Note
2020 Year End Review, Part 1
I haven't felt like reviewing 2020 because it didn't feel like a real year of my life, let alone a year of real training, but I'll do it for record keeping purposes.
I got off to a big start by registering for 4 trail running races in 4 countries with 4 flights booked and one expensive, non-refundable hotel stay in Wales. Hahaha. I also registered for two adventure races closer to home. When they were all cancelled, I deferred everything that I could since I didn't want to take money back from race directors. I'm not sure whether I'll end up doing most of those events.
The racing season got off to a great start. Denise and I had what was probably our best-ever finish at the DGL Snowshoe Raid - 1st of 32 female teams and 5th of 80 teams overall. Browner and I won our category at the Stars Winter Adventure Race, and 'Bent and I won the Veteran category at the CNYO Snowgaine (with a big asterisk because our fellow Veterans, Bob Miller and Scott Ford, were awarded the overall medal instead of the category prize).
Injury-wise, it wasn't a great year. In early January, the back of my right heel started getting stiff and painful sometimes after running. A niggling pain is almost always there now when I push off on my foot. My guess is that it's insertional Achilles tendinopathy with bursitis. My AP log just reminded me that my heel also got banged hard while moving furniture in late January, which I'd forgotten. That aggravated the injury but I assume the setback was temporary.
I likely would have sought medical help and diagnostic imaging around the time that everything shut down. Given that the health care system was still catching up on more serious procedures after the spring, I didn't pursue it during the short window between the two pandemic waves when I would have felt comfortable going to multiple medical appointments. I tried some chiropractic treatments, which didn't improve it.
As a result, I sometimes took long breaks from running, and I did very few of my beloved long runs. I suspect they may be gone for good but I haven't given up hope entirely.
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2020 Training Hours by Activity + Report Card
(2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 totals in brackets)
**Boring to read unless you are Future Me.**
Total Annual Training Hours = 372 hrs, 2193 km, 36,774 m climb
(387.5, 333, 468.5, 495, 494.5, 470, 557*, 505*, 612*)
*2011-2013 training totals were inflated by overnight/expedition ARs.
I logged about the same number of training sessions as usual in 2020 but they were shorter on average. That actually surprises me since I felt like a sack of potatoes much of the time. 'Bent and I often log training hours during active vacations but that didn't really happen this year. I'd envisioned lots of free time and energy when everything was cancelled but it turned out to be a busy year between dental office admin work (lots of Covid emergency grant applications), being an executor of Mom’s estate, and home reno work.
Top Five Activities - 2020
1) Trekking - 84 hrs
Top of the list because my foot was often too sore to run.
(27, 17, 47.5, 10.5, 64.5, 38.5, 19, 17.5, 16)
2) Mountain Biking + Road Biking - 65.5 hrs
Also increased because I had to cut back on my running. I like mountain biking so this was just fine! I gave away my road bike, Princess, so there won't be any more road biking. I'll still probably call my trainer time "road biking" though.
(21.5, 45, 53, 33.5, 37.5, 34.5, 60, 77.5, 89)
3) Running + Snowshoe Running - 59 hrs
In 2019, my average time per run was just over 2 hours thanks to two ultras. In 2020, it was about 50 minutes.
(193.5, 145, 222.5, 250.5, 188.5, 204.5, 153, 190, 138.5)
4) XC Skiing (Classic, Skate) - 50 hrs
Best year in a long time and it would have been even better if the XC ski places hadn't been forced to shut down in mid-March when they still had great snow.
(45.5, 26, 20, 30, 60, 38, 45.5, 55, 28)
5) Strength + Yoga - 33.5 hrs
We have lots of home fitness equipment and I did some Zoom fitness classes during the first shutdown. I could/should do a lot more of this. Nothing could be more convenient during a Stay-At-Home order!
(21, 30.5, 59.5, 82, 65, 65.5, 52, 36, 30)
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Former Top 5 Activities that missed the 2020 list:
Paddling - 30 hrs
This included our canoe trip in Killarney (paddling + portaging) with Timato, K-Way, Mick, Laura and all the kids. I bought SUPs this year so we have multiple ways to paddle.
(33, 30, 32.5, 17.5, 22.5, 14, 48, 31, 74)
Orienteering + Snowshoe Orienteering - 30 hrs
The majority of this was snowshoe orienteering in the first two months of the year, thanks to the Snowgaine, DGL Snowshoe Raid and Stars W.A.R. We live a good distance away from most orienteering events so we've only done one event since the March shutdown.
(17, 23, 18.5, 36.5, 13, 57.5, 55, 66.5, 73.5)
Adventure Racing - 0 hrs
Thanks to Covid-19, there was no summer AR scene in Ontario. :(
(14.5, 8, 8, 18.5, 30, 0, 112, 26, 163)