2021 Running Review

Another year with not much going on in running. The working from home routine made training a little better, but also quite repetitive, particularly during the times of 5km and 10km travel limits.

A new record for total distance as well as running once every day of the year, I didn't expect to beat last year's totals and probably won't beat this year for sure now.

• 5128.36 kilometres
• 4366.96 kilometres in 2021
• 392 hours
• 333 hours in 2021

The major events only ran at the beginning and end of the year.

• Sandy Point 10km
• 37:05 PB
• Run The Rock 13.5km
• 53:06
• Sandy Point 10km again
• 36:45 PB
• Melbourne Marathon half
• 1:20:48 PB

The Melbourne Marathon was a good result - just missed a long term goal of 1 hour 20 minutes, but ahead of my 1:22:00 goal and previous best of 1:22:49 in 2019.

I didn't get close to 250 parkruns due to health restrictions for public events, only 24 for the year up to 226 in total. This was also the year when Christmas and New Year's Day were on Saturday, so no bonus events.

I started the year with a 'tourism streak' of going to a different event each week, beginning in South Australia, then combined that with a 'PB streak' for any local events without a low 18 minute time already recorded. By the end of the year this was becoming a bit more effort than reward - the PB part in particular - but should be wrapped up early in 2022 so I can go back to attending some events launched in the past year.

• 24 events
• 52 in 2019
• 9 new events
• 13 in 2019
• 18:01 Diamond Creek - short course
• 18:03 Dandenong
• 18:07 Aurora

The new parkrun events were:

• January
• Victor Harbor, SA
• Naracoorte Lake, SA
• Dandenong
• February
• Aurora
• March
• Altona Beach
• Point Cook
• Cascades On Clyde Wetlands
• April
• Campaspe
• Sunbury

The goals for 2021 and new goals for 2022 are:

• 2021
• 5km 18:00 - just missed
• 10km 37:00 to 37:30 - beat twice
• 21km PB - beat
• 4000+ kilometres - beat with 5000+ kilometres
• 2022
• 5km 18:00 - again
• 10km 36:30
• 21km 1:20:00
• 4500 to 5000 kilometres - not important
• Parkrun
• 10 new events
• Finish PB streak with 20 to 25
• Finish tourism streak with 40 to 50
• Races
• 2 new events - not many options
• 2 interstate events - Gold Coast half marathon
• 0 international events - probably

January Review

Time to kick off another year.

The lockdown / lockout notes might be due for retirement finally.

• Debate over free rapid test kits
• Unlimited money for expensive PCR tests but not for rapid tests apparently
• Every state predicting when their peak will occur
• We're almost at the peak
• We believe we've reached the peak
• More hospital capacity problems
• 750 people from a population of 6.5 million seems to be our limit
• Daily numbers starting to go down, however with significantly lower tests
• A few cases in WA but no major outbreak yet

A standard start to running for another year, a bit of a battle with general leg soreness but good enough for one training session and a parkrun each week. Added another five different events with PB to the collection - Hastings Foreshore (new year's day), Maribyrnong, Pakenham, Westerfolds, Mernda. The best times were either Pakenham 18:03 with a slightly short course or Westerfolds 18:21 with one big hill.

Got another two pairs of shoes for the collection - Nike ZoomX Invincible Run and Nike Pegasus 38 - many others are due for retirement soon so finally get to wear something new.

The shares were on a good run so the inevitable crash came in the middle of the month - losing about 15% in two weeks.

A good mixture of sports still going through summer:

• Australian Open tennis
• Went to the day session on centre court for Australia Day
• Probably haven't been for about 25 years
• The middle women's match Swiatek vs. Kanepi dragged on too long
• Wearing a mask all day in the heat wasn't the best
• Ash Barty winning the women's single was the highlight
• BBL
• The season started well but ended with another Sydney Sixers vs. Perth final
• NFL playoffs
• A classic divisional round with 3 game winning field goals and an overtime
• A very average conference round to follow
• I'll probably be hoping for a Cincinnati Bengals win in the superbowl

The to do list is still a bit empty, in part due to forgetfulness.

• Holiday
• Booking for Gold Coast in July for half marathon
• International still seems unlikely
• Running calendar
• Nothing coming up in January or February
• Geelong 10km in March
• Haven't decided on April, May, or June yet
• Two events I already paid for last year
• Gold Coast half marathon in early July
• Run Melbourne 10km in late July
• Yearly review / preview
• Forgot to make a start - not much to be excited about

Back to the usual at work, got enough to keep busy and still working from home.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies 
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• Dexter New Blood
• I didn't like all the characters, but a better conclusion this time
• 6 out of 10
• The Walking Dead World Beyond - Season 2
• Such an uneventful show that was planned ahead to be two seasons
• Wasted the first season travelling across country to a HQ
• Wasted the second season trying to leave the HQ
• 2 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Metroid Dread
• Tried to enjoy it but had a few frustrations
• Too much forced travel back and forth between sections
• Some annoying boss fights - all the same perfect counter attacking required
• 7 out of 10
• Xbox One
• Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare
• Just resumed since the latest upgrades finally made the game playable