My Running Year 2009

At the beginning of 2009 I set myself a target to run 1400 miles in the year.
This works out at around 27 miles a week for every week of the year.

As I ran 1218 miles in 2008 this target didn't seem out of reach requiring me to up my mileage by 3-4 miles a week.

Looking back on 2009 I didn't make this target my total for the year was 1222 pretty much the same as 2008.Main reason why was persistant injuries from around the end of July which meant a long lay off from running. When I returned I had lost all my stamina and felt as if I was starting from scratch with my mile times being down by anything up to a minute on many runs.

My 2009 statistics show the following

January 2009           143 miles  22 runs

February 2009         132 miles  18 runs
March 2009              129 miles  18 runs
April 2009                 133 miles  18 runs
May 2009                  139 miles  19 runs
June 2009                 139 miles   21 runs
July 2009                    82 miles   14 runs
August 2009               10 miles    2 runs
September 2009       31 miles    8 runs
October 2009             92 miles    17 runs
November 2009        98 miles     17 runs
December 2009        88 miles    16 runs

The week of the 25th May when I ran 40.7 miles was my top mileage week. I had six blank weeks where no running was achieved due to injury or heavy colds.



Total Runs for 2009 - 190 out of 365 days.

My average distance that I ran in 2009 was 6.43 miles.

My longest run in 2009 was 13.1 miles on 13th March at the Stowmarket Joe Cox Half Marathon.

I ran 4 races in 2009 these being the Stowmarket Joe Cox Half Marathon, Breckland 10k, Bury 5 and the Stowmarket 5


Looking at my pace statistics for easy runs a slowest month in August of 9.04 a mile with April being the quickest at 8.23


I only did tempo runs between January and April and just recently in December. April was my quickest month again at 8.05 per mile.

My interval training at the West Suffolk track was patchy with 4 months of the year showing no intervals. June was my fastest month with 6.42 interval miles being recorded. December being the slowest.


As for long runs I didn't achieve any in August and September when I was injured but have long runs for the rest of the year. My slowest month being December at 9.06 a mile, May being the quickest at 8.37 miles.


My quickest race pace was for the Breckland 10k in May which was a 7.36 pace for a 47.19 time.


My running log for 2009 only shows 1 hill session back in July.


Keeping a running diary obviously does enable you to reflect back on your training and consider what went well and what went wrong.


Too much of my runs have been 'filler runs'. By that I mean runs within my comfort zone though they haven't always felt like that! What I mean is that it is clear more of my runs need to be quality runs to include more long distance runs, hills and tempo runs. I also haven't had a set purpose or focus to my running due to a lack of races in my diary.


Now to plan 2010 and set out some objectives!