Running Reflection on 2018

Now that the dust has settled on Christmas and the New Year I thought it was times to address my running performances in 2018. I think and up front summary would be – could have done better.

Targets set

All the way back on the 7th of January I published my first running diary post of the year. I’m sure you remember it – it was a classic. In this post I made a bold statement that I was targeting to run 2000km in 2018. That’s 38.5km a week, in case you’re wondering. Let me tell you it was a close run thing (sarcasm alert).

I came in at a total of 981.3km. That 0.3km is all important.

The mathematically astute readers will notice that this is less than 50% of my target. Not great.

There are of course some mitigating circumstances. The primary one being the knee injury that kept hampering me. This started in February and thus limited my early mileage progress severely.

After finally getting sorted through the help of an osteopath I was back running regularly, but by now it was already May. I knew that reaching my target of 2000km was simply not going to happen. I had only run 325km by the time June, and the good weather, came around.

Running diary

Another target I set was to write a blog diary each week of my running. Errrrrrrrrm? Yeah – that fizzled out when my running all but stopped as a result of the injury.

I’m putting this one behind me and saying nothing more on the subject.

Oh, okay just a little more. I will be writing more about running in 2019 and that will come in the form or a weekly update. But I am planning on writing more about running in general too.

Highlights

Despite a hampered year with injury I do have some running highlights from 2018. 

My favorite run of 2018

My favorite run of the year by far took place in the height of our prolonged summer. It was back in June and I’d decided to drive out to a run location, something I want to do more in 2019, and intended to follow the network of public rights of way on my OS map. This turned out to be the most glorious run I think I can ever imagine having had. It was just me and Duke (our black Labrador) out in the countryside and more much of it we ran along the river.

The route started and ended in Nunnington, not far from where we live, and despite how it turned out it almost went very wrong very early on. Not long after leaving the country lane and heading along the river, Duke, who was running ahead of me, kicked up a large branch as he ran over it. The timing was perfect for me to have not time to react. The sharp end of the branch went into my groin and I actually remember feeling my feet leave the ground as my body was pivoted up by it. I thought immediately that I was going to be hurt. I looked down and the branch had gone through my running shorts! But thankfully it missed all my vital organs (you know what I mean) and I was okay. 

The run just got better and better. The best part was where I had to cross the river but I stopped to take a dip in the cool water on a hot summer day. On the whole, near 10km loop I never met another person on the off-road sections at all and it was wonderful.

I made a video for my YouTube channel of that run. I’ve watched this back a few times simply as it beings back such a great memory.

Here’s the run on Strava too, in case you fancy checking out this fantastic route.

My favorite run with the kids

The girls don’t often come running with me. It’s a shame but they also have so much on that it’s not really possible. But, in July Lydia came out for a fabulous run on a very hot Sunday. She winged about a pain in most body parts and this tested my patience. But I focussed on the positives and encourage her round a near 5 mile route. 

Snow running

Winter seemed to last forever, didn’t it? But I loved the fact we kept getting some proper snow and I love running in snow.

The best morning run

I am a long wolf when it comes to running. And this lone wolf runs whilst most people are still tucked up in bed. That means I get experiences like running under the stars. There’s nothing quite like trotting along to the beat made by your feed hitting the tarmac, with the cool winter air on your face and the stars glimmering against an inky black sky. Just magical.

Back to Adidas

It’s worth a note that in 2018 I finally returned to Adidas running shoes for both road and trail. My Asics road shoes were giving me terrible blisters and I was never happy with them in truth. Adidas just feel right on my feet and I think I will be sticking with them fore the foreseeable future now.

So what about 2019?

The first thing to say about 2019 is that I have no races booked and at the moment not plans to book any. The trouble with that is that without the motivation to train for an event I ended up just plodding along. The primary issue with booking a race is time. The girls are so busy with activities such as dance and shows it means that squeezing in a race it tricky. There is one I like the look off in Leeds in June though – the Canal Canter Summer Extravaganza. There’s 7 different distances to choose from – 5km to the ultra. I’m thinking about the half marathon or the 20-mile. I’m note sure about the marathon distance.

Aside from running a race, what I really need to achieve is a level of consistency. 2019 has started off pretty good, we’re 9 days in and already I have 6 runs and 28.1km in the bank. Crucially though, I’ve run 3 days in a row and I’ve do some speedy uphill work and Fartlek intervals. My legs have that ache about them in the day that I haven’t felt for so long and it feels great.

 

Running is going to feature on the blog more in 2019, so watch this space.

Thanks for reading.

Dave

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