I get to say this one last time:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Yes, it is late in the day and most everyone has had their hangovers ease, thought again about all those resolutions you were going to make, eaten their fill of celebratory lunches and suppers, maybe even imbibed in too many drinks – again, watched college football and maybe even gotten off your arse and exercised a little to make good that first day promise to yourself.

I hope that 2019 is a great year and that you are able to meet the goals that are really important to you.

Mine are very simple this year.

Run over 1,500 miles

Eat mindfully and reduce the amount of carbs in my diet. Not a Keto diet per se, but more cleaning up and getting back to eating “real” foods. If it comes from a box, bag or wrapper, it probably is going to be something I avoid eating this year.

Buy less running related “stuff”. I don’t need the newest, greatest technology, shoes or other gear. I need “stuff” that is going to work for me, not anyone else. My running shoe rotation is a good one, I have enough running clothes for a while (as long as the stench doesn’t get too bad) and once I get my heart rate monitoring stuff figured out so that it is fairly reliable, I really don’t need a bunch of other stuff. In other words stay away from eBay, unless I actually need something to replace what I have when it is worn out or doesn’t work for my purposes anymore. ;-).

Use the K.I.S.S. Principle whenever possible. Keep It Simple Stupid.

Those are my resolutions this year.

Yes, I did run today and no, I am not going to go for a running streak this year. I will run until the body tells me it needs a day off and then I will take it. Life usually gets in the way of me keeping a long running streak going in any case, so I am not going to even think about starting one.

We had a small snow storm overnight and it meant that the roads were a mess this morning and it was just enough that I had to snowblow the driveways – it was a wet/heavy snow so it just took a while to do it. Then Bennie needed his long walk, but I got to walk with SD2 and her dog, about halfway down the hill. It was amazing the difference between out in front of the house and the other side of the hill – which was clear.

However, the roads around the house and down-back were still a mess, so I headed to Augusta and thought I might get a run outside down there. Unfortunately, when I got into town the breeze had developed into gale force winds. Even though it was sunny and the temps near 40*F, I decided that I didn’t feel like dealing with heavy winds after trudging behind a snow blower for over two hours.

So I got on the treadmill, did my .5 mile warm-up and figured I would get 4-5 miles in while working on keeping my heart-rate between 125-135 bpm. I was going to completely ignore my watch heart-rate and go only by the chest strap monitor that was displayed on the treadmill’s console.

I started the treadmill at 6.5 mph and was able to keep it there for just over 2.0 miles before the bpm touched 137 bpm three times – my cue to reduce the speed. I really think that this was my best heart-rate based run since I started. I went from 6.5 mph to 5.8 while keeping it mostly under 135 bpm.

My final total was 6.3 miles in 1:01:06, not very fast, but done without undue stress on the old body either.

I am seeing some progress using the heart-rate training methods and while I am not doing MAF training heart-rate guidelines, I am taking a lot from his Big Book on Endurance. It does have a LOT of good stuff in there, that I can incorporate into my running life and beyond.

A good start to a new year and one where I already have over 31,000 steps for the day, errr year. 😉

Yeah, a very good start, now to keep it going.