A recap of 2007

2007 has been a great year for me!

In August 2006, I ran the Great Salt Lake Half-Marathon with a time of 2:21:16, 9 minutes faster than my goal of 2:30. My goal at the end of 2006 was to run the Salt Lake City Half-Marathon in April 2007 with a new PB. I began 2007 with a month of fartleks and cadence drills mixed in with my 33 miles/week of LSD. During February I ran intervals, and during March I did hills. I ran the SLC half on April 21 with a time of 2:20:21, a PB by 55 seconds. That time gave me a second place in my age group of 70 and above.

At the end of April, I decided I needed to increase my LSD pace, so I reduced my weekly mileage from 33 mpw to 20 mpw and focused on running faster. I continued this training until October 20, and I decreased my LSD pace by 2 minutes. During this time I ran two 5Ks, one on June 30 (32:28) and the other on September 22 (30:43). My time for the June 5K gave me a 2nd place in my age group. The man who was 1st beat me by 4 minutes, and he was 10 years older than me! The September 5K had its last age group as 45 and above, and I was 10th in that group.

After the September 5K, I decided it was time to increase my weekly mileage back to 33 mpw with a 13-mile long run so I would be ready to run the SLC half in April 2008. By October 20, I had my long run up to 7 miles, but on that day I made a mistake. I ran a fast 5 miles in a cold rain, running fast to keep warm. I felt fine during and after the run, but by evening my legs felt a bit stiff, and by the next day my right leg and knee were feeling sore. I realized I had had my first-ever injury from running. It didn't seem like a serious injury, more like an injury I've had a few times in my arms from lifting heavy objects -- not serious but slow in healing.

During November, I ran short, slow recovery runs, and by November 28, I had my "long" run up to 5 miles, when on that day I slipped on ice that was covered with an inch of snow such that I didn't see the ice. I really banged up my back and tailbone, and I've been recuperating from that injury during the past month. Right now, my back and tailbone feel fine. I'll do my last run for the year on Monday, December 31, and I hope to do an enjoyable 5 miles. During the past month I've been running distances from 1 to 4 miles at a very slow pace of 17 to 15 minutes. I'm interested to see how fast my body wants to go on Monday.