Hello lovely VRBs – it’s me, Cmoi, wishing you all a Bonne Année from France’s Massif Central!
How’s 2022 looking for you? I’ve very recently retired (well mostly…) from a working life that all too frequently resembled a cross between Twister and Jenga. So for the first time in decades I have the luxury of easing into the New Year rather than confronting a jam-packed timetable.
The photo, taken on 1st January 2022, shows where many of my runs start out. I run up a gentle incline, past the barn which shelters both firewood and a family of foxes, continue between fields bordered by tangled trees and hedges, then drop down to the fork in the road where I let my feet decide whether to head left or right.
By chance more than design, that shot has captured how I feel about the prospect of running in the year ahead: an open structure, plenty of wildness, and most of all the promise of an open road, sunlight and the wild blue yonder.
So how do you see the coming year? Is it a calendar to be filled – or perhaps it's already completed - with events and training plans? Are you looking forward to getting back into your usual routine? Or does a more freewheeling approach work for you?
Do let us know in the comments. Whether you’re a seasoned runner or a newcomer, wherever running takes you in 2022, I hope it brings you happiness.
The Marathon Team xxx
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Cmoi
Marathon
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First and foremost, my aim is to keep off the injury couch.
I feel I've reached a good compromise in my activities at the moment. I'm now regularly active but without it taking over my life. I'm averaging about 100 miles of running a month.
It would be nice be able to run further, but I'll be taking it gradually.
I'm sure some colleagues at work will be organising entry to another event, but I find I can take or leave such things. I happen to enjoy just being out doing my own thing.
What I will be doing, once the weather improves a little, is exploring more, and getting up into the hills a bit.
Sounds like you've found a great balance nowster , getting in the miles without undue pressure. Here's to staying injury-free, and enjoy them thar hills!
I'm going to run purely without pressure or expectation. I will go when I like, wherever I like and how far I like. No goals other than to enjoy the fact that I can go out there 😊 Best wishes to you 🙏
I can't complain really, I won a bag in the tombola!
Know what you mean about the age category thing - the other women in my category in the trail marathon had all been running for years. Come to that, most of those taking part had been!
Hello Cmoi, it’s great to see you hosting 🙂and especially the first one of a new year!
That’s a beautiful photo, I love the contrast between the sky and foreground. It does sound as if you’re ready to take on the year with abandon 🤗 I wish you joy.
The year ahead for me is a mixture of training for various races (February, March and August so far) and unstructured “just for me” runs. Mind you, I’ve already gone off piste on my current plan 🙄so I guess I like a combination 🙂
I also want to take my distance further this year but I probably need to stop entering races for a while to do that! And then yesterday I saw yet another HM that is tempting for June! Oh…. decisions…. decisions….what’s a runner to do?
I read somewhere about having A, B and C races, and have been trying to incorporate that into my planning. A being the ones you organise your training around, with focussed training and clear tapers. B are less important but you perhaps do a few specific workouts, allow yourself the odd day off to have rested legs and then give it a good effort on the day but don't go all out. (Luckily quite a few of the B races I'd like to do fall in my speed training phase so I'm just doing them instead of a fast workout.) And then C is just for fun, just turn up and enjoy it. Sounds like you could add in a few B or C races!
Gorgeous photo RunWillie ! That's some mileage you're setting yourself too, I've never got anywhere near that. I'm sure a metric marathon, or even a full one, is easily within reach if you choose.
Wow. Fantastic views and congrats on your retirement. Think of all that ultra marathon training you can fit in ! 🤣
For 2022 I am taking a bit of a new direction sport wise. I'm throwing myself into Triathalons! So far 3 sprint distance Tris booked and I may well attempt an Olympic distance towards the end of the year!!
I'm so impressed by anyone who takes on triathlon at any distance Windoze - I'm a doggy-paddle swimmer and haven't been on my bike for years. I think I'll stick to working back towards longer distances 😉
Local is definitely good! Cost me a lot of money to transport my bike to London last year. Although, if I'd known I could hire a bike at the site I would have done that instead! But never mind, and it WAS nice to ride my own bike 😊😊😊
Not sure you'll find a triathlon very near the end of the year - there are some in October that I can see.
Well that's me just this second been confirmed for running my second London Vitality Virtual 10,000 in early May, I have recently been running only 3 and 5K runs but come March I will build up again to 10Ks and be ready for that run in early May.
Fantastic news AlMorr , you're such an inspiration - go get that 10K again!
Howdy and nice view to start from!
My foremost goal is to start running again. I have not run in nearly a month mainly due to just not being in the mood to run and the gloomy dreary weather. I think I pushed myself (mentally) too hard to reach ten miles and when I reached it, I had to about had it with running. Not good, reminder to myself: never ever push yourself for something anymore. It just takes the fun out of things.
