Happy New Year everyone! Firstly, I must apologise for the lack of posts recently. Birthday, Christmas and general laziness all meant that I didn't get round to writing my blog. This year though I am aiming to try and get it out weekly and at worst fortnightly.
So in this worst post of the year I thought I would write about what I achieved (and didn't achieve) last year and my goals for 2016.
2015 Round-up
Having previously tried and failed to break 4 hours for the marathon, the first 4 months of 2015 were all focussed on breaking at at the Greater Manchester Marathon in April. I used the Marathon Talk "Jantastic" programme at the start of the year and followed it religiously. January focussed on running a set number of times a week (for me it was 6 times). February was a set number of times a week with a target long run (Long runs for me were between 15 and 19 miles) and March was all about achieving a target time at a specified race. For me the target time was breaking 1:45 at the Brentwood half at the end of March.
The training went well and I hit all of my targets throughout that first 3 months, culminating in a PB for the Half Marathon of 1:41:01 (a 6m 52s improvement) which was a really good indication of my fitness at the time. The week after I went to Germany and managed a 1:44:24 and was the first British finisher in the Bad Oldesloe half.
From there it was on to Manchester on the 19th of April for the Greater Manchester marathon. Despite a few calf issues in the taper I got to the start line the fittest I had ever been. The race was everything I had planned it to be. I paced myself well, pushed hard at the start and worked hard to keep ahead of the 4 hour bus at the end. Despite a little mid-race sickness I crossed the line in 3:57:34 for a 20+ minute PB. It was the highlight of my running "career" to date.
Two weeks after Manchester I broke my 5km PB at winchester parkrun, knocking 26 seconds off of my previous best to clock 21:26. It came as a bit of a surprise as I had done very little speed training in the preceding weeks. I guess the marathon training and a couple of weeks of relaxed training had left me nicely prepared for an all out 5km effort.
From there I had 3 weeks until the Ox marathon, a tough trail marathon in North Dorset. I was fortunate to have a friend and club mate running with me and we decided to go out there and enjoy ourselves. On a lovely day we clocked around 5:15 for the 27 miles and had a thoroughly great day.
In early July I was visiting Mile End parkrun and, on a lovely summer day, I once again broke my 5km PB. This time narrowly missing out on breaking 21 minutes with a 21:01.
With that I started my build-up my charity goal for the year, the 9Bar9x9 50 mile race in September. I had a great period of training through July and most of August, but in late August I pulled up during a slow lunchtime 5km with a calf injury. At first it didn't seem to bad so I tried to run through it. Before long I was unable to run on it at all. Without being able to train I regrettably had to pull out of the 50 mile race. I did compete, but only did the 27km race and used a run-walk strategy.
Following the disappointment of not doing my target race I had to rebuild. I signed up for the Thames Trot 50 in February so that I had a new target and used the final few months of the year to train up for that.
In November I ran more miles in the month than I ever had before, however December was interrupted with a mix of injury and illness. However as I sit here (less than 4 weeks away from the Thames Trot) writing this I feel like I am well placed to achieve my target.
In summary the 8 months of the year were fantastic. I ran faster than I had previously, I trained well and most of all I really enjoyed my running. Here are some stats:
Total runs: 247
Total miles run in 2015: 1444.36 miles
Total time spent running in 2015: 220.15 hours
Calories burned in 2015: 571,265
Most miles in a month: November 217.31 miles
2015 parkruns: 38 at 24 different venues.
2016 Goals
I've given 2016 plenty of thought. My first aim is to complete the Thames Trot on the 6th Feb. I don't care how long it takes, I just want to complete it.
Following on from that I will be focussing on training for the London Marathon in April (I am running it for a charity called MPN Voice). I will be looking to run few races in the build up to that such as the Bournemouth 10 and the Brentwood Half. If I come out of the 50 miler uninjured and am able to get back running fairly quickly I will put everything I have into a PB at London. If, however, I am feeling run down I will rest and recover before starting my training for London. I will then be running London for the experience rather than a time.
In April I have the small matter of my wife, Sarah, having my second child! With this in mind I have decided to not run any distances further than half marathons for the remainder of the year. The reason for this is threefold:
1) No long runs means more time with my wonderful family
2) It will give my body chance to recover a bit after a couple of years of marathon and Ultra training
3) I would like to focus on speed and in particular getting my 5km and 10km times down. Marathon training is not always conducive to doing this.
So my aim for the final 8 months of the year will be to break my 5km PB, hopefully getting as near to the 20 minute mark as possible. Break my 10km PB, hopefully going under 45 for the first time and generally get as fast as I possibly can!
In terms of parkrun, I would like to complete at least 28 parkruns to reach the 100 club and I would like to try and run at 17 new venues to reach the 50 different parkruns mark. I would also like to earn my volunteer t-shirt by volunteering 25 times (14 to go).
Mainly though, in 2016 I want to stay as injury free as possible and continue to enjoy my running as much as have done to date.
Back next week with more running ramblings!!
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