2014 Running Recap

No better of a year than I had running wise, it almost seems a little silly to even bother doing a recap. However, you have to take the bad with the good, and sometimes you learn more from the former than the latter, so here goes.

I started the year off with plans to jump in a couple indoor track races then parlay that into an outdoor track season before turning to the roads in the summer and fall, with a goal of making a splash on the Masters scene wherever I went. Things went well enough the first few months of the year, but for some reason I just never could seem to really get going. I was healthy, but I was battling dead legs, which led to a good week then a mediocre week then a bad week, with the end result being so-so fitness. I'm not one to step into a highly competitive environment like the track unless I feel totally on top my game, and since I never did feel like I was where I needed to be, I wound up skipping track season altogether. It was a bit of a bummer because I had hoped to run the Southeast Masters Indoor Championships in March and also wanted to run some times that would rank me in the top 5-10 in the USATF Masters Rankings. Looking at the final rankings, it appears if I'd run the times I'd hoped to, I would have achieved my goals and probably been top-10 in the 3k and 5k and top-5 in the 10k,

In April, I did manage to set a Masters course record at the annual 10k in Lewisburg, WV, which is one of the older races in the state. I was surprised to find out that my time of 35:17 on the hilly course was over a minute faster than any 40+ year old had ever run that course, especially since I know some pretty good Masters who raced there over the years. Still, that was one of just two bright spots in an otherwise lackluster spring, the other being a win I picked up in a Memorial Day 5k in Summersville, WV, extending my streak of winning at least one road race every year since 1996.

When summer rolled around I was tired of being in what I perceived as a constant state of mediocrity, so I decided to change things up somewhat drastically. I delved into some serious high mileage, hitting several 90+ mile weeks and even hitting triple digits for the first time in several years. At first this seemed to work. I actually felt more energized and I started to run some pretty solid workouts that indicated things were going in the right direction. After a few weeks though, I started to feel burned out again and as August came to a close I was back training more in the 70-80 miles per week range and trying to put more focus on quality.

Heading into September, I was actually feeling somewhat optimistic about my chances for a decent fall season, but the day after Labor Day it all came crashing down when I woke up with pain in my hamstring. Little did I know that it would still be bothering me four months later, and as a result, I would finish the year with 2,552 total miles, my 3rd lowest annual total since 1996. While race times, not mileage, are what really matters, mileage is still an indicator of how well you're training, and if you don't train well you can't race well, so the two go hand in hand. While there were lots of good things about 2014, obviously the year was a bust when it came to training and racing, and from that standpoint I'm happy to put it in the rearview mirror.

So, there it is, my year-end recap. I'll try to put up a post in the next few days about what I learned, how I hope to change things in 2015, and what some of my goals are for the coming year. Happy New Year, all! I hope it's a good one!