 Oh, good morning. The lessons, the running lessons of 2019. There's been a lot of them. I'm gonna share with those with you here in a minute. I'm gonna save opening this box for another time, but right now I hope this is my knee strap. I guess is what I'll call it because remember at Walmart yesterday it did not fit. Let's just see here, it is. This is good news. Okay, so thank you. It's like I went to Walgreens, I went to Walmart, nobody had it. So had to resort to Amazon. Let's see if this fits. So this is gonna go on my knee. By the way, I'm gonna mark the spot again. It's a little more specific area. Today I'll get you the update here in one second. Let's open this up, see what this looks like. It was there. Oh, brilliant, okay. So the benefit of this one is it's a double strap. So because my leg is not the biggest in the world, not the thickest, I needed a double. I think this is gonna work. Okay, let me reposition the camera here. I'm gonna mark the patella. This is where the pain started in the blue area. And now the pain has definitely shifted. So it's really, I'm actually gonna be a little more precise in the location. It's the worst pain right now is right in this red circle right here. Okay, and last night, the knee felt amazing. After the pool, after the sauna, and then this morning it felt pretty good, but I must say it does not feel good right now. So it's, oh man, is it sharp? That is the question. Like I guess I would put it closer to the category of a little sharper than let's say dull, which is usually not a good sign. But anyway, all right, let's try this strap here. Well, we will see everyone. It's probably on too tight right now, but I just wanna see. Okay, anyway, we're just trying everything. As you know, I'll continue to keep you updated. So there's the spot, but all right. So I don't know if this really is gonna do much since the pain has shifted a little bit, but all right, lessons in the studio. Onward and upward. How was your weekend, everybody? How was your 2019 craziness? 2020 is almost here. I love this time of year. I don't know about you, but I enjoy learning from the past so that I can apply those lessons to the future. And every year, I don't know about you, but I like to set very specific goals for my running. And I'm not gonna evaluate quite yet. I'll do that probably like five days from now. Evaluate my 2019 goals, whether I met them or not. And then also look again to the future, setting new goals for 2020. But in order to set new goals for the future, I have to personally look to the past, look to the past 365 days and just see some lessons that jump out at me from my training, from my racing, from my injuries, from listening to all of you in the comments. Oh, there's so many ways that we can learn from our achievements, but also maybe some of our mistakes or our mistakes and challenges along the way. So that's what we're talking about today. I'm gonna give you my five lessons, some of them challenging, some of them positive, okay? That I think, yeah. And some of the, yeah, some of them motivational and inspirational for me personally to keep moving in the forward direction for 2020. So here we go. Number one, lesson number one from 2019. And these are pretty specific. So I hope they can be applied to you on moving forward, especially if you're a newer runner and you're just like trying to figure out what is this crazy sport of running? Like how do I even train? How do I stay healthy? Hopefully I can do better in the new year with health. I'll talk about that in a minute, but lesson number one is you remember getting ready for the Cleveland Marathon. Keep the training blocks shorter for me. So my training block going into the Cleveland Marathon ended up being about 18 weeks. That was too long. And some marathon runners do that. And I was new to marathon running. I was, remember, I was transitioning from the trails big time. I had never run a marathon before 2019. So I was transitioning to the roads and I was still like tinkering and figuring out, okay, what does a really solid marathon training program look like? And it turned out for me health-wise because I actually did not arrive on the starting line healthy in Cleveland. In case you didn't know, I ended up with a stress reaction in the meta-tarsal of my left foot, the third meta-tarsal. So that was right about week, about week 14 of the, 13, 14 of the 18-week training plan. So now I am, and I'm still, again, I'm still tinkering, but now moving forward, I'm looking at that 12 to 14 week window for a marathon buildup, okay? So that is, that's lesson number one for me. And it was a great lesson because I think, yeah, it was just a great lesson having no experience at really, really specific marathon training. Okay, so lesson number two, which is no surprise to many of you, but it also, it probably connects to, well, it connects to lesson number one, but it hopefully can be a little bit of a light to folks out there who are interested in exploring. Remember, I'm really happy I made this vlog maybe two months ago now, finding your running niche. So N-I-C-H-E, sometimes it's pronounced just niche, I believe, so niche is how I pronounce it, meaning what area in the running world are you most interested in that makes you most passionate. So you've got cross-country, you've got track, you've got road running, ultra running, vertical alpine running or vertical Ks, you've got, and then even within road running, you've got road miles, you've got the marathon, of course, you've got ultra running on the roads. So there's a lot of different genres of running that we can explore as runners. So lesson number two for me is I should have been, should have been a little more vigilant of making that transition from trails and mountain vertical running to the roads. Now, I think I did pretty well from, let's say, Pike's Peak to Amsterdam, but I must say my knee injury right now, I think just, my thesis everybody, is that my quad muscles got quite a bit smaller over the past two months because I wasn't getting as much vertical gain, basically since Amsterdam. I haven't been up to the mountains for a lot of vertical gain. And like, if you look at my legs, I just, I look at my legs every day and they are smaller compared to before Amsterdam when I was getting between three to 8,000 feet of vertical gain. And