Friday, December 23, 2005

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.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Got your message, Ewen - yes I'm still around. Still running a bit - planning to join the mob at the Portsea run on 7th Jan, and big goal this year is the Canberra marathon. Will I see you there?

Cheers

CL

Anonymous said...

Ooops - better make that 'next year'!

CL

Tesso said...

Gee, looks like a good year to me! But I do like your goals for 2006 - hmmm, I might just join you on the C2S 60 minute campaign!

By the way a big congrats to you for the performance of your star pupil LL this year.

Hope you have a wonderful Chrissy and that you achieve all you wish for in 2006.

Wobbly man said...

Man, and I thought I was tough on myself. Maybe I am better off being old and slow after all...

All the best for those 2006 goals! What sort of bike is that BTW?

Robert Song said...

All the best for next year.

So many goals though. I only have one the 2006 Gold Coast Marathon. I find it much easier to focus my thoughts and training when I am only aiming at one thing.

Unknown said...

Looks very much like CB will have to give you some coaching in 2006 if you want to perform well at the track!

Unknown said...

All the best for Christmas and the New Year Ewen. Good luck with your goals for 2006.

Paul (40somethingathlete.blogspot.com)

Aki said...

Merry Christmas Ewen! And good luck in achieving your goals for 2006!

Ewen said...

Wobbly, the bike is a Suzuki GSX 1400 K4. As LL can vouch, it's fast and smooth... accelerating faster than a Ferrari F50 with 0-100 in 3.0secs and 1/4 mile in 11.4secs. It's most impressive feature though is torque - 126Nm @ 5000rpm... the 6th gear acceleration and smoothness from 2000rpm is phenomenal.

Tesso, LLs running and her enjoyment of it has made my year!

Robert, not having a marathon goal allows me to indulge in lots of short-distance goals. Good luck with your GC training!

Thanks all readers in 2005 and see you again in 2006!

Rob said...

All the best for achieveing your 2006 goals Ewen, particularly the 19:59 5000m.
Thanks for your encouragement during 2005.
Will see you in Canberra in April.

Stu Mac said...

Well done on your achievements in 2005, no matter how hard anyone can be there are always positives!

It was really good to meet you and I really enjoyed the Majura run, so a BIG thanks for that.

And regarding your 'star pupil', I would suggest giving her a nice short race sooner rather than later, just so she can see and believe in her speedy ability. :-)

Horrie said...

You have got to learn to be kinder to yourself Ewen. You will enjoy your running more by relaxing more. The times will then take care of themselves. Good luck with your goals in 2006. See you at 6 Foot.

Aki said...

I don't believe I've been to Queensland lately, now I'm wondering who went!

CJ said...

Happy new year and hope you have a great 2006 Ewen. Good luck with your running goals - I will watch with interest!