Bye 2017. It was fun racing in you.

I chose Cathe's PHA Training as my last workout of 2017.  And I feel this was a good choice, because this little low-impact heavy-ish weight gem gets your heart rate up and still kicks your sweet patootie.  I haven't done this one in a while, so it was a nice little surprise on this last day of 2017.

I bet you anything I will get a nice little surprise of sore glutes and arms tomorrow morning when I wake up, too.  That's just how Cathe rolls.  And here's how large dog rolls while I'm trying to do the ab workout on this DVD after all that weight lifting goodness:

He's just rubbing it in that dogs don't have
to work on their abs.  The jerk.

So that's how I'm ending my 2017-with a low-impact weight workout and a sleeping dog in my workout area mocking me with every snore.  But it wouldn't be an end-of-year post without a look back on my crazy year of running and cycling and love of my barbell now, would it?  So I took the liberty of making a small collage of my major races this year:

Here's the rundown for 2017 in terms of races:

• 6 marathons (Austin, Little Rock, Glass City (Toledo), Flying Pig (Cincinnati), Twin Cities, Chicago, Dallas)
• 3 half marathons (Christmas in July (Indianapolis), Schaumburg Half Marathon, and Batavia Half Madness Half Marathon)
• 2 duathlons (Freeport, IL and Muncieman Olympic Distance Duathlon)
• 4 Ragnar Relays (Tennessee, SoCal, Chicago, Great River)

And a smattering of 5Ks and 10Ks.

So what's on tap right now for 2018?  Well, I plan on doing a few less marathons and focusing on my training a bit more.  I am ultimately aiming for a sub-4 marathon, and that's going to require toning down the "OMG there's a marathon I MUST sign up for it" tendency I have.  I am also doing a half distance duathlon in June, so the cycling will add some much needed cross-training into my routine.

And if someone asks me to run on their Ragnar team, I will definitely not say no.

But I have to say that 2017 was a pretty good year for my running.  So even though I have to say goodbye to you, 2017, please remember that I had a lot of fun running in you.  So it's not you, it's me - I just have to move on to 2018 now.

And now for the final learnings of 2017:

• I am really going to buckle down and focus on my sub-4 marathon goal.  That not only means training, but also eating correctly so I can look like my fitness pipe dream.  Maybe.
• So of course I talk about eating correctly but guess who had red velvet cake for dessert tonight?
• In case you couldn't guess, it was me that had red velvet cake. I plan on eating lots of veggies tomorrow to cancel it out.
• But I did have a ton of running and fitness fun this year.  See everyone next year!

Tomorrow's workout: I have a New Year's Day race that is on the schedule, but they're calling for -21 wind chills.  So I may just stay home and do some mile repeats and eat lots of veggies instead.  Stay tuned for the resolution to that cliffhanger.