2018 Wrap Up

2018 was a pretty crazy year as I look back on it.  Just like 2017 was, capped with another 6 week trip to Australia in the fall for work.  Way less stressful though.

Work was pretty insane with a trip to Boston, Princeton NJ and 2 trips to Dallas plus the Australia trip.  All told I think I had near 80 hours of work flying alone covering what was 37 or 38 business days on work travel.  No wonder I have have only used half my vacation for 2018 so far so I've gotta burn 3 more weeks in January thru March.  Major project at work started in February and looks like will push on into May/June of 2019.  2 Manager changes, and a position change coming in early 2019, to a new role.   Exciting stuff hope to be in UK in 2019.

Biking.....Well it's been a rainy year and add in the travel and I lost close to 2 months due to Australia and work travel.  Only biking 1x in Australia was a let down but it was the rainy spring while i was there.  And I apparently brought the rains from Northern VA.  :)  Here on the home front it was a WET year I think in my area we are near 70 inches of rain with some spots near/over 80 inches.  Normal is 40.  And right now the pattern looks wet as hell over the 1st 2 weeks of 2019.  So my cycling with 165 activities.  My commute total was low till I considered in 1st 3 months of 2018 I only drove to work 2 or 3 times and till training in June I had more rides than drives to work.  Then I add in 30 days of walking commutes and it wasn't a terrible year!  :)  With all the rain though MTB riding has suffered and it's going to take a while for me to get it back together.  Get back to 3K of cycling at least in 2019.

Running.   ON running shoes were the best find.  Buying them in the summer was huge.  Especially while down under I ran near 100mi since the end of September.  I think I had maybe 60-70 miles total in 2017 mostly in the spring while in Australia the 1st time.  At 200 miles this year it's my biggest run year since 2013 with Tough Mudder training/etc.  Running with the monday TAA group is a huge boost to keep the "streaks" going.  Continue running with another 200 mile year or more.

Other stuff?  Concerts, saw a few with top notes on Coheed and Cambria, In this Moment and Halestorm.  Tenacious D also.  But was slightly underwhelmed due to huge venue and bad position.  Muse is on deck for 2019 with maybe Iron Maiden this summer. 

Personal Travel?  Not much hoping to put a BIG trip on the map for Fall 2019 back on the other side of the world but not Australia this time.  New York to see my buddy Eric is also a spring priority!

Otherwise hoping that my stupid tennis elbow from the last snow of 2018 gets better a bit more.  Hauling luggage around airports and Sydney etc put it back to being crap after finally feeling mostly better in July/Aug finally.  Joys of old age to come?  Maybe race some MTB and CX again next year?  Lots of other stuff to look forward to.  Get out.  See more folks and have more fun.