I rang in 2020 as most grumpy, middle-aged people do: cursing those who set off fireworks at midnight. The Nomads’ annual Greet the Dawn on McBee was a 7:00 a.m. meetup, meaning I had a 5:30 a.m. wakeup. I enjoyed neither. But my hike up, and run down, McBee was a great way to start my year.

Last Saturday was the 2nd annual Kim’s Bad Knee 5K. Once again, people seemed to enjoy to stupid frivolity, so I imagine I’ll be hosting it again next winter. I certainly enjoyed coming up with the twistiest course I could find; I enjoy this course so much I plan to keep it as the course in the future, as well.

Today is Day 1 of training for Millersylvania 50K. This is my second attempt at a 50K, and if I complete it it’ll be my first. With just 1500′ of elevation gain & loss, it looks like a pretty forgiving 50K. I’m using the same training plan I used when I trained for the Badger Mountain Challenge 50K in 2017. BMC50K has far more elevation gain & loss, so while I’m using the same training plan I am taking a different approach. Most of my long runs will not be on beast hills like the BMC course has. I may switch out weekend long runs for skiing or snowshoeing. I plan to have as much fun as I can. I really want to finish Millersylvania 50K, but I don’t want to kill myself training for it.

One challenge is going to be working around the work I need to do to get my parents’ house ready to sell. We’re heading over to the island this weekend, and I’m supposed to run 5-8 miles on Saturday. My plan is to stop by South Whidbey State Park on my way to the house and do my run, then meet Jim at the house to get to work. Fortunately, Sunday is a rest day.

Juggling training & working on the house is motivation to get the house on the market as soon as possible!

I’m also looking forward to hiking this summer. I haven’t selected the dates yet, but in August I will hike Section K of Washington’s PCT (I’ll be stopping at High Bridge & going to Stehekin instead of continuing on to US 20). My hope is the training for Millersylvania 50K will get my body in good enough shape to do the hike. To that end, some of my “active rest” or “easy” run workout days will be hikes instead of runs. Section K is kind of scary because unlike the trail south of US 2, there aren’t any easy ways out; once you’re on the trail, you’re either going all the way to High Bridge or you turn around & return to Stevens Pass.

I have some fun runs on my calendar – Twilight 12 Hour again (it sold out in 47 minutes!) and Run with the Goats (sold out in less than 24 hours), and a 6-hour run I’ve not done before. I need my body to do serious work this year, but I really want to have fun while doing it, too.

So let’s hear it for a healthy, happy, adventurous 2020!