2014 - The year that was

2014 was a year that promised so much but half delivered.

Wow that statement sounds pessimistic and like I am feeling down but last year really was but when I reflect on the year that was this cold new years day I see the two polar sides of my running.

From January - early May I enjoyed the most consistent and highest volume of running building up to the Halstead marathon that I have ever had. I had never been fitter nor more confident in my running. Although I did not achieve my target time at Halstead I was really pleased with the 3:20 time I had achieved as I had shaved 33 mins off my PB but I knew that on a flat course I could have got much closer to the 3:10 that my training had indicated leading up to the race.

Shortly after this my training imploded and during May, June and into July all of the hard work I had put in the past 5 months had crumbled away. When I think about why I did this I am still not able to pinpoint exactly why I did this.

To get out of this rut I set a new goal for an October marathon. Target was to smash 3:10 at the new Chelmsford marathon that was local to me.

August and September training went very well and I managed to rebuild a good base with some really good quality workouts. I was so focused intently on hitting my goal of another marathon PB in October however looking back I completely ignore signs that my body was feeling the strain. I was 12 pounds heavier than I was at Halstead, I had done any core support work and so the stage was set for me to fail. After putting together a 20:15 5km the week before the race my body broke down and I picked up an injury that pretty much put me out of the game for the rest of the year.

Since then it has been a case of managing and rehabilitating the injury in order to get back to the process of looking to set and achieve goals in 2015. I am still heavier than I would like and that's something that should be manageable now that Christmas is out of the way and of the runs I have done coupled with a core strength program I am feeling a lot stronger than I have in some time.

Mileage wise I still ended up with 1,720 which is the second highest total in the years I have been running but had I not left my running shoes in the cupboard during May-July and the injury this would have been much much higher but that's the way it goes.

It's time now to move on and set goals for 2015 and use last year's experience to channel the positives and negatives from it into achieve the goals I will be setting

Happy New Year.