This is the end

This time last year I was in much better shape, but i'm not complaining. It's more exciting when the only way is up and improvement is before you.

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Jan - I started the year with 2 PB's in January - 4 miles on 24th and 10 miles on 31st - which remains my best race over any distance (62:38 - 6:16 pace).

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Feb - My good form continued into February where my key long run for the Barcelona Marathon, a 20 mile PB in 2:19:30 (1:13:36 followed by 1:05:56) went off without a hitch.

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Mar - This was followed by a calf injury which I took into Barcelona scuppering my only realistic chance to-date of a sub-3 hour result - pulling up at mile 9 but toughing it out for a 3:10:28 time (perhaps unwise -

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Apr - but the mental battle was good training for what lay ahead in April where the highlight of my year was completing the Connemara Ultra in a shade under 5:30 - and a new PB.

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May - was a recovery month where I shifted emphasis towards other disciplines in preparation for the summer tri season.

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Jun - Pacing the 3:30 group in the Cork Marathon on the June Bank Holiday was a great experience, that I hope to repeat in 2011. June also saw me complete my first sprint tri in Caherciveen.

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Jul - I concentrated on the shorter distances and the Ballycotton 5 mile summer series targeting a series top 50 t-shirt. The month saw me break my 5 mile PB twice but

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Aug - a 2 week lay-off due to an injured toe scuppered any notion I had of going sub-30 in the final race in August - still managed to get the top 50 t-shirt though.

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Sep - I returned to endurance in September competing in my first ever half iron distance tri and missing out on a 5:30 finish by a few minutes.

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Oct/Nov - Off-season months having decided to skip the Dublin Marathon to give my body a break.

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Dec - With the Connemara Ultra my only confirmed race in 2011 I ran the inaugural Clonakilty Marathon in December to kick off my endurance base training.

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So 4 PB's, Pacing Cork and the Half Iron tri sum up the years highs.

Time now to move on and chase down some more elusive records - there's also M45 PB's to set and break and perhaps some new race distances?

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Meanwhile back at the ranch

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The recovery from my 45-mile day last week has gone pretty well, with two whole days of inactivity - well apart from my digestive system, which was working overtime to clear the high demand placed on it. Needless to say it coped admirably, although the odd bout of heartburn didn't go unnoticed (I never get heartburn).

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Santa brought me a new Garmin 305 - my letter must have reached him this year. I didn't ask for a 310 or 405 as I was not looking for added functionality and the cost on the website I pointed Santa towards (€121 + p&p) was very competitive and about €40 less than the cost of my first Garmin. Funnily enough my old 305 appears to have come out of it's 6-month coma, with full cognitive function - although all the buttons on the right side of the face are gone, requiring the use of a pointy object to operate (a bit like the kids at times). As the prognosis is, at best, unclear I won't be asking Santa for a refund.

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With my last run of the year completed my total mileage of 1,750 (approx) is well below the 2,400+ of the previous 3 years.

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Roll on 2011 and Happy New Year to all.

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