2014 in Review

I already went over my goals for last year and whether they were met, now it's time to take a broader look at my running in 2014. How many runs did I do? What was my average heart rate? Longest run? Shortest? Average? How many 20+ mile runs did I have all year? Here's a quick Garmin summary of last year:

Count:	230 Activities
Distance:	1,540.95 mi
Max Distance:	50.50 mi
Avg Distance:	6.70 mi
Time:	242:14:17 h:m:s
Avg Speed:	6.4 mph
Avg HR:	137 bpm
Max HR:	179 bpm
Calories:	154,109 C
Elevation Gain:	62,811 ft

It is slightly off since I missed one or two runs that I did without my GPS watch and didn't manually enter the data, but it's pretty darn close. My goal this year is to track every run with GPS and HR. Of course, if it's indoors on the treadmill, there won't be any GPS data, just HR and footpod info (distance, speed, cadence).

My "average" run was 6.7 miles. My longest run was 50.5 miles (at Run Under the Stars night run in KY). Second longest run was 50.0 miles at Tunnel Hill race. I had 8 runs of 20+ miles, but they were all in races or fat ass style events. Outside of races, my longest training run was only 15 miles (three times). That's pretty sad...but typical for me. My emphasis this year will be on more long runs--particularly at Allerton Park and Clinton Lake. I want, and need, more hills. My elevation gain for the year was pathetic, but it is central Illnois. Plus, any treadmill run will come in as zero elevation gain. This year will see less indoor runs and more trails.

My shortest run was 1.5 miles on the coldest day of the year--around -40 windchill! Felt good to brave the elements. I need to do that more often. Cold, wind, rain, snow...I need to run outside. It makes me a stronger runner.

I'm happy with my average heart rate (137) for all my runs. I wanted to do lots of Maffetone style aerobic runs and I did. My max HR during a run (179) was at the St Louis half-marathon during the last 800m "sprint" to the finish. It should have been higher at my 5K race (max=173) since I could have pushed harder the last 400m. I'll repeat that same 5K race in 2015 and see if I can set a new personal best...and reach a new max HR (probably around 190).

I'm happy with 2014. I set some personal bests and I have positive summary statistics for the year. I think 2015 will be even better. Hope springs eternal!