Reflections

At the end of December I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on how my running had gone during 2012, but instead I procrastinated away all of January and am instead now fascinated by how pretty much wretched the winter has been for running in SLC.  Smog, smog, and more smog.

We have been thrown into a perfect cycle of inversion style running this year, which seems to be all about running on snow and ice high enough in the foothills to avoid at least some of the bad air -- and ironically this means driving to trailheads and thus adding to the pollution levels in the name of getting some fresh air.  I don't mean to sound whiny, but I have even gotten into the habit of running on a treadmill when the opportunity arises.  Oh, world, please give me some wind to push all this gunk away.

Instead of reflecting on last year, and rather than continuing to grump about the reality of the past month, I am beginning to look forward to the next year of running.  During the past few weeks my race plans have been shaped by a combination of lottery gets, lottery misses, and the fact that I can't surf the internet for more than about five minutes without looking at race calendars.  In addition to running a handful of races, I am hoping to spend as much of the summer as possible in the high country.  Ideally, I am going to spend the month of July running in the mountains of Colorado with my main goal being to not get struck by lightning.

Race Calendar:
Antelope Island 50km (March)
Double BoSho (April)
Bryce 100m (May-June)
Wasatch 100m (September)

Tentatively I am also thinking about running a 50 mile race toward the end of July -- perhaps the Grand Mesa 50 -- and may round out the year with a trail marathon in Moab.

P.S. It has once again occurred to me that I might be able to improve my running by reducing my beer drinking, but it has also once again occurred to me that it probably isn't worth it.