Progress and Time

First blog of 2014, comin' at 'cha! 

Sorry about the late post this week--this really should have been the last blog of 2013, but social activities diverted my attention elsewhere. 

I raced the Boxing Day 10 Miler last Thursday. It was my fourth time doing the race, but unlike the previous editions, the course was different thanks to the bureaucrats at city hall. The organizers did a good job working with what they had, making it essentially an out and back on the waterfront trail. I do miss the escarpment section (yes, even the climbing!) of the old course though. 

The new course was also certainly faster, but how much so I can only speculate. I ran 54:02 this year vs. 55:38 in 2012, finishing sixth behind my training partner Ryan Tice. Regardless, even with the course changes, I'm fairly confident I'm in better shape this year, and I was happy enough with the effort despite having to deal with some cramping in the sixth mile.  

I already sort of re-capped my year in my first post resuming regular blogging back in October, so I won't bother with that again. I will simply say that 2013 on the whole was a very good year for me, even if the final four months since returning from Europe have brought a bit of adversity. The key words in that statement are "a bit". All factors considered, it was probably the best year I've had since I started university. And for that I can only be thankful. 

If I follow the template for how these types of posts are supposed to work, I should probably state some running specific goals for the upcoming year. But to be frank, I don't have specific times in mind as a much as I hope to be consistent as possible over the next 12 months. When I started running seriously, I was better than average but not elite. I continued to improve through high school by running what I thought was a fair bit (though I chuckle when I look back on some of my training logs now) and staying healthy. 

My training at Waterloo became more focused and scientific, but also highly erratic as a result of the work I needed to put into my academics. Following the passing of Terry Goodenough, my mindset shifted from the bigger picture of long term development to the goals I wanted to achieve each season. I had some performances I am particularly proud of, but also spent a lot of time in the wilderness of trying to get into decent shape following a layoff for exams or injury. 

For some reason I got a reputation for being a high mileage runner in university. I will concede that I ran more than most of (if not all) the other guys on the team at Waterloo during the season, but often I was (unsuccessfully) trying to make up for lost time. I have never run more than 110 miles in a single week, and am not sure I have ever strung together even a month averaging over 95 miles. My average mileage values for each year would be depressingly low if I ever felt the urge to calculate them, which I haven't. I am a high mileage advocate, but struggle on the follow-through. 

This is a whole lot of words to say that I want to continue improving this year, and in order to do that I need to run consistently moderate mileage (at the very least) or stick with cross training when issues inevitably creep up. The last five years have been a product of my own design, and the trick will be becoming a consistent runner once again. 

Onward to 2014!