How to summarize an entire year in just a few paragraphs? Even if I just concentrate on track&field, trail running and cycling (which covers 95% of what this blog has been about recently), I could still fill pages.

My focus for 2017 was on trail running, both at local events and in the mountains. Trail races brought me to Southern Germany, France, Switzerland and Scotland. In 2015 and 2016, I first ran vertical kilometer races, and I expanded upon that by doing several “skyrunning” events in 2017 with distances of up to 29km with 2500m of elevation gain and loss. My longest race was 6 hours 47 minutes. I thoroughly enjoyed these races, even if some results were disappointing. No matter the time and placing, every single race I did resulted in expanding my comfort zone a little and allowed me to discover new and exciting places. In 2018, I hope to further spiral outwards and expand my comfort zone even more. I’m signed up for the Marathon du Mont-Blanc, which will be my first marathon. In the six month build-up, I hope to do several preparation races and then use the resulting fitness to tag a few more new or old locations over the summer months.

I ran a few indoor track races and one outdoor 100 meter in 2017, but the results were disappointing. I haven’t yet made up my mind on how much track work I should do in 2018, especially since our training group shrank somewhat over recent years, but I may sign up for an indoor competition in January to see if there’s any fast-twitch muscles left in my body.

2017 saw quite a few work commutes by bicycle, and I hope to expand on that in 2018; as long as it doesn’t interfere with my other training. Maybe I’ll also be able to use the resulting fitness to do a few more duathlons. I’ve done one cross duathlon each year in 2016 and 2017, and the format is an interesting challenge for me.

Overall, I did slightly less than 2000km of running (road, trails, track) and slightly over 2000m of cycling in 2017. I also walked or hiked almost 450km (which isn’t much). Elevation-wise, 2017 sits at over 53000m of elevation gain while running, and 18000m while cycling. All of those numbers should go up somewhat in 2018 if I manage to stay healthy and make good life choices with regards to my fitness, food intake and recovery.

It’s been an ongoing goal of documenting as much of my life as an “athlete” as I can. Most years, the actual execution of that goal left a lot to be desired. I feel like I made a few steps in the right direction in 2017 – I revived this blog, posted somewhat regularly on Instagram and probably took more photos during training and racing than ever. But I feel like there’s still a lot of potential for improvement.