then even in summertime, I was getting, you know, five to 10 easily, vertical gain per week, which means my quads were really strong. So then I cut out that vertical gain pretty much exclusively after New York City because the snow arrived in the mountains. And anyway, I think that led to, partially is what led to this knee injury. So lesson number two, being a little more vigilant when it comes to transitioning from one niche of running to another. So keep that in mind if you're thinking of going from track to roads or from, I don't know, really from anything to anything, just be really conscious of how your body is feeling and reacting to the newer training, the new surfaces you're running on. I'll leave it at that. That's a big one. I like that one. That's a, whew, oh man. Okay, we'll leave it at that. Lesson number three is, oh, the tough one that I'm always saying, if you wanna be a faster runner, it's not necessarily running more or running even faster workouts. I'd make the argument, if you're looking at the big picture, lesson number three, carving out more time, time for the little things. The mobility exercises, the ankle exercises, the stretching, the foam rolling, all of that stuff, that cross training, that strengthening, all of that, that stretching is what I need to continue. I think I did actually pretty well in 2019, but I wanna do even better in 2020 in order to what? Avoid injuries, because as they say in football, you can't make the club in the tub, meaning if you're hurt and you're sitting in the hot tub or the cold tub as a football player, you're not out on the field practicing. Well, right now, with my knee injury, I'm not making the club. I'm still trying to figure out if I can race Houston. So that's lesson number three, carving out, whether it's like when you're watching your Netflix or watching your favorite sports team, you're not in the lazy boy, you're down on the ground doing the little things to make sure you're staying as healthy as possible. So it doesn't mean, yeah, it's just like being creative in, or even at your office, like during lunch break, ask your boss, like, can you bring a foam roller to the office and do a little foam, like do 10 minutes of foam rolling and stretching on your lunch break in your office. Whoa, whoa, throwing it out there. Okay, that's lesson number three, lesson number four. Here we go, here we go, this is where it gets fun. Continue to dream big. And I know that's cliche, very cliche, but I wanted to do very, very, very, very well, very good, very solid at the Pikes Peak Ascent in 2019. And I wanted to go for the win at the Pikes Peak Ascent. Ended up in second, but along the way, I cut, I went from a 221 PR to a 212 something change. So basically about eight or nine minute PR in a two year period for the Pikes Peak Ascent. That's a good solid chunk of time to cut off of any race, okay, eight or nine minutes, feeling good about that. But then, yes, I know, chasing Michael Butter and the rest of the crew in Amsterdam, that experience of running 106 high, I'll just say, I'll just say 107. I never thought in my mind mentally, 365 days ago, that I would ever be close to running a 106, 107, half marathon and it was in a marathon race. It was, I gotta keep dreaming big, I cannot stop. This is exciting and I know I blew up, I know I hit the wall at, you know, basically like miles, 16, 17, 18, but it gives me hope to keep dreaming big and that's why I wanna run at least one fast half marathon in 2020, okay? And I'm just gonna put it out there right now, I'm not afraid to do this. I wanna win a Pikes Peak Race, all right? That's one of my goals for 2020. I'll share more of my goals in about five days from now. So whether it's the Ascent or the marathon, okay? So that's lesson number four, continue everyone, continue to dream big and be patient. It's this running thing, it's not a month by month, it's not a training block by training block. It's barely, frankly, even year by year. It's like, I continue to think in more of like that two to three year window, like how can I get better over the next two to three years? Two to three years without patience and consistency. And lesson number five, a little unexpected for me is seek out and find that support group. For me, my natural support group is of course my family, true love, eventually I hope the boys, as they continue to see me run, I hope, you know, I hope, but we'll see, maybe they wanna play baseball or whatever, that's fine with me, but I hope they continue to be interested in the sport of running. But really the family is my support group through the injuries, the injuries, through the tired legs, through the pain of maybe not hitting a goal in a race. So find that support group, maybe it's your local club, okay? Maybe it's an actual team, whether it's cross country or track or we're all busy. Maybe it's D'Amore Global Running on Facebook or Strava. Seriously, there's a lot of great conversations happening there. And of course, down in the comments, which we're gonna get to the QD in a second. So that's my lesson number five is seek out and find that support group. And I don't know, we'll see if something more tangible evolves in the running space here in Denver for me personally in 2020, but at the same time, I'm also a realist and everyone's busy, everyone's going a million different directions. And so that's where again, the family and the D'Amore Global Running has really become my support group. So I'm excited about it. I'm excited about it for 2020 to continue to talk to all of you, to meet all of you at races and do group runs together. Oh, question of the day. What is your number one lesson from running, from training, from racing in 2019? If you wanna break it down over maybe it's three lessons, I did five, but if it's three lessons, that's fine too. But if you only, if you have one, that's great. Share down below, this is critical as we continue to build toward the new year. Onward and upward. Thank you for being here. Thank you for watching. And you know what? Of course, I'm gonna toss it back to my six goals from 2018 is when I set the goals. So one year ago, and then also I'm gonna toss it back on the left to how to build a training plan on the left. All right, there you have it. See beauty, work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow.