Health

Running Review 2021

Smelly Socks and Garden Peas

At the start of 2021, I did a round up of 2020 and included some running stats. Over the last year though, my running has got a bit more serious I suppose. So I’m dedicating a whole post to look back at what I’ve achieved.

Total Stats

  • Active days: 278
  • Total time: 239 hours
  • Total distance: 1853 km
  • Total elevation: 20,624 m
  • Longest activity: 25 km on bikes on 31st December

PBs

I achieved PBs for all my distances in 2021:

  • 1 km: 4min12 (haven’t tried to improve on that since August)
  • 1 mile: 7min26
  • 5 km: 24min00
  • 10km: 55min26
  • HM: 2h11min00

RED January

I kicked off 2021 with a month long “run every day” session.

You can read a full review here. I had one day where himself was in the office and I didn’t feel comfortable running in the dark, so replaced a run with an hour of yoga. But otherwise I covered 116km, managed to squeeze in the runs around home learning, and didn’t injure myself.

I also took some fabulous pictures (if I do say so myself).

First half marathon

May 28th 2021 was the day! Two years before that I was not a runner at all. Six months before that I hadn’t run more than 10km without injuring myself.

I’d planned out a long route with some options at the end so I could keep going to make it up to 21.3 km, felt good and pushed on through to a 2h21 time. I was absolutely amazed at myself. If someone had told me this time last year that I would run a half marathon I would have laughed and tried to find where they were hiding the gin.

I’ve done a few more as well. Three I think. I’m planning another one at the end of January 2022 too.

Forty Days for 40

I turned 40 in August, it wasn’t so painful. Despite a failure to have any sort of party, I wanted to mark the even in some way. So, in my wisdom, I decided to run every day for 40 days.

Here’s the low down on what I pounded out through my legs and feet over those 40 days:

  • šŸƒā€ā™€ļø 226km covered running
  • šŸ§® 41 activities because large boy dragged me out for a second run on my last afternoon
  • ā›° Scolty Hill 1st August
  • šŸŽÆ half marathon on my birthday (love the fens, it’s much easier without hills)
  • šŸ“„ 25m58s ParkRun on 14th August and even better with my mum for company(ish)
  • šŸ“ˆ 1km PB of 4m12s on 12th August
  • šŸ“Š 2202m of elevation climbed
  • šŸ˜± No injuries but lots of aches and pains along the way.

Shoes

My first pair of “proper” running shoes were Brooks Ravenna, purchased just at the end of 2019 before the world went crazy. By April, when sports shops reopened, they’d covered over 1000km and were well past the end of their life. So I took myself off for a gait analysis and came back with a pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 21 in an eye boggling pink.

A bit of research and I found the same shoes in black at a good discount online and suddenly I had two pairs of fabulous, bouncy new shoes. Ah bliss!

After a very active summer, by the end of October both new pairs had been fairly beaten up and done a lot of miles. I didn’t want to wait until they were properly destroyed before replacing them this time, so back I went for another gait analysis and some more new shoes. This time some New Balance Fresh Foam and another pair of GTS 21s (put away until Christmas).

I ended the year with a run on Christmas morning and a very long bike ride on New Year’s eve, straight into RED January 2022.

How was yours?

So that was my 2021 in running. How was your year in sport or exercise?

Love from Smell xxx

Published by Smelly Socks and Garden Peas

Rants, rambles, loss, gin, guests, recipes, funny kids, occasional poems, and a bit of running.

30 thoughts on “Running Review 2021”

  1. Pingback: 7 things I miss about running – Smelly Socks and Garden Peas

  3. Wow, thatā€™s so impressive! