What I've been up to lately

So it's been almost two weeks since JFK and it's been quiet around these parts. What have I been up to, you ask? Well... not much, but here goes anyways:

Recovery: After my first 50-miler, I obviously needed some time to recover. Hell, I could barely walk a few hours after finishing the race. I did well though, so some time off was definitely well-deserved. My original plan was to do a reverse-taper where I slowly build my mileage back up over a course of 3 weeks. Hmm, well that plan works great on paper, but it turned out to work horribly in real life (did someone say communism?). It failed because...

Peroneal Tendon issues: What is up with my friggin tendons?! This is the 3rd -itis I've had this year. This one, however, is not the result of overtraining like my achilles tendinitis and posterior tibial tendinitis were. This -itis most likely came from one bad step I had during the Appalachian Trail section of JFK. At the time I thought nothing of it, walked it off and kept going. It wasn't until the next day that I really felt the pain. The sore tendon in combination with stiff legs caused me to nearly fall down the steps Sunday morning. I rested, iced, compressioned, elevated, etc'ed until Thursday when it finally felt better. Bad idea to run that early. A short 5.5-miler re-injured it and I was back to hobbling. Lesson learned. This week I waited 3 more days after it felt "good" before running. I just got back from a 9.5-miler and I feel great. Foot is fine. Back to normal? *fingers crossed*

Finding a new challenge: Ok. I can run 50 miles. Mission accomplished. Obviously I'm going to run more of them in '09, I love trail running, but I'm always looking for a new challenge to see just what I'm capable of. So, it looks like my next adventure will possibly be the...

Massanutten Mountain Trails 100: 100 miles. Oh yeah. '08 was my freshman year in ultrarunning (heck, running any sorts of distance greater than 5 miles) and it's been a great year. '09 is going to be the ultimate test though. MMT has a lottery entry system so I don't know yet if I'm in or not. Registration opened on Monday and so far there are 292 applicants for a field of 180 runners. We'll see how things pan out on Tuesday. Once again... *fingers crossed*

That's about it for now. I'll be running the Magnus Gluteus Maximus 50k next weekend, so stay tuned to hear how that goes. Until then, try not to overload yourself with Christmas carols and figgy pudding (seriously, does that stuff really exist?)