So now we're in 2011.  One great thing about regular exercise is that it increases your overall energy, helps you to sleep better, feel better, and makes it a lot easier to, well, exercise regularly.

Conversely, not exercising somewhere between "not much" and "not at all" for a couple years makes it nearly impossible to find the wherewithal to get up and run.  Too tired, too hot at work, no trails, don't want to run at night in San Francisco... whatever it was, it just got easier over time to find an excuse to not exercise.

Then, in the spring a coworker started rounding up a group of people to participate in the Tough Mudder race up at Squaw Valley in September.  I started running again.  Not jogging, but running.  Strides, tempo runs, etc.  Not exactly the right way to climb out of two years of not running.  It seemed to go well, up until it didn't, when I got sidelined by injury.  It was either a bad case of shin splints, or actual stress fractures.  I never bothered to go check it out with a doctor, because I knew the course of treatment would be the same for either one: rest, back off, stop running.

The problem was that I had an athletic mindset, but not an athletic body.  I was willing to put myself through some momentary discomfort in order to train hard, but was not thinking about the longer-term effects this approach was going to have.  So, humbled by the injuries and finally willing to adopt a more sensible strategy, I took a couple months off, vowing to go out slow and not worry at all about speed.  I started running again in August, and while I would often feel hints of the old shin pain, I could feel myself slowly getting stronger (as opposed to slowly getting hurt).

Flash forward five months, to my first ultra in 5 years, the Rodeo Beach 50k (the RD's report and some photos).  Not an awesome time as 50k's go (about 6:30), going from couch to 50k in that timespan, on an average of about 20 to 25 miles per week, I can't complain.  The race went exactly as I'd predicted, insofar as I knew what would happen the first 20 miles and after that all bets were off.  I slowed down a lot on those last ten, and in hindsight saw that in addition to the minor dehydration and cramping I experienced, I was also underfueled.  Still, I finished and had a great time in the process, which was the goal I'd set out with.

(By the way, Inside Trail does a great job with their events -- check 'em out!)