2011 was a good year for my running. I learned a lot, raced a lot and trained a lot. I ran PRs for every distance, didn't get any really debilitating injuries, was able to train consistently and generally take my running to a new level. Some numbers:
4541 miles (88 mpw)
24 races
11 PRs
35 days off running (due to injury, between-season breaks, sickness, etc)
Not too bad. The only upsetting things this year were my knee injury in the winter (caused by slipping on some black ice) and my Achilles "injury" in the summer (felt after track IC4A but never became debilitating). I also learned a lot about training and myself this year; I was in great shape in the spring but was never fully rested to run 100% up to what I think I could have run. I was trying to race well in the longer races while at the same time maintaining quality training, which is always a mistake, and it showed in my fatigue during the season. However, it was a good learning experience so I can't be too upset about it as long as I don't make the same mistakes this year.
Another positive is that ever since I started running higher mileage, especially in the past year, I have found a personal sweet spot in balancing mileage and quality that is near-optimum for me. I've mostly stopped running mileage for the sake of mileage and have gotten better at just training hard 2x a week plus a long run and seeing what kind of mileage comes out in the wash. I believe this is a much healthier mental state and a more relaxed way of training. Hopefully I can carry this mindset through to the racing season and can back off enough to take full advantage of all the work I'll put in this year.
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