2013 Year-In-Review

Highlights:- Business Trips to 5 Continents (South Africa, China, Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil/Argentina)
- First Boston Qualifier, earned at the St. George Marathon
- Family vacation out West
- New hobby: Beer
- Visited friends in DC and Princeton
- Foray into Trail Racing

Weekly Mileages/Training:

 

 

Key:

Purple = Week with no race

Yellow = 5K

Orange = 10K-ish

Green = Half Marathon

Red = Marathon-ish



 

The first part of the year was all about trail racing.  I built up from a 7K to a 12K to an 18 miler.  It was fun, but that last one left me tired going into the training cycle for the St. George Marathon, my 4th BQ attempt.  You can see that I didn't race at all between the 18 miler in week 20ish and the marathon in week 40.  Burned out from racing.  I wasn't expecting much from St. George, since I had a week where I was injured (refer to week 30), and I was tired.  I didn't get in very many long runs.  That ended up helping, though (the lack of racing and the lack of long runs and the lack of high expectations).  I took it easy, went my own pace, and did a negative split.  The downhill nature of the course helped, too, as did the perfect temps.  In the last quarter of the year, I tried a HM, but it didn't go too well.  I spent the rest of the year just relaxing, treating any sort of workout as an accomplishment.  Hopefully, it would be a good time for my body to recuperate, although my left knee continues to yoink periodically.

This is the breakdown of the types of runs that I did:

 

It still looks pretty good.

 

Shoe Updates:

 

In the past couple of years, the Saucony Kinvaras have been my favorite for long distance racing.  They're lightweight and cushioned.  This year, the Saucony Virattas came out.  They're even lighter.  They're my new favorite.  I wore them during the BQ race.  Another favorite is the Brooks PureGrit, which is a trail shoe, but it's very cushioned and lightweight.  I haven't tried any of the other models in the Pure* series, but I look forward to trying more of them in the future.  I initially purchased the PureGrit because it was mocha colored, and could pass for walking-around-town shoes when I went on business trips, but they're so nice for running, that I use them on the treadmill, too.

 

Stats:

Total Mileage: 921.5.... Since I accomplished the 1,000 mi goal last year, I didn't' feel the need to repeat it this year.  That's about 2.5 mi per day on average.

Total Time Spent Running: 5 days, 6 hours, 41 min, 51 s... about 20:45 per day on average.

Total Time Spent Cross-training: 2 days, 14 hours.  This consists mostly of body weight strength training and recumbent biking in the gym.  That's about 10 min per day on average.  This means that in all, I spend about 31 min per day working out.