What Worked... What Didn't

Yup, it's getting to be the end of another year... which means it's time to start making goals for the next! But, before you do that, it might be a good idea to see what you can learn from your training this year (aka time to break out your training log and do some analysis). The easiest thing to look at is mileage. Two metrics to consider are total mileage and average weekly and/or monthly mileage. I also like to look at how my mileage compared week-to-week and month-to-month (the later being a low-pass filtered version of the former). For example, even though a runner might average ~40-miles a week, they might never run this weekly mileage. Looking back at our schedule this past year, many of us trained for longer stuff in the earlier and later part of the year, and kept it shorter in the summer.

The next thing to consider is racing... did you meet your goals or did you not? Some things to look at are the number of races you ran, the frequency and distance of these events, and what you were doing in terms of training when you raced. This helps to gauge "expected performance", and might point to how you can tweak your training for next year to peak more effectively. Also, note when you were "feeling good" (or injured), and see what you were doing for training for the few weeks proceeding these events.

Bring it 2012!