Year End Report 2024

Strange.  I logged 1,357 miles running in 2024, my fourth highest annual total ever - behind 2021 (1,538), 2012 (1,406), 2023 (1,376), and somehow beating 2020 (1,320).  I am not sure how I managed to do so in a year where I not only took a break from running full marathons and entering races, but also didn't once ramp up my distance as if I were training for a full marathon.

I mean, in 2023 I ran at least one 26.2+ miler, but twice trained as if I was going to run the full distance (the latter to ensure I was fit for hiking in Peru).  These past two years both included a two-week long travel imposed break from running.  Heck, this year I only ran two runs that were a half marathon distance or more (a full training schedule includes at least 9...10 if you count the marathon) and yet somehow I finished within 20 miles of last year's total.  I finished 2024 with more miles than the last two years I ran full marathon races (2019, 2020).

That said, I actually should be able to run as many as 1,482 miles if I merely run my four week between-marathon training schedule.  I only ran more than this total once in all of the years I have run marathons.  In other words, I usually fall short of distance targets or missed training days for various reasons (injuries, illness, air quality, work, travel).  I know I had an injury in 2019.  Can't remember if I had any issues in 2023 (a quick review of 2023's year end report mentions injury and illness), but I did have two big falls this year neither of which caused me to skip any running days.  That said, I did think the first of the two might have bruised or even cracked a rib (not a totally different one than the one injured in 2022 and 2023).  My wife is starting to wonder how frequently I injure myself.  She didn't realize running is a full contact sport!

I am a little disappointed that I did NOT improve my pace in 2024. I actually lost a couple of seconds per mile over 2023, but that is the downside of not including any races or race-like efforts.  The big differentiator was March of 2023, when I finished a marathon training cycle ahead of running my personal "Sea to the Sea" marathon.  Though I did not run it like a race, I still completed the distance faster than 10 minutes per mile.  I also find that ramping up the distance for an endurance event and then tapering tends to naturally gives me a boost. That said, I didn't see the same boost when I tapered ahead of Peru...likely because I wasn't worried about taking an excessively long time to do a single 26.2 mile run!

There is hope though...I finished the year completing a mile challenge in 6:33, besting the times I set in 2022 and 2023 by half a minute!