My plan now is to do follow a Start to Run plan (C25K kinda thing) to both ease into my new shoes and ease into running again. I just don't know when I will start with it, because the gloomy weather is not inviting me to go outside. I am planning to do some kind of activity again and will check out my old exercise bike today after work to see how I can get it to work properly again. So I might dip into cycling on my exercise bike for a bit until the weather invites me to come out and play again...
Happy New Year Cmoi, and what a gorgeous photo. 😍 Your runs sound incredible, and I hope you enjoy them this year!
I have quite a number of events planned for this year already and I’m definitely open to entering more! So far Bath Half in April, Vitality 10000 in May, Severn Bridge 10k in August, Bristol 10k in September and GSR in October. Most of these involve ARB meet-ups, so an added bonus! I also intend to do plenty of PR tourism, some local-ish with my daughter, and some not so local to meet my ARBs (and any VRBs who may be keen to meet too!)
So right now I’m on W2 of my HM training plan. Let’s rock 2022! 👊🎉🏃♀️🏃♂️
Just reading your list of events and plans exhausts me cheekychipmunks ! 😜 You're definitely on your way to rocking 2022, hope you have a wonderful time!
Hi nowster - I know there’s interest in some of us revisiting Lyme Park at some point, but we’re all over the country so it’s trying to coordinate! I’m in Bristol for example! We enjoyed it last time. 😀
That really looks like a beautiful place to run, thanks for sharing the photo.
My aim for 2022 is to complete my marathon training plan before my April marathon and not give up half way like I did last year. I'm going to be very selfish for the next couple of months and make sure I give myself enough time to run, to chill afterwards and not to feel guilty that some other things may slip in the process.
I then have a time in mind for the marathon that I would like to achieve, but my goal is much more than I complete the training properly rather than worrying about the overall time. Doing the Loch Ness Marathon last year (even if we walked a very significant amount of it) was a great experience and has given me lots of ideas of what to do differently and actually a lot of confidence that I can do this.
After April, my plan is for running to just be a bit of fun. Doing parkrun, trail runs with friends and not getting stressed if I end up not running too frequently. Maybe some races that look interesting if they take my fancy and maybe no more races for the rest of the year. Who knows.
Here's to hoping that writing down my aim makes me more likely to achieve it. I have many insecurities about my running, so for now I've not told any of my running friends that I've started a marathon training plan! You lovely people now know my secret!!
As I've said previously, I found marathon training way more demanding than the actual event, and I walked (and hopped, skipped, jumped, slipped and scrambled...) chunks on the day. Good luck for your training!
Love the photo and hope you fully enjoy your reduced commitments. I semi retired last year (down to half hours) and love the extra time I have for running and riding and so on. Next week I have to do jury service for two weeks - that's going to be like having a full time job, how on earth will I fit everything in? 😱I'm hoping to keep my 2022 schedule light so I can rest if I feel any niggles. Having finished the bingo card over the holidays, I'm now concentrating on a light HM plan ready for April. All I ask is that I stay injury free! To that end, I ordered a new pair of shoes as I realise I've had mine 17 months and to say they are feeling a bit flat is something of an understatement!
Yikes indeed! They have picked the wrong person for so many reasons! Not least I don't want to catch covid just before leaving for Canada!Shoes? Same old same old. Hoka Clifton again. I love the shoe. Yes they blister me, but so does everything else I've tried, and I'm just not in the mood to hunt around 🤷♀️
Thanks linda9389 . Hope jury service goes well. I've always been intrigued by it, but never picked.
I'm looking forward to having more free time! So far I just seem to be playing catch-up: the to-do list is no shorter, and I seem to be way more tired and far less efficient.
Happy new shoes, and most of all, stay injury-free!
My focus for this year is to improve my Marathon PB. With that in mind, I’m trying to book Manchester for the beginning of April. I’ve already booked Milton Keynes (beginning of May) and Newport (September). That leaves me with a gap over the summer. Depending on how things work out, I might have another attempt at the GMU in August but my original idea was to wait until next year.
Other than that, there are a few local events, mostly 10k some on road some off which I might have a go at but I’m really thinking of spreading them over the next few years. I suppose it’s a case of avoiding having a load of events booked.
I’m also booked onto the Bath HM in March, should be a good VRB meetup that and it’s possible that I’ll break the two hour barrier then; suppose that depends on how my training goes.
I’ve just been reminded by the post from cheekychipmunks , I’ll probably have a go at the Bristol HM as well.
Thanks GoGo_JoJo . I really haven't got my head round the retirement thing yet! I've been so used to having to fit in with other people's schedules and meet deadlines all the time that I seem to have gone to the other extreme for now - flopping all over the place!
The other day I ran down a hill directly into incoming sleet. By that point I was near home so headed back.
My run yesterday felt colder and windy, and there were icy puddles on the trail where then sun hadn’t pushed through. It was ok though as I had the right gear on. Apart from gloves, which I must remember to start taking with me.
Well done! I went back up to the forest today and got in 12k, which is more than I've run for a few weeks. Then two unplanned walks totalling 4k this afternoon, near my lovely local garage where my car is now having a sleepover... 🙃
I walk everywhere despite owning a car 🙂. I did two runs the other day, followed by a trail walk with my husband I thought it would help mitigate cake. It didn’t! ☺️
It'd be difficult to walk everywhere here. That garage is about 35k return, nearest small shops are 8k return, and nearest supermarkets are 40k return. Work was further!
I chose edge of town rather than village life as I knew i’d need the car all the time. Living near in/ near town is cheaper as everything’s to hand. The trail is not far either so it’s the best of both worlds. Once I get my pension ( finally 🙄) it hopefully comes with a bus pass so I can explore Derbyshire on a budget 🏃♀️Valderee 🎶🎵😘
Greetings to you and the wild blue yonder! I've just been setting myself up a training plan for a 30k trail run in May - I have been experimenting with the FinalSurge app and website which seem a great way to set up a plan - very satisfying to see all the colour-coded activities neatly laid out! I like that if you have a planned workout and upload a similar activity to Strava it automatically marks it completed on Final Surge. I think I can also use Final Surge to sync planned interval workouts to Garmin though I haven't quite worked that out yet...
Yesterday I did a 10k club run - I have recently gone up a pace group and I think it has been a good decision, challenging me to push a bit more than I would manage on my own. Last night everyone seemed at the faster end of the pace range so while I did manage to stick with the group, I was mostly at the back. It took me close to my target race pace for the 10k race I have coming up on the 16th, which feels like a good omen for getting that PB!
Oh and my other bit of good news is that I managed to finish joint first female in my club Strava challenge - it's been a fun challenge to do and again has pushed me to do more than I thought I could, particularly last January/February when club wasn't running. I've discovered lots of new routes too. This year I've volunteered to organise the challenge so I'm having lots of fun coming up with ideas.
Wow, that's great stuff Blackberrypie , well done. Your commitment to running and organisation put me to shame. I'm afraid spreadsheets and colour-coded plans just don't do it for me, though the automatic uploading and completion feature sounds neat. Happy planning, running and challenge organising too!
Lovely photo Cmoi! I can identify with this idea. I often have no idea where a long run will go until I am doing it. I’ve just signed up for a 50k trail race in Haliburton, just south of Algonquin park here in Ontario. It’s not until Sept but I’m told it is more challenging than my 2021 course, with lots of hilly rocky sections and single track so there is much to prepare for. And in Oct I have a 22k trail race planned which is just a fun race. Beyond that, it’s just the structured training and some loose longer distance efforts. Maybe some speed stuff too. Happy trails everyone!
That 50k sounds like lots of fun Decker ! I've only done two events, and both had a bunch of hilly, rocky and single-track sections. In my innocence I thought that was normal!
Definitely do get onto similar terrain beforehand if you can. On event day I blessed all the times I'd done apparently silly things during training, like scrambling up and zigzagging down 25%+ gradient forest paths in both dusty and muddy conditions, balacing on stones to cross streams, running through knee-high vegetation, using trees as grabrails... Turned out it was great preparation!
Yes I definitely plan to. The only issue is that kind of terrain is a bit far for daily or even weekly runs from where I am in Toronto. Its lovely to get into though and I am looking forward to all the switchbacks and rock-strewn streams!
Hi Cmoi, thank you for hosting the Chat this week! Such wonderful imagery to lead us into 2022 😍
I've now got 6 events booked, so my calendar's pretty full. I'm thinking of taking a mixed approach - some structure and some freestyling. I've got a road marathon plan lined up which has only three runs per week, so I'll add a cheeky trail run every so often. After that I have a couple of trail races and I'd like to use an "as I feel" tactic for those. And I've got a triathlon so I'll be doing some cross-training throughout the year 😃 And then there's a 10 mile road race, but it's not till October so I'll think about it later...
It could be that I am completely nuts, but it'll be fun anyway 😊😊😊
Sounds like a fabulous year coming up for you roseabi - no idea how you do it, especially that mix of road, trail and tri! Have fun, nutty or otherwise!
Happy New Year Cmoi. 😘IC is a bad way to start the year, but that is where I am! No runs for about 3 weeks…..but things are looking up following a trip to the physio this morning. She thinks that my foot keeps swelling as my body thinks, mistakenly, that it still needs to protect an impact injury which has fixed itself. All the extra fluid generated and associated swelling is just not needed……ARE YOU LISTENING FOOT ! 🤭
A bit of manipulation this morning has already made a difference, so hopefully the prescribed exercises will do the trick soon. Maybe my ageing frame just doesn’t like winter. So far I only have the GSR in my diary. I am not going to make any more commitments until I am fully fit and back to my fighting weight. That way I won’t be tempted to rush things/take short cuts trying to keep up with a programme. Go with flow time 🙂
Oh boo to being on the IC Beachcomber66 , that must be so frustrating. Wishing you a speedy recovery, and fun going with the flow once you're back running!
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