Just over a year ago, I blogged that I’d decided to retire from racing. And honestly, it’s definitely been the right thing to do. I’ve enjoyed having the freedom to run less, and to focus more on running when I want to, rather than because the schedule says I must. There are some very rough guidelines in place in my head, based mostly on running for healthy fitness rather than racing fitness: run something like 4 or more times a week (but no more than 6!); make sure your longest run is only twice as long as your second longest run; do a tiny bit of harder running (it’s good to raise your heart rate a little more than average, and it also uses different muscles, so is good for strength); and do a little bit of core/glute/calf/stability work before most of your runs.
These new guidelines (plus some missed weeks for things like holidays and illness/injury) mean that I ran about 1,400 miles in 2022, rather than the 2,000+ I’d always aimed for over the past however many years. I’ve enjoyed almost every single one of those 1,400 miles, which is more than can be said for the miles I was grinding out towards the end of 2021. I’m not missing hard training, but I can see it would be nice to do some low key team events. The one really nice part of the track race I got roped into over the summer was catching up with familiar faces, supporting them whilst they competed, and enjoying celebrating their successes.
running home for christmas 