Time for reflection

Well as this year disappears into the fog and the New Year appears on the horizon, it is time to reflect on how the year has gone, and lay the plans for the New Year.

Well this year has certainly seen some highs and lows in my running.....

 

My Running highs:-

The main high for me was achieving a sub 24hr finish on my first ever 100 mile Ultra.

Meeting some fantastic and inspirational people in the World of Ultra, both in the flesh and through the power of the internet.

Getting one of the sought after lottery places in the GUCR 2011.

Running a total of 1918miles in racing & training this year, the most miles I have run in 1 single year to date (giving me a lifetime mileage to date of: 16518)

As a result of my increased mileage I have lost a total of 2 stone over the year which is a great bonus.

A surprising half marathon PB in May, when I was in the midst of long Ultra training.

On a really positive note I have spent most of December nursing a achillies heel  injury.  Since Christmas day I have tested it with 2 treadmill runs of 7miles which went well so today I ran 19.75 miles to give the heel a real test. Although the ankle did have a dull ache at the end it held up surprisingly well so hopefully my Ultra planned in January is still on.......

 

My Running Lows:-

Having severely blistered feet after my 100mile ultra, so severe that the skin literally peeled off leaving me unable to run for around a month.

This meant I could not run my local 10K run.

Not having any Ultra’s booked up after the 100miler so subsequently having no focus. (I tried booking some up after but found that the ones I wanted to enter were all booked up.

So having looked at my highs and lows what have I learnt from this year well.......

I need to have better foot management in long races...

I need to prepare a year’s worth of Ultra’s in advance in order to get into the one’s I want to run.

I need to learn the art of map reading whilst in a race situation, this has put me off entering some potentially fantastic races as I think this is a major weak area in my running.

Following on from the previous point I want to do more trail running this year; I think the mix this year for me has been 70% road 30% Trail. I would like to change that to around 50 / 50 for next year....

So my Ultra plans for next year so far:-

Ultra race 45/90 – Jan 22^nd / 23^rd   (both days)

GUCR  145mile - May 28th (Booked)

Cotswold Ultra 100 – June 24^th

Ultra peak 40 miles – Aug 21st

Nottingham Ultra 50km - Oct  

Ceaser’s camp 100miles – Oct (not sure if it clashes with above)

There will also possibly be a couple of marathons, half’s & 10k’s thrown in for good measure

So here is wishing everyone who reads this a very happy new year.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog & I hope I can keep your interest in the coming new year ..!!!