Top 3 lessons
1. Training is important - My training was good and bad, too inconsistent to lead to good results and a lack of cross training, yet I was able to complete races through May and felt great, from June on, injuries were my problem.
2. Fueling takes practice - I worked early in the year at figuring out my fueling, McNaughton didn't go great, the two marathons weren't terrible but still not good. FANs was great for 9 1/2 hours, when too many S caps, too many hours of rain and probably too many hours on pavement did me in.
3. Take time off if you are injured (x-training is ok to do) - Failed to do this after FANs and Superior. I am not sure it mattered, meaning I am not convinced I made anything worse but I did beat myself up for not pushing through the injuries which probably wasn't needed.
Most Enjoyable - running Lincoln and Fargo with my wife, Red Wing 1/2 with my wife and daughter, Gobble Gait with my entire family.
Race I most wanted to complete - believe it or not it really was McNaughton. It got Illinois as a state and I was able to work through an injury.
Biggest disappointment - Superior - had doubts about my training, injured myself after 2 miles and didn't make the cutoff at 26.7 miles.
Biggest Surprise - I actually enjoyed FANs at least up to the medical tent and even that was interesting.
Some other interesting tidbits:
- Miles after 3 months - 375
- Miles after 6 months - 815
- Miles first 8 months - 1077
- Miles last 4 months - 261
- Total for the year - 1338
- Most miles in a month - May - 168, March - 167
- Fewest miles in a month - November - 53, September - 67 (Interesting side note on September of the 67 miles, all 67 miles were run in the first 10 days.)
- Most miles in a week - 58 (3 times in the 50's)
- Fewest miles in a week - 0 (2 times with 0)
- Weight lost - 15 lbs, Weight gained - 15 lbs (give or take a pound or so)
Races completed - McNaughton 50, Lincoln and Fargo marathons, Turtle Trot Triathlon, Red Wing 1/2 marathon, Surf the Murph 25k, Gobble Gait 8k
States added - Illinois and Nebraska
Race partially completed - FANs 12 hour - ran for 10, 2 in med tent
Races DNF - Afton 50k - dropped at 25k, Superior 50 - dropped at 26.7 miles
Race DNS - TCM - I really wanted to run injury prevented me from doing it
Injuries - strained calf at McNaughton (early to mid April), back after FANs (June through August - more of an overuse), ankle (deltoid ligament tear) and calf (tore something, doctors disagreed on which calf muscle) during Superior (September through December) although technically the calf tore after but was strained during Superior
Mileage summary by month:
2 comments:
Mike,
I live in MN too, also a marathon maniac, been running consistently for 30 years (I'm 49). 40+ marathons, 2 ultras.
Winter is the time for laying down an incredible base that can see you through the Spring/Summer months. I ran 260 miles in January, trying the same in February.
I'm not a coach, but jumping from 3-4 days of zero to 10.5 on one run is asking for trouble. It would be much better to do 2 miles every days for 7 days than 5 on one day and 10 on other, and taking the other 5 days off.
Even 2 miles a day would have gotten you 60 miles in January. That would be a small base, but it's a base none-the-less.
Injuries suck, but you have to think about how to heal this ankle thing long-term...like "What can I do in February that will allow me to run pain free in June?"
Forgot to ever post on your comment, thanks for the comment and your advice is right on. I won't follow it probably but it is good advice.
Just got back to 30 miles in a week and even made it 4 days in a row. Nice to almost feel like a runner again.
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