Last September I posted my race report for my first 50 mile ultra distance running race, the Georgia Jewel, to suddenly vanish from the blogging world. I really am uncertain what happened, but I just suddenly felt the need to unplug from the blogging world and let myself disappear.
Last year I embraced distance running and found myself pushing my limits further. I found myself running 80-90 mile weeks to prepare for numerous ultra distance and timed races, finishing roughly six 50k races, a 50 mile race, two 12 hour races for 37 and 32 miles and a 24 hour race for 55 miles. Race wise things were looking good, but my personal life took a toll as I spent hours of every day running, striving to improve.
My 7th and final 50k for the year. I was an hour slower than my prevous slow time on this course, I knew my injury had to be addressed.
Besides the hours spent running, I found myself struggling with a new nagging injury. At the end of the Midsummer Nights Dream Ultra I ran a whopping 55 miles, exceding my previous distance maximum of 37 miles. My body was wrecked. As I packed up I attempted to lift a heavy table into my vehicle and felt a funny sensation in my back. At first I was able to ignore it and I could run with an ample amount of ibuprofin. At my final ultramarathon distance race of the year, The Tortoise and Hare 50k, I found myslef progressing an hour slower than last years race time. The entire race I felt a pain shoot down my leg, originating from my glutes. Usually a few ibuprofin quited this pain, but finaly my body had enough.
After that race I decided to take some time off, finishing the year with 1990 miles of running and a long list of accomplishments. But the distance and hours and finally injury took its toll in the end and I found myself finishing the year nursing an injury that seemed to never go away. On top of the fatigue and injury, I battled with my weight, often finding difficulty in dropping below 290 lbs. With little activity and little change in my ultra running training diet I found myself ballooning back up into the 310 lb range by the end of the year. As 2015 gave way to 2016 I celebrated an amazing year of athletic acomplishment mixed with anger and upset over the end of the years dissapointing conclusion.
In Part 2 I will continue with summerizing 2016 and some of the changes and challenges faced as I adapted to my ever changing and evolving understancding of myself as an athlete.
Chatter Gets Fit 
Good to “see” you! I’ve wondered what you were up to. I took a break too.. in fact, I switched blogs altogether but don’t post often!
I wondered what happened to you as well, things grew quiet…
Welcome Back! Sorry to hear about the injury. I hope it has been resolved and you are back at 100%.
Working on getting healed up, but there is a part 2 coming that will cover this year and what I’m up to.
Welcome back brother, you were missed.
Thanks man. Looks like things are going well for you these days.
They are, thanks. Heal fast, man.
[…] last Thursday’s post I hurriedly summarized the end of the year and circumstances that developed as I headed into the end […]
Welcome back, Chatter. I was a little worried about you when I posted on your blog and social media and didn’t get a response. Kudos to you for coming back with all your success. Congrats on the losses and the gains. Good to hear from you.
http://runwright.net
Thank you. Its really easy to get into a deprecion when you take away things you are so reliant on.I almost hit that point. Just decided in the end to go to my corner and regroup and come back when I was ready. Miss this blog sphere. Hope everything is ok with you.
[…] my quick 5 minute summation detailing my recent blogging sabbatical (detailed here and here) I mentioned the effects a lower back injury has had on my running goals for the year, […]
[…] therapy had a plan to get myself back to running by the end of the year (most of this recap is in my previous post here and here). In the early months of the year I felt very optimistic about a quick rehab and return […]