Hey all, long time, no post. For those that have followed me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you know that I was injured at the end of June this year. It took some time to heal (and I purposely took off more time that I needed) and, in the meantime, I didn't just sit around and do nothing (Well, not everyday at least).
I moved to biking in July and started using my old road bike and my old mountain bike. I used to ride my road bike thousands of miles years back when I was in school. The injury was both a blessing and a curse. No running but lots of biking. And by the way, biking costs so much more!!!!
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| My 25+ year old mountain bike |
I wanted to run again however this time I couldn't. Fortunately I fell back in love with biking and bought myself a cross bike. I figured I'd ride my old bike until I was sure I was going to get into biking again.
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| Specialized Crosstrail - an awesome all around bike! |
I was able to get my endurance on the bike up to 50 miles and was pretty happy with that. I even rode to work in the Summer several times. Given the distance you need to cover on a bike to make it equivalent to a run, I got to explore some new places and some great trails and parks that I never would have seen from running. I even did a bike race as well as a tour this year for the first time and it was so fun!
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| Beat the Trail group ride - a 34 mile course through Detroit (and it's awesome) |
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| Tour De Troit - did this with a couple friends and was super fun |
Then I liked it so much, I decided to buy a Fat Bike. This was not only so that I could get back onto the trails that I loved running but also so I could bike all year long. I had a little mishap at the end of October and fell on the bike and bruised some ribs. Wow! It took me out for 4 weeks - no running or biking of any kind for the majority of November.
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| Addison Oaks mountain bike trails |
It's been quite an adventure but I love having the option of biking in the Winter. For those of you that have not tried it, it's really a fun sport riding on the snowy trails.
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| The Specialized Fatboy Fat Bike |
I also added snowshoeing into the mix to help do some cross-training. I really plan to focus more on cross-training this year to help keep me from injury. Not only is snowshoeing really fun, it's a great workout as well.
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| The snow has been plentiful for snowshoeing this season. |
Finally, I also got back to running but only December has been a little more regular. I've built back to about 3.5 miles per run and continue to get stronger everyday. I hope to be back to 100% by late Spring/Summer.
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| Finally some running too |
I ended my year with 1,442 miles on the bikes and 786 miles running. I'll take it for a year when injury was the theme. The best thing that came out of this was that I now have two primary sports to focus on for next year. Maybe I should start to swim?
My goal for 2018 is to get back to more regular running and get my distance back to the half marathon. I'll likely not run a marathon or longer distance again but I do love the challenge of the half marathon and I can do the training for this while still being able to ride the bikes regularly too. I've missed out on a lot of running races this year so hopefully I'll be back with a few reviews for some new races next season but we will have to see about that next year.
Hope you all had a great year. With my injuries, I'm very happy 2017 is over and am looking forward to a much better year in 2018.
Have a great day and.....Keep Running!!!! (and Biking!)
