2017 Year in Review and 2018 Goals

Welcome to my blog! I've thought about doing a regular blog for a while now, but this is my first attempt at really committing to it. The goal is to blog once a week, with the plan being to post each Sunday night. We will see how that goes as 2018 progresses!

I'm not going to write much of an introduction or give a detailed back story on my running history, as I did that last October while writing the blog for the Paradise Running Club. Below is a link to my running back story, and you can also read any of the other posts from October 2016 to learn a little more about my running background.


This blog will likely cover a range of topics related to running. I'm writing it in part to keep myself honest and accountable, but also because I feel it can potentially help other runners who are aiming to improve. As I have progressed in my own running, I have gotten more questions from others wondering what some of the steps I've taken to achieve my goals are. So hopefully this can be a way to give back some of the knowledge I've been fortunate enough to glean from others over the years, and I also welcome any feedback or suggestions from other veterans that can help me as I strive to continue my own improvement.

With that out of the way, I'll get to the content promised in the title of this post. 2017 has been an extremely successful year for me. I ran more often than ever before. I ran more distance than I ever had. I did more speedwork than I had in the past. Not surprisingly, this led to a year full of personal bests. Here is a full accounting of my training and results for the year:


Total runs - 163
Total distance - 1398 km

Tempo runs - 22
400m intervals - 87
800m intervals - 76
Signal Hill climbs - 9

Race
Pre-2017 PB
2017 PB
Change
5 km
21:43
19:42
2:01
8 km
35:22
34:19
1:03
10 km
43:24
39:30
3:54
Tely 10
76:20
68:55
7:25
Cape to Cabot
1:41:14
1:32:51
8:23
Half Marathon
N/A
1:33:01*
N/A
Marathon
3:57:01
3:39:58
17:03

*Half Marathon PB was run during the 1st half of the Hamilton Marathon


The positive highlights for the year were breaking the 4:00/km barrier at both the 5 km and 10 km distance, breaking 70 minutes at the Tely 10, and surprising even myself with a sub 93 minute Cape to Cabot.

Of course even in a great year there are negatives. I missed 5 weeks of training in January/February for medical reasons, which set me back at the start of the year. I battled an injury at the Mews which cost me my goal of sub 34 minutes. And then there was the big one, when I went out way too fast aiming for a Boston Qualifier at the Hamilton Marathon and had to suffer through the last 11 km just to finish the race!

The good thing about the negatives is that they leave room for further improvement in the future. It can be a little daunting setting new goals after a year of huge PBs, but having those goals is ultimately what keeps me pushing. So, the goals for 2018 are:


Race
Current PB
2018 Goal
5 km
19:42
19:00
8 km
34:19
31:00
10 km
39:30
38:30
Tely 10
68:55
65:00
Cape to Cabot
1:32:51
1:31:00
Half Marathon
1:33:01
1:30:00
Marathon
3:39:58
3:30:00


I don't currently have a marathon on my schedule for 2018, so that may end up being a 2019 goal. I hope that I can get the other 6 though. I know that at some point my gains will slow down and I'll eventually plateau, but I plan to do whatever I can to push that point as far into the future as possible!

That about does it for this post. I'll be back next week with an outline of my training plan for 2018 and a recap of the current (poor) state of my training. Cheers!

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