Ramping up. And coming back.

I wish I could tell that I'm back to normal for good but I think that I learned I'll never be able to tell for sure. As we say "enjoy while it lasts..." And, certainly, I don't take health for granted anymore and I'm more grateful after each run, even the tough ones.

In the meantime, it feels good to ramp up training, albeit at the end of the year, at a time I used to enjoy a good and deserved break. I had a few unplanned breaks from running this year so they will have to be my rest breaks...

After the DNF at Quad Dipsea, I've been running every single day but one, with 4 solid weeks, logging 75, 93, 89 and 86 miles respectively.

Last week I even ran 2 50K training runs, a flat one (through Shoreline) and a hilly and wet one to the top of Black Mountain.

And a third ultra training run this month, albeit a short ultra this Monday, before a few days in Tahoe for some skiing.

(If you wonder what the last diagonal represents at the end of the run, I had to ask Max for a pick-up to make for a Facetime call with the family at noon and was short of time for the last 2 miles... oops! ;-).

No pelicans at Shoreline this time, but many, many birds, way more than the few people I saw on the trail on that first morning after Christmas.

With that, I'm even on track to reach my symbolic 100 km/week goal again this year; I'm just missing 80 kilometers (darn leap year, it's adding 14K...), which I plan on running on the very last day of the year at the New Year One Day event put up by Coastal Trail Runs at Crissy Field in San Francisco. Within 6 hours so I don't ruin the family plans for New Year's Eve, quite an important requirement these days... No better opportunity for a food performance than not having too much time to spend on the course, but I hope the weather will collaborate. See some of you for quite a few loops on the trail in a few days then!