Stretch more, Drink less and Oh yeah - Start a Blog

My New Year's resolutions. The first two are always there each and every year waiting patiently for me to address them more seriously. The good news is that as of 4pm New Year's Day I have achieved both already.

And as such it is my 3rd resolution that sees me sitting here watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Jaden and launching into 2016 with yet another blog for the world to get involved in following. When I say the world, I'm merely hoping I can learn from the masters Tim Lindop and Tom Highnam in the art of accounting for every moment of their day, who was there to witness these moments, what banter transpired and whether anything meaningful was actually achieved in those 24hrs.

So Happy New Year everyone - SWEET 16 the paper labelled it. I'm certainly hoping for a sweet year. Preferably one with a few more HuRT's victories after quite an undulating 2015. Last year had some great challenges running wise for me. The Buffalo Stampede and Noumea 80km trail races in the first half were a fantastic way to sightsee and suffer simultaneously whilst ensuring my road and track speed were completely stuffed.

Once "I came down out of the hills from bird watching" as a tactful John 'Barts' Bartlett described it, I was able to pull together a decent City to Surf but my Gold Coast and Blackmores halves were quite forgettable. JP Morgan was a struggle but a few park runs and the beer mile went ok (yep that's what it's come down to with this analysis of my year), but after all was said and run, 2015 didn't really deliver the results for me I was after.

Having said that, I have been running for a long time - 35 years now. Not dramatically losing speed as I age whilst staying injury free should be considered a win in itself but "let me make this perfectly clear" (Barts quote again). I am not ready to slow down or give up the fight just yet. The strong and friendly rivalry between Tom, Quentin, Barts and myself rages on with bragging rights and a free Bondi lunch up for grabs to the most dominant of the four from the year. There are plenty of other contenders looming large to take us down no doubt and in 2016 watch out for the likes of Nick Roberts, Jonno Fenton and Enda Stankard..........

No seriously Nick and Jonno are actually running well as are a few others.

What will 2016 look like for me? Speed / endurance / hills / trails / track / road?? I think given that the powers that be in the wonderful world of Ultra racing organisation are planning a return to Doha for this year's 100km champs, I will lay down a more normal year of 5km, 10km, half and full events. It will also include my 31st City to Surf of course where my streak of 22 consecutive sub 50's should be safe (famous last words).

Park run tomorrow morning, Sun Run 10km in Feb, Six Foot track in March, and Canberra Marathon in April just to get things rolling. Two other notable battles are also in play against Tom Highnam.
1) Calendar year running streak - who will fold first? Minimum 30min run every day.
2) Age and gender adjusted Park Run % currently held by Tom who edged ahead late in the year to be at 87.11% to my 86.57%. It's only because he waited to turn 42 to run his 15:53.

So huge huge stuff I know. I've ruled Rio out. Quite frankly the airfares are too expensive and don't have enough leave.

My goals for the year are:

1) Sub 32mins for 10km  (PB 31:22 - 1997)
2) Sub 15:40  (PB 15:06 - 2003)
3) Sub 71mins for GC half (PB 68:58)
4) Sub 2:30hrs for Canberra and /or Melb full  (PB 2:29:44)
5) Six foot track - don't blow up on Black range and try and get top 10 - sub 3:35hr. (PB 3:33)
6) Sub 46mins for City to Surf  (PB 45:44)
7) Sub 17:14 for JP Morgan (PB 17:25)
8) Beat Barts, Tom and Quentin as much as possible
9) Make more money from bets than I lose (so don't bet Timmy or Enda)
10) Have fun, stay fit, coach well, and try and complete as many of the above as I can.


And with that, to the person who stumbles upon this post, and may even get to the end of it, I salute you for you are helping me to achieve New Year's resolution number 3!

still haven't had a drink BTW 4:46pm 1/1/16

CT

PS: I ran 8km easy earlier. Almost forgot to mention this.