2009 in review and the year to come...

Summary: a year with a shaky first half and a great second half.

Running Boston was a highlight - I've never been in better shape in my life. Too bad about the niggles that grew into a medium scale injury that scuppered race day. Brilliant event though, and I'm looking forward to going back some day, maybe 2012. The endurance base also set up a great second half of the year which saw me get PB's in every distance up to and including 12k.

The second half of the year saw me spending a lot of time at the track  - lots of speedwork and lots of short distance racing. I'd never have thought that I'd be running 3k in 10 and 5k in 17 minutes and it feeling comfortable. It's also been a great learning experience for me, and I'm starting to see that 1500m/3000m/5000m are my optimum distances ; marathons, not so much. However, you can't beat the endurance base you get from marathon training, so I'll still be trying to do one a year.

The year ahead sees the first target being the Australian Masters Championships held at the new Perth stadium over the Easter weekend in which I'm looking to compete in the 800, 1500 and 5000m events. past results indicate I should be competitive ; I don't care about medals - I just want to compete to the best of my ability ; I will need to tailor my training to make sure I peak for this and not get burnt out too early, as happened toward the end of the 2009.

The other highlight promises to be the New York marathon in November ; I'm not aiming to race this one hard  - a time around 3 hours will do me fine, and if I get it right I shouldn't be wasted for 10 weeks afterwards. I am determined to learn the lessons from Boston - lower mileage in the training more speedwork and do actual recovery runs instead of junk miles, - most of all  I want to get to the start line uninjured and enjoy the experience.