Review of 2009

At the end of 2008, I'd just run the Ribble Valley 10k in 39:57, I'd had a succession of lower leg injuries (calf, achilles, ankle, lower knee etc. in both legs). It was my first year of racing regularly for more than 25 years, overall I was quite pleased with the progress that I'd made, but didn't have big expectations for 2009. The main concern was that if I tried to run more often, faster or further, I'd just end up with more niggling injuries.

In 2009, I've certainly exceeded any expectations that I did have. The main thing is that I've been able to run virtually injury free throughout the year, apart from a sore right achilles (which, if anything, has improved as the year has gone on). I've raced 34 times, including 22 road races, 6 cross countries, 4 trail races & 2 fell races. I've improved my times from 2008 in all of the races that I did in both years: I ran 10 races in 2008 & 2009, with an average improvement of almost 4%. The biggest %age improvement was actually at Ribble Valley where my time in 2009 of 37:19 was a 6.6% improvement on last year.

Racing highlights of the year were at the John Carr 5k series: 2nd M50 overall & best time of 18:16, the Ribble Valley 10k, the Thirsk 10m (63:01) & the St. Ives Trail race (1st M50). I've also been very pleasantly surprised at my progress in cross country races. In the 2008/9 season, I did 4 of the Peco races and was placed on average about 70th, in the 2009/10 season so far I've had a 35th & a 30th place.

Apart from being able to run more regularly due to reduced injury concerns, the main credit for my improving times at the back end of 2009 should go to the weekly track sessions at Carnegie organised by Pete Shields & Andy Wolfenden. Up until September this year I'd never run on the track (apart from odd road race start/finishes). I've ben amazed at the improvement that I've been able to make by running regular weekly structured track sessions with a group of runners of similar ability.

Regarding overall running mileages etc. I've never been particularly keen on following schedules, or logging miles , but this year I have kept a record of the running that I've done thanks to my Garmin. I've averaged just over 40 miles per week throughout the year, but this was split 34 per week in the 1st half of the year & 46 per week in the 2nd half. I am finding that increasingly there is a bigger difference between the speed that I'm running at on the track & in races compared to my 'average' training runs. Whilst my race speed is increasing, the pace of most of my training is getting slower.

As for 2010, I really don't know what to expect. The main priority is to stay injury free & enjoy my running. For racing, I don't really want to set specific targets, although I would like to get under 18 minutes for 5k. Also as I'll be moving up to the M55 category in January, I have been looking at the Power of 10 UK standards & they seem to be quite achievable (5k: 19 mins, 10k: 39 mins, 10m: 65 mins, 1/2m: 87 mins). I only just managed to achieve the M50 10k standard in my last road race as an M50, so hopefully I should be able to achieve a few more now. The other targets that would be nice to beat would be the IH club records, which again look much easier at M55 than M50, we'll see what happens.

(By the way, I should emphasise that this blog is only about my running, my real highlight of 2009 was becoming a grandad for the 1st time!)