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My season has officially ended

S

SWScorch

Diamond Member
I started this year with a couple of goals:

5K: 16:30
8K: 28:00
10-miler: 59:00
half marathon: 1:19:00

My PRs in those events were as follows:

5K: 17:24
8K: 28:54
10-miler: 1:02:14
half marathon: 1:21:35

I split my year into 2 seasons. One ending in mid-June, followed by a break to go to Europe and engage in lots of activities detrimental to one's health and fitness 😀 and then another season to start when I got back and end today with the Buffalo Turkey Trot. I averaged 65-70 miles a week for the first season. After that, I had lowered my 5K to 16:54 and my half marathon time to 1:19:05.

I then took a 3-week break, and resumed training with a vengeance. In October, I had 3 weeks over 80 miles a week, and 2 solid months at over 70. I upped the amount of interval work I did from 3 miles per session to 5, and did more short, fast repeats as well as more long intervals. In my first race, a 10-miler, I ran 58:50, a 3.5 minute PR. The next week I ran 16:42, to drop my best by 12 seconds. Then, in my last 5K, I ran alone from the gun into a brutal wind to finish in 16:40. So, no 16:30 to me but I dropped my PR 14 seconds and proved I was able to run consistently in the 16:40s.

Today was my last race of the year; the Buffalo Turkey Trot 8K. I knew from my 16:40 that 27:30 was attainable, but I was still primarily shooting for 28. I ended up running consistent 5:33s for a finishing time of 27:32, a 1:22 PR and obliterating my goal for the year.

So, what have I learned from this year?

A) Consistency in training reigns above all else- even consistent average training will yield impressive results over time
B) High mileage is key to improving in distance running
C) 16:30 is damn fast and hard to run!!!
D) Consistency is king!!

Now its time to recover for a few weeks, and then next year, to run a 2:45 marathon. Thanks for reading, hope this shed some light or at least entertained you for a moment or two!
 
Excellent post Scorch. :thumbsup: I am in the process of setting some goals for 2009 (which I'll post in this forum sometime soon), but being triathlon goals I'm having a difficult time finalizing them.
 
Scorch - good job! I have no idea how you run 65-70 miles a week...then again I'm only devoting 4 days a week to it. (My peak weeks was probably 55ish, but then again this'll be my first marathon...plan on running 3 more before the end of the running season in April)

How many of those races did you win?
 
Congratulations on the PRs. Consistency and persistence are the most important things you can learn when it comes to training.
 
Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Scorch - good job! I have no idea how you run 65-70 miles a week...then again I'm only devoting 4 days a week to it. (My peak weeks was probably 55ish, but then again this'll be my first marathon...plan on running 3 more before the end of the running season in April)

How many of those races did you win?
Click to expand...

Well, this is my 9th year running. It took until 4 years ago to really hit any real type of mileage (50+). When I did 80+ in October, I would have a long run of 14, 2 workouts totalling 12 miles each, and the other days I would run 10-12 miles, some in two runs in a day. That helped a lot. 55 is still a good amount of mileage, especially off of 4 days! What marathon are you planning on doing?

I won 2 races this year: a 5K in May in 17:06 and my last 5K in 16:40. I was completely decimated in all of the other races. (A lot of my friends consider 16:00 a bad race).
 
Nice job mate!

The 16:00 bad race is different standards and talent. Some guys have the time/ talent. The rest of us just roll with what we have and make do mate :thumbsup:

I am more then likely NOT going to get any lifting PB's this year 🙁

Koing
 
Congrats! My goal for next year is to break 4 hours on a marathon. Did my last one, and finished in 4:30, so I think it's doable.

Just did a Thanksgiving 1/2 marathon in 1:48, so I think I am on pace.
 
Originally posted by: Koing
Nice job mate!

The 16:00 bad race is different standards and talent. Some guys have the time/ talent. The rest of us just roll with what we have and make do mate :thumbsup:

I am more then likely NOT going to get any lifting PB's this year 🙁

Koing
Click to expand...

Werd son. I have no talent whatsoever. A lot of people see how "fast" I am running right now and assume that I am naturally just this fast. Especially other runners who know how hard it is to improve. they are usually shocked when I tell them that for the majority of my running career, I was a 20-minute 5Ker. Everything I have accomplished has been through sheer hard work and dedication. I've learned the hard way that good things come slow in distance running. But this means that even though I am running times that 2 years ago were not even close enough to think about running, in another year or 2 perhaps I can run even faster. If I keep it up, who knows, sub-16 might be attainable... Well, a guy can hope, right? 🙂
 
Very impressive. I can't run for crap but my wife just did another half-marathon and was almost an hour slower than you 🙂
 
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