At the end of 2010, 2011, and 2012 I would write out my thoughts on the year and goals for the next year. These included thoughts on running, life and the combination of the two. I would put down my goals and laid out some sort of plan how I would accomplish this.
For the 2014 year I made no such effort. No plans were specified, no goals were expressed, and nothing was laid out. Not surprisingly I did not succeed at many of the races I entered in.
In 2013 I ran what felt like was a very good 100 mile race in march finishing in 19:57, and completed a 100 mile race in September finishing in 27:45. The September race included an injury that added a fair bit of time to my day, and I had enough other decent races, coupled with races that I could rationalize as good considering the level of sandbagging that went into them, and I felt like I was a strong runner. I thought at the time I had got myself as good as I could get, and so I searched out for a coach thinking that would take me to bigger and better things.
I had a rather un-enjoyable experience with online coaching. I stuck it out for a few months, but it left me disliking the concept of training and running in general. About six weeks before I attempted a 100 miler in March I was so displeased with my daily run that I took two weeks off from running.
The 100 miler in March was intened to be a redo of the previous year, except with a faster result. The reality was that I went in to it not enjoying my running, undertrained physically, and mentally not ready for any possibility that may come at me during race day. The race day was horrible weather and rather than toughing it out I gave up.
In February I ran a 50 km race that I had run the year before. I had hoped that I could do better, but basically hated every moment of the race. All I thought about was how much I wasn't enjoying the current training process I'd been on for the winter. Needless to say, the race was slower than the year before.
At the beginning of April I began doing more exploratory runs and started to get the joy back in my daily run. So I thought I would sign up for a local 50 km race for May. I had done the 25 km race of the same event the year before in 2:16 and thought I could surely beat 5 hours. I ran the race in 5:53 and felt like a load of garbage physically. At the end of 2013 I had signed up for the 120 mile race in August. After this 50 km race I decided I wasn't going to be ready to run 120 miles in August.
May/June continued along with me being purposely unplanned in my running as my way of rebelling against the disdain I felt for my winter experience. There was much exploration happening in the hills and it felt good - so I decided I would go for 120 miles after all in August. I signed up for a 50 mile race in late June, and a tough 60 km race in July and thought that would be good, all the while telling myself the 120 mile would be ok because I would just go slow, go for the finish and that's all. The race in June went great, I didn't break any records at all, but I started slow, paced well and finished strong with my mind on 120 miles.
At the race in July I decided to knee drop the top of the mountain - it blocked with a rock and I was busted open. I had a rather nice gash on my knee that needed stitches. This happened at 21 km. My body went into shock and my calf was covered in blood, I used the snow to clean my cut and tied a shirt around my knee, ran 8 km to get first aid, then finished the race (the race was shortened to 50 km).
I required stitches. I didn't run for two weeks. When I did start running it was only easy running, and it wasn't until a couple days before the 120 that I wasn't experiencing noticable pain while running. I didn't stretch my left leg once for the 4 weeks leading up to the 120.
During the 120 race everything was going great. At mile 68ish I was approximately 4-5 hours ahead of my time from two years ago.I was doing the best mental focus ever during the night portion of a race, it was just fantastic. Then I was running down a trail, stepped off the side with my right foot, slipped and fell on my left knee and re-opened the gash on my knee. I dropped out of the race at mile 73. Could I have finished the race? Perhaps. But my desire to do so and risk making an even uglier mess out of my knee wasn't that high.
I took another week completely off running, and signed up for a race on Aug 31. The race went not well, it felt like I had no energy in my legs. My knee had healed enough that I felt comfortable stretching it for the first time in ages, so after the race I stretched properly for the first time in 6 weeks.
I feel like I'm at the same point mentally and physically at this time in 2012. I've not done well in most of the races I did this year, just like 2012. And I'm feeling broken down just like I was at this time in 2012. I did a very good job building from this point to a relatively successful 2013 run year, so I will model my plan from here through next year in a similar fashion.
My dissatisfaction with my races this year is because I feel like I have not raced to my potential.
Why did it all go wrong? (random thoughts)
- The whole coaching thing through the winter of 12/13 made me not enjoy running, which lead to undertraining.
- I don't like being told what to do.
- I failed to make any solid plan for the year, or to make any specific goals.
- I stopped tracking my workouts, this lead to even further breakdown of planning.
- I didn't have fun with my training for most parts of the year.
- I use running as a means to exert control over myself, by relinquishing this control to another person (coach) it bothered me. I want to spend the time planning, and over analyzing my journey to figuring this ridiculous level of running out.
- This year even during the times when I was enjoying the running again, I wasn't working in enough runs that would help me improve athletically.
- I need to race seldom enough that I can plan in both the type of runs that will help me improve athletically as well as the 'adventure'ish runs that I enjoy.
Blah, Blah, Blah. I didn't enjoy my winter, which lead to not enough training, which lead to not being ready. I want to be able to reach my potential during races. I need to race seldom enough that I can fit in the type of random adventure runs I enjoy as well as have enough time to properly train for the races. I need to plan, "if you fail to plan you plan to fail". I stopped tracking my running after the 50 km race in February, I don't think it's a coincidence that I didn't recover from my winter of discontent and turn it around.
On to some goal making:
Races: I want to redo the March 100 miler, and the August 120 miler. I also want to do a mid summer shorter distance race.
List form goals:
1. Run the August 120 mile in under 36 hours
- or just finish the thing.
1b. If a friend wants me to help her do this race instead I will do a 100 miler in Lethbridge instead - goal of finishing under 22 hours
2. Run the march 100 mile in under 20 hours.
- or finish it feeling good
- or at least just finish it
3. Run a June 50 mile race in under 9 hours or better.
4. Run the same December 50 km race in under 4:45.
5. Run no other races during the year.
6. Volunteer at races.
7. Dont do drugs. Seemingly no longer needed, and yet still so necessary.
8. Dont drink and angry. Does that even make sense.
9. Be a better, politer automoton at work.
10. Tact.
11. Pray.
12. Other stuff.
A plan will be built shortly, the focus will be on duration, and effort levels for each run. I will plan proper rest after races and I will allow time for random runs into my calender.
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