My running season for 2011 ended in October with the Hallow’s Eve Trail race.
It was my second full year of running, and I saw a lot of improvement. Race reports for all my events are available on the post of my 2011 Race schedule.
My highlights were:
- Beating my goal of a 3:30 marathon (and knocking ~45 minutes off my previous best time)
- Completing my first triathlon (and embarrassing myself by having to backstroke to stay afloat on a sprint swim)
- Completing a total of 12 races and setting a PB on each course I had run previously
- Coming second for my age group in the 5 Peaks series (enduro)
- Running a total of over 1,600km in 146 hours of training
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In the end I raced every event I had set out at the beginning of the year with the exception of the Phatom 25k Trail race in November (and the Knee Knacker because I wasn’t selected in the lottery). By the time I completed the Hallows Eve trail race my knees were getting continually sore. The week after the race I was running the 13km trek home from work and I didn’t have any gas in the tank. My body needed a break.
I took 3 full weeks off of zero running and consumed many, many carbs (see: IPA). I’m now doing some base-building as I ramp up for the 2012 Van Marathon which will be my ‘A’ race for the year.
I have some more ambitious goals for next year (including running a BQ) and I’m looking at all the races I want to run. I’ll be posting my schedule soon.
I find myself wondering when I’ll get bored of running. Or at least tired of running so much as is required to continually improve. So far I haven’t found the answer. 2011 was a great year and I’m proud of how far I’ve come a runner. I’m looking forward to getting better still.
This post is one in a series about my personal running; training and racing. For other posts like this, click here.
