, January 7, 2014

2013 In Review

I compiled my running statistics from 2013.  While I ran over 300 miles more than I did in 2012, I did fall just short of 2000 miles for the calendar year.  All told, I averaged 36 miles a week, ground down three pairs of shoes, and ran 267 out of 365 days (time totaled as running time adds up to just over 11 straight 24-hour days).  So that's 98 days of being worthless.  Awesome. Here is a breakdown:

January: 208 (21:15)
February: 142 (18:56)
March: 184 (24:55)
April: 167 (21:59)
May: 205 (27:17)
June: 225 (36:13)
July: 153 (28:57)
August: 121 (21:03)
September: 139 (22:44)
October: 149 (19:18)
November: 130 (17:12)
December: 63 (7:53)
Year: 1882 (266:42)

I could stand to be more diligent this year.  I am still in the process of learning to just love running for what it is.  I hesitate to commit to too much racing for fear of getting caught up in it and losing sight of what is important.  The inverse of that is if I have nothing ahead on the calendar for which to train, I tend to be lackadaisical.  I think a small handful of challenging races in the company of good friends spaced evenly throughout the year is the ideal approach to this conundrum.

Here's to the new year.  

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Looking Forward to 2014

2013 ended on a busy note and 2014 has begun much the same.  Elizabeth accepted a position in Boise, ID starting next week.  We moved her out there right before Christmas.  We continued from Boise to the Pacific Northwest for holiday visits with her family.  We spent Christmas Eve with her mother in Chehalis, WA and moved north along I-5 to spend Christmas with her father in Tacoma.  I ran a couple times along the water in Chamber Bay.  Running is a thing I have lavished little to no time upon recently.

Currently, I am a man displaced.  I have not found a job in Boise, and thus have stayed behind in Wyoming until I can procure employment.  However, we did move out of our house in Laramie, leaving me to commute from Cheyenne on a daily basis.  This is a terrible time of year meteorologically to commute those treacherous fifty miles, but my situation made finding housing in Laramie impossible.  I moved into the basement of the house owned by my old friend Chris Schabron.

I have a quandary on my hands.  That pesky thesis of mine is still non-extistent, and I would like to finish it and be truly over and done with it so I can move on from it.  However, I would like to be in Boise as soon as possible.  I am quite taken with Elizabeth.  She has been nothing short of a blessing and I love her deeply and would like to begin making a life of our own in a different place.  Laramie has had and always will have too much baggage to be absolutely happy.  There is something in the water here...crazy sprouts amongst the populace like fungi sprouting from a rotting tree stump.

If a job comes along, I will take it.  I'll figure the thesis schedule out later.  I need to get out of this town and state for now.  And work on a life with the greatest woman I have had the good fortune to encounter.  Thank goodness for her.

Running is there. It's just not the focus.  I do still have goals and desires, but I want to move on with the other things in life.  Boise has a fantastic running scene.  That will sort itself out with time.

To 2014.  And maybe a different name.  Don't suppose I will be on the high plains anymore.