. *Warning: nonsensical ramble ahead. Just doing this for my own record. Best you move on otherwise you'll just get bored.* Now that the racing season is over, it's time for me to sit back and reflect on the year just past. Willie Jolley (who is nobody really significant as far as I can find out) once said "A setback is a setup for a comeback." This pretty much sums up the way I have been feeling of late. Rather than saying "one step forward, two steps back" I prefer to motivate myself by saying to myself "one step back, two steps forward". After most of 2005 was dominated by shin splints, I spent the entire summer off season running the soft sand of Bondi Beach and occasionally the grass of Centennial Park. My comeback to the road in early January was a failure with a flair up of the shins again. I think I Blogged at the time that I was going to take up golf LOL. Anyway, this meant that my transition from the months of soft surfaces to the road was going to be a slow one. So I walked/ran on the road for a few weeks and spun to keep fit. By the time the Australia Day Medibank Private race arrived I was pretty much over the shins splint problems and ready to race. To my surprise I ran the fastest I have ever run to date (4:33/km). It was also on that day that Don Juan reminded me (he first told me at the 2005 CR Drinks) that the only way to get faster was to lose the weight. So at 86 kgs I resolved to shed the flab. Thanks sincerely for that DJ. Today I'm 77kg (up from 75kg at C2S "eek") and can best summarize my racing year as follows:-

• 10 outright PBs
• 1 EB
• 4 course PBs
• Dropped my 10km PB by 3 mins from 45:57 to 42:56
• Dropped my 1/2M PB by 12 mins from 108:09 to 96:57
• Dropped my Nail Can Hill PB by 8 mins from 64:11 to 56:56
• Dropped my 2004 C2S PB by 30 mins from 94:11 to 64:31
• Increased my yearly mileage from 1051 in 2005 to about 1300 by end 2006

Needless to say I'm more than satisfied with my running this year as I have achieved so much even though my year was constantly interrupted by little injuries. I might winge a bit about injuries, but thankfully I have never really been hit by a biggie like a stress fracture or ITB Syndrome on the knees etc which seem to plague many new runners. This year I have had ITB, calf, quad, glute and achilles dramas, but I have been able to manage these niggles (thank God our fridge has an ice maker LOL) and still keep fit. Most importantly I have been able to run through most of these niggles as my body has grown and adapted to this new thing called running. A lot of credit must go to my Physiotherapist CoolRunner PhysioLarry. He knows his stuff, that's for sure. Highlights of the year have been numerous, but I always enjoy running Nail Can Hill down at Albury with my mate & part time CoolRunner Ripley. I love trail running and the challenge of "the hill" down there was awsome. I aim to expand my trail running to Woodford to Glenbrook (W2G) and Mt Wilson to Bilpin (W2B) in 2007. Another highlight must be the CoolRunning Community. How amazing is it to run regularly with so many friendly like minded people. I'm sure I would be sitting on the lounge doing my best Homer Simpson impression without CoolRunning ! Speaking of 2007, next year will mark my full marathon debut. As I have blogged previously, Ripley asked me a few months ago to run Canberra with him. Until then I was determined not to run a marathon until after I had run the W2G/W2B double - but to run my first marathon with a great mate also on debut, was just too great an opportunity to pass on. So now I'm embarking on my marathon training for Canberra in April in 2007 and can't wait to tell the truth. 2007 may not bring me the pile of PBs as it did this year, but I think that it will be even more exciting than 2006. Bring it on I say. Mood: --->

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