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Monthly Summary – December 2010

Here’s December 2010:

Swim: 13,889 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 88.5 miles
Cycling (indoors): 2:55 (hours)
Run: 22.8 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 11 sessions

Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 32:45 hours

Weight: high 160s/low 170s.  A little heavier than I’d like to be right now, but only a little. 

December. Hmm. It definitely wasn’t the month I expected. But I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. I pushed the run too hard in November and learned that lesson again the hard way. The little hip pain that started bothering me around Thanksgiving only got worse as I continued to run on it and, as it turned out, my last run of the month was my 10k PR on December 11 at the Santa Monica Venice Christmas Run. Here’s a picture of me coming towards the end from the race:

Now it’s been 20 days and I haven’t even tried to run. I know my hip/low back/glute/whatever just “isn’t right” so I’ve spent the last three weeks concentrating on stretching and strengthening. I’ve been on the elliptical 4-5 times per week and doing regular short strength training sessions. I’ve also been trying to re-discover my swimming and cycling. The last time I swam or biked anywhere close to the amount I did this month was January. (Not that this month was even that big a month for either, really.) I sorta feel my swim form starting to creep back; the bike still has a ways to go.

The biggest thing this month though has been my radiation. I’ve got 13 sessions under my belt, and 15 to go. Over the last week my stomach has taken a little turn for the worse and I get really tired during the day. I still have decent energy in the morning but by mid-afternoon I’m really sleepy. I’m very interested to see how I feel after another week.

And where am I now with running? I want to give myself another week or two before I start running at all. And then I’ll start slow. Start over.

I finished the year off with an evening hike in Runyon Canyon with Charlie and Gus. (Disclaimer: this picture is from a hike a few weeks ago, but it’s still a good one!)

Annual summary to come within a couple days! Happy New Year to all!!