As a 64 years old man, hard training might mean normal or weak training for young people, not necessarily for athletes.
I ran around 2,000 km this year, 167 km per month according to simple calculation.
However, looking at my training record, I ran 44 km in December, 177 km in November, 142 km in October and 189 km in September.
The distance of my running has gradually come down toward the yearend probably because of accumulated fatigue. And it provoked two incidents.
One was idiopathic hardness of hearing, and the other was inguinal hernia.
Hardness of hearing occurred when I was so much stressful in September and October partly because of the capital call of the company I am working from the market.
At that time, I was also training seriously for an ultramarathon of 66 km toward the end of September.
(The ultramarathon was finally suspended due to the big typhoon which attacked the course on that day unfortunately)
When I was younger, I had been confident of my strength against physical and mental stress, but I understood I was not so young any more.
It took me two months to recover from hardness of hearing.
In November, I ran Kobe and Osaka marathons.
I was tired after running two full marathons in consecutive weeks.
The hernia probably came from my hard training for six months to my core of the body in order to run through two marathons by inhaling and giving strong pressure to abdomen.
The intestines might be pushed out by the pressure through muscles and it means that my body may not sustain certain degree of hard training any more.
I chose surgery for hernia to avoid future occurrence of the same problem.
Now I am recovering from two incidents.
Although I had an unexpected and unpleasant experience this year, I do continue challenging my running.
At the age 65 next year, I will try 60 km trail running race in May, and 50 km trail running race in July. I will also consider trying an ultramarathon race in fall.
Of course, I have to be careful for the recovery from hard races, however,
I know that is the way I am seeking for, and I would be happy and satisfied with those challenges. @