"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt



Wednesday 9 January 2013

My year in numbers

If you combine a runner and someone who is paid to analyse numbers full time, what do you get? A running geek, that’s what!

This means that every run I complete – whether that be a race, club run, or plod round the block, I recorded it using my trusty Garmin 305…

…I then may have created a spread sheet to record these miles logged (despite Garmin having a program and website to provide this functionality)

In 2012 I ran 419 miles – this will miss off a few due to rare occasions of my Garmin batteries dying (sacrilege I know!) or (even worse) forgetting my Garmin altogether.

I completed these 419 miles in 2 days, 1 hour, 50 minutes and 47 seconds meaning my average pace was a not too shabby 7 minutes and 8 seconds.

I’m quite impressed with that given that total includes some feeble half and 1 mile runs whilst injured and recovering from injury. The total mileage completed isn’t great, but as my ‘proper’ active months where from March up to, and including, August (so 6 months) it stands to reason that had I been fit for the full 12 months I would have been close to 1,000 miles.

All this miles per minute chat is really making me miss running quite a lot, and, in a moment of weakness I entered a race.

It’s only 10km, but it’s on the 10th February, a mere 4 weeks away. It’s the Mad dog 10km in Southport and I missed it last year through injury. It was silly of me to enter it really, but there is a very slim chance I will be fit for it, and whilst there is hope… I will keep on hoping!

Fingers crossed for my physio appointment next week  :)
“To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”


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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous23 January 2013 at 23:37

    Hey David - just read your guest post over at Jay's blog, so thought I'd pop across and see yours.

    Sounds like your knee's a right bother - I haven't had any significant injury in the year and a bit I've been running, but I did get significant knee pain about four months in, and was at the point of going to see a physio, maybe a podiatrist and that kind of thing.

    To cut a long story short, I didn't do any of that, because I started running in barefoot shoes (not the ones with the toes, normal looking ones) and found I had none of the knee pain whatsoever. I've not looked back, never had any knee pain since.

    Just thought it worth mentioning, as it improved things an awful lot for me - transitioning to barefoot takes a bit of work, starting with a few hundred easy metres and working up, as your calves will feel the difference first. My knee pain was like you describe, outside of the knee, dreadful when going downstairs.

    Good luck with the recovery!

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    Replies
    1. dk_know24 January 2013 at 12:18

      Thanks! A couple of people have mentioned barefoot running, and those who I know who do barefoot run rave about it like you; it is certainly something I will look in to.

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