2021 Running Report

As 2021 heads into the final lap, I spent a few minutes this weekend looking through my year-to-date running stats. Here are some of the data points that I found interesting.

A map showing that I logged running events in three states: Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina.
I went for a run in three different states: Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. Two of my runs came within less than a mile of North Carolina, but alas I didn’t cross the state line to make my tally four.
I logged the most running activities in April, followed by March and June. I logged a lot fewer activities towards the end of the year when I completed two ultras (Lady of the Lake and Sky to Summit) and dealt with two minor injuries.
My monthly totals (distances) were approximately 100 miles in January, 80 in February, 140 in March, 155 in Aril, 80 in May, 120 in June, 70 in July, 170 in August, 140 in September, 40 in October, 60 in November, and 40 so far in December.
I logged the most miles in August, followed by April and September. In August, I had a few massive training runs, including my longest ever run at 50 miles. I also exceed 100 miles per month six times: in January, March, April, June, August, and September. I probably also exceeded 100 miles in July, but my Garmin broke and about 10 days worth of runs are missing from my Garmin data.

My longest effort of the year was this 50 mile training run which I completed with my running buddy, Alex:

My fastest efforts this year included a 5:49 mile, a 21:48 5k, a 48:53 10k, a 1:56:26 half marathon, and a 5:05:47 marathon. I think I can improve on the 5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathon times, but I don’t know that I’ll ever run a faster mile.

Year in Summary

2019 was the year I started running occasionally, in the summer of 2020 I ramped up my mileage, and 2021 is the first year where I ran consistently for an entire year. I made a lot of progress in 2021 and as I think about where I can improve I think the biggest thing I want do in 2022 is just to level things off. My peaks and valleys were too pronounced in 2021: my long runs were too long and my daily runs were too short, my high mileage months were too high, and that lead to low mileage months as I recovered from injury. In 2022, I want to clip off those peaks so I can also pull up those valleys and find greater consistency and overall fitness, durability, strength, and health.

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