Bad Wombat

At this time of the year I need to look back and see what happened in 2005 and do some planning for 2006.

I'm not happy with how I ran in 2005. I enjoy my running the most when I'm racing well. In 2005 I was a bad wombat. A bad, slow wombat. I raced lightly - only 25 times compared to my usual 35-plus - but this didn't have a positive effect. Being a track tragic I've picked the 5000m Vet's championship race in 21:03 as my best of the year. The time was only eight seconds slower than the previous year and I managed to beat my rival Jim White.

Still, I'm not happy. I was light years away from achieving the ridiculously ambitious goals I'd picked out of thin air in early January. To remedy the situation in 2006 I need to concentrate on the rest of this track season, then the winter season followed by the 2006/07 track season.

Will I be happy with my running in 2006? I guess I need to define what 'racing well' means to me. To most runners, including myself, it means achieving certain time goals as we're never in a position to actually win races. I've selected the following time goals which are challenging but not impossible:
Run 800 metres in 2:34, 1500 metres in 5:14, 3000 metres in 11:33 and 5000 metres in 19:59.

To achieve these goals I'll have to practise and train well. I'm not that concerned with non-track goals. If I achieve the times mentioned above I'd hope to run the City to Surf in 60 minutes, a 10k road in 42 minutes and a half marathon in 93 minutes. It goes without saying that I also want to finish the Six Foot Track under the 7 hour time limit and hopefully faster than my 2005 PB of 6:18:10.

Although I wasn't happy with my own running, I was happy to be associated with some very talented and determined runners. I'd like to particularly mention the runners from Calwell, Team Moore, and Luckylegs.

An argument yet to be resolved

Did 2005 really happen? I can see the end of the year approaching and it looks like my running is finishing on a bit of a flat note. But, were there any notes run in key? When I look back through my 2005 diary there are zero races that stand up and say: "Look at me!"

My one track race in the period from January to April was a rather inglorious 10,000m in which I kept the officials waiting by finishing last, two laps behind the poor sod who finished second-last. In the current track & field season I've run just two 3000s, both well outside 12 minutes. Do I really want the highlight of my racing year to be a 3000m race-walk in 16:33?

I guess if I was being coached my coach would have had me doing a good build-up during the winter and now be well into the track racing season. Then, perhaps, a short mini build-up over the three weeks covering Christmas/New Year then more racing on the track through to March.

Instead, I find myself doing this rather serious plan of long runs in preparation for the 2006 Six Foot Track Marathon. "Why am I doing this!" I keep asking myself. I mean, I like doing long runs in the bush. Anything up to 24 kilometres is quite challenging and enjoyable. But, doing the 3-hour-plus, massively hilly long runs required for Six Foot is not exactly compatible with fresh enjoyable racing on the track.

I keep having this silly argument with myself... "You love racing on the track - why not cut back on these foolish disruptive long mountainous runs?" To which I reply: "Yes, but Six Foot is the epitome of running in the Aussie Bush. Don't you want to do a half decent one?"

One day soon I hope, the argument will be resolved.