New year, new (old) me

I am very thankful for the healing that has occurred in my body in the past 6 months. I have managed a big run focus in training in the last 3-4 months which is remarkable considering the injury I had and the deep mental ditch I was in a year ago from now. Last winter truly sucked and I began to feel I'd never run again, much less without pain. I continued to have hamstring awareness into late spring and really didn't have any momentum going into the summer. Then, I smashed three ribs. And, I stopped......everything physical. Had to, it was the most painful injury I've ever had. Hurt to do anything. So, I did nothing and this really helped my hamstring. I can honestly say that I started jogging with the broken ribs and haven't had to look back since. I ran my first 5K in a couple years in early November then ran more races after that and placed in all of them, crazy! I ran my biggest mileage this week that I have in several years (cannot recall so much in Ironman training even). Granted, I'm not the kind who can tolerate a lot of mileage so high to me is chump change to another but it is all relative. And, no, there is no Ironman in my future for now, not until I'm mentally ready. We went back to ride in the hills yesterday, first time since August '09 and boy, did it feel that way. In letting my hammy heal, I've really had to back off the cycling and I am really out of shape on the bike. But, I'm healthy and can certainly work on this! We have a hot January race schedule with Honeymoon Island adventure run next weekend, St Pete Beach Classic 10K the week after then Clearwater Halfathon (half marathon) to round out the month. Should be interesting and my focus is on the half marathon as I have left some suboptimal races on that course. Will be getting fully into multisport season in February with Chilly Willy duathlon as the focus. Bottom line is I'm healthy and excited that I can plan a season and train accordingly. I have a long way to go but going with a head of steam for sure. So, cheers to a healthy, active and successful 2011! I'm psyched!