Closing Out 2007

Vanilla, who writes the Half-Fast blog, wrote his "Requisite Year in Review" on Thursday. I decided to wait until I had done my last run of 2007 to give a summary. Last year, I posted my summary in case someone was interested but it turned out to be for my benefit. I had kept my running log on my Palm but it decided to die early in 2007 and I had not synched it to my computer recently so I lost a month or so of records. The summary "saved my bacon", so to speak because I was able to piece together the information that I needed.

So, this year's summary is as much for my benefit as for the interest of anyone else :)

Number of runs: 236

WARM-UP WALKING AND RUNNING:
Distance: 1488.99 miles
Average distance: 6.31
Total time (hh:mm:ss): 206:30:30.89
Average MPM (mm:ss): 8:19.28

RUNNING ONLY:
Distance: 1441.62204 miles
Average distance: 6.11
Total time (hh:mm:ss): 193:54:55.89
Average MPM (mm:ss): 8:04.24

Shoes: 1 pair Brooks Adrenaline GTS7, 3 pair Etonics Jepara SC (current)
States: VA, NC, SC, GA, TN, CA
Countries: South Africa, Kenya
Longest Run: 13.1 miles, Richmond, VA Maymont X-Terra Half Marathon
Fastest Run: Richmond, VA, 7-Mar-07, 4.52 miles@7:33.35 mpm
Fastest Mile: Richmond, VA 18-Jul-07. 1.04 miles@6:45 mpm
Favourite Run: Maymont X-Terra Half Marathon, 13.1 miles@8:17.54 mpm (1:49:12)
Most Exotic Run: Tigoni, Kenya -- Kenya highlands
Most Fun Run: Christmas Lights Run, 5.3 miles
Worst/Hardest Run: Maymont X-Terra Half Marathon -- very hard course

Most difficult lesson of 2007: Learning that slowing down on the majority of my training runs is a good thing. My training plan for the half marathon had me doing my long runs at 8:32-9:03 mpm. I was concerned that this would train my mind/body to run more slowly. But, my track repeats and tempo runs showed me that I could still run faster (individual miles @ 6:45-7:30 mpm) and the 3rd mile of the half marathon was @7:06 (too fast for the race).

Happy New Year to all of you!

Run well, y'all,
Bob Allen
Richmond, VA