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As promised, it’s time to look toward 2011. I decided to draw some inspiration by catching up on what professional Hoosier born runner Amy Begley is up to, reading a few ultra runner blogs, and watching the 2010 Ironman broadcast. (Though I have to say it’s a shame they don’t cover it as a world championship sporting event, instead turning it into a dramatized advertisement. The shameless product placement, lead-in ads and human interest stories that plug sponsors was disappointing, but consistent with Ironman branding. /end rant)

Before mapping out 2011, I did a little more reflection on 2010, which was a banner year! I put in 1262 training miles, an average of just under 3.5 miles a day (not counting hikes and snow showing). Thanks to consistent training and finally doing intervals, I lowered my pace by 30 seconds per mile. I enjoyed many new experiences as well as revisiting some old favorites. I am very lucky to have an excellent training partner in Beej, who encourages me to run when it would be easy to skip out, and reminds me to make easy runs easy and hard runs hard. I also enjoyed a few new running buddies to share miles throughout the season.

Last year I picked two big events and trained for those; all my interim races led up to those “A” races. For 2011, I decided to pursue the “rolling wave” planning approach that I use at work, where I nail down what I’m doing the next three months and put rough sketch plans for the 3-6 month range, with placeholders for what I’m likely to do after that.

January 1: Hangover Classic in Salisbury (10K)
February 20: Half at the Hamptons (13.1M)
March 6: Black Cat in Salem (20M)
April/May long race: Nashville Marathon or McNaughton in Vermont or Seven Sisters Trail Race
Summer: Have fun, do more hikes/trail runs, and probably do Yankee Homecoming in August, Cape Ann in Sept
Fall: Marathon?

I definitely want to prioritize events with friends, especially if it involves racing in a new state. I really enjoy the loooooong runs, but they are time consuming and are tougher without a buddy. I plan to see how I feel about the New Year’s 10K, my first race at that distance since 2000. I may focus on 10K to half marathon distances that would better align with Brian’s sweet spot, or fall back to the long distance plan of half-marathons to ultras but keep up some speed work.