It was the best of times:

• 1st place NOVICE category at the 3 hour Briar Chapel mountain bike race
• 1st place (1st ever running race win!) at the Xterra Beech Mountain 5k
• 7th place overall at the MST 50k
• Pacing Jason to 1st overall at the Umstead 100
• 7th place overall and a 26 minute PR at Uhwarrie 40
• 1st overall in the Tough as Trails race series

It was the worst of times (not really!):

• Feet totally fell apart after 83 miles in 100F heat index weather at Hinson Lake 24 hour (but I still ended up 9th)
• First ever DNF at the Bryce Canyon 100

So all in all a solid year.  Most ever miles run (since I started tracking):

(I’m pretty sure 2014 has all the data, prior to that Strava does not.)

Elevation fell off a bit but the 75 miles on the ATT run in 2015 and a couple 14ers was the difference.  Pinhoti in November didn’t hurt, either!

For all activities:

Sure hope 2017 holds more paddling!

Looking back at last year’s year in review post, I wrote:

Looking at 2015 I see some of the same problems I had in 2014 — I need to work heavily on strength, especially leg strength and core strength, to improve my running.

In 2016, beyond strength, I will continue to work on my mountain biking.  I also somehow need to work on mobility — some kind of movement practice like MoveNat or the Mobility WOD or even getting back to some yoga.  Something to reverse some of the “damage” just running and riding cause!

I did not do great with strength work — it fell off a fair bit after a strong-ish start early in the year.   The mountain biking picked up a bit though not in total miles (759 in 2015 vs. 568 in 2016), but in time spent with R2 on the trails so that was perfect.  (If Leadman is ever going to happen – maybe when I’m 50? – I need to seriously pick up the bike miles.  But right now I’m focused a bit more on running.)

I still have serious work to do on mobility, especially in the right SI -> Hip -> Knee -> Ankle chain, which has always been my “achilles.”

What’s on tap for next year?  Uhwarrie 40 in February and Mountains to Sea 50k, as part of the Tough as Trails series.  I’ve already lost significant time in this year’s series as I did not have a good run at the Eno River 11 miler.  That was in the middle of my “month off” so I ran it w/o looking at my watch.   I’ve still got 71 miles to make up some time, but a repeat as 1st overall seems doubtful right now!

Beyond that, KB, R2, and I all signed up for Hinson again in September.  I’m not sure if I’ll make that an A race or not.  I’ve got the Bryce monkey on my back which may need to be taken care of in June– but I’m going to wait until after Uhwarrie and/or the MST50K to make a decision on that.  It won’t be a big family trip this year — it will be a “business” trip to knock it out.

Cheers to all on a happy and healthy 2017!