2016: A Tale of Two Years

2016 feels like two different years to me.  The first half I was going strong.  Six weeks into the year I did a reality check and I was consistently faster than I had been 12 months earlier.  I was getting Strava PRs like crazy.  We were living mostly in Hawaii, but I seemed to adjust pretty quickly to the heat and humidity.

In March I got my Hawaiian bike, Vita.  She and I spent many miles together.

Things continued going great into the Spring.  I ran the Ford Island Bridge 10k in April and the Bill Beauchamp 10k in May where I got 2nd in my age group.

We spent the last 2 weeks of May in Europe, which included mountain biking Mt. Etna and tons of walking and carbo loading.

Sometime during the summer I felt like someone drained all the energy out of my body.  In August I started training for the Honolulu Marathon.  I never ran more than 10 miles in the approximately 8 weeks that I "trained" for it.  Things were just off.  I had some knee pain, but I think I let it get to me more than it really was.  I limped along and probably could have recovered, but mentally I wasn't there.  I finally decided not to run the marathon and the relief I felt told me it was the right decision.

I had my annual physical this month and all my labs came back normal.  While this is good news, it's a little disheartening knowing the only thing wrong with me is that I am a 52 year old woman (ha!)  I have had some heart palpitations (no pain or dizziness, just extremely fast beating,) but my EKG showed no heart damage or previous heart attack.  My doctor felt this is hormone related (add it to the list.)  I'm doing my best to keep track of when these happen (which include during a bike ride, sitting at dinner, and during church.) 

My total miles for the year are lower than they have been in about a decade.  I am officially closing the book on 2016.  Tomorrow everything resets.  When I wake up I will have zero miles, the same as every January 1st.

Are you ready for a new start?  I sure am!