With my 2012 spring racing season in the books, now is a good time for a mid-year review.
I declared 2012 to be my personal “Year of the Run.” Instead of picking one or two “big” races to plan my year around, I instead loaded up my schedule with races – quantity over quality, if you will.
So far in 2012 I’ve ran seven races: four half-marathons, two 10-mile races, and a 10k.
The good: I set PR’s in the half-marathon and 10k distances.
The bad: the half-marathon PR came in my first race of the year back in January, and both PR’s were in distances I had not run in over a year.
Last fall I ran 5k, 5-mile, 15k and 10-mile races and all were PRs. Comparing those times to the ones I logged this spring, I was faster last fall.
So the question is: why?
A few things stand out:
- This past February I was knocked out with the worst flu I’ve had in several years. I was completely laid low for several days, and didn’t regain full strength for about three weeks. It threw my training schedule off, and I had a couple subpar races while not completely recovered.
- I was in better shape last fall. I spent most of last summer cycling with my wife as she trained for her triathlons. We’d go out for 50, 60, 80-mile long weekend rides, that certainly improved my fitness. I was also about 5 pounds lighter.
- Finally, I made some tactical race errors, specifically I started out too fast. In a couple of races I got a few miles in, realized I was running way too-fast, and had to back off considerably. In another race, I tried to make a push a few miles out, only to run out of gas short of the finish line.
I’m still in the downtime after the spring racing season before training begins for the fall. One of the challenges will be to learn from the lessons of the spring and make appropriate changes to my training program. More to come!