A For Consistency, D for Improvement...

For the past three years, my final race of the season has been the Jingle Bell Run, one of the bigger 5k's in the area.

Last year, I came in 26th place w/ a 19:47. This year, I came in 26th place w/ a 19:53. Last year, though, I missed an AG award by a minute. This year, I missed it by three seconds. Ouch.

Without a doubt, it was an interesting year of running, and mainly a good year. My early spring races were all PR's and gave way to a good summer of training for a fall marathon. There were definitely points in the late summer, early fall when I think I was ready for some fast races. However, I didn't deviate from my plan and ended up with a lackluster marathon and without a final 5k PR. About that, I'm not pleased.

More than anything, I'm confused going into '09. While I don't think it's weird that 07 and 08 were so similar, given how differently I trained this year, I guess I do... my low-mileage high speed plan yielded very similar results to my high-mileage low-speed plan. I guess in the end I'll need to do both to push me over the top.

I still haven't finalized my plan for '09, but I'm once again thinking of the Delaware Marathon. That had been my plan last year, but I quickly abandoned it in February when I took a week off for injury. Considering how well this spring went, though, it could be a good idea. Also, it's a small enough marathon that I can wait until just before it to make the call.

I also have blog posts coming on the Vibrams and an update on the diabetes (and how it could help my Boston plans), but they'll both have to wait... Duty calls.

Comments

  1. Anne Findlay9:41 AM

    hey maybe you could join Jerry in a triathlon!! :) I had my marathon PR after training for my first half-ironman. I think, for me, getting my weight down had a significant role, but it was the first time I hit a taper period feeling like I didn't need to taper.

    -Anne

    ReplyDelete
  2. dan kerr5:13 PM

    IMHO... "A" for training and fitness and a potential "A" for lessons learned for the next marathon! The marathon was only a failure if you don't learn anything new about race day execution. Bash on, man... bash on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nitmos7:30 AM

    Good luck in 2009!

    Happy holidays!

    ReplyDelete
  4. klroti9:11 PM

    Hi Marcus -

    Believe it or not, I just saw your comment from October - I'm still getting used to this blogging thing! The PA marathon went all right I guess - 4 hours even, though I hurt my knee all the way back at mile 4. Reading some of your posts, I'm sure you did very well! I'm thinking of running NYC next year so I'll have the whole summer to train.

    Hope you're enjoying the holidays, good luck with all of your intense training!

    ReplyDelete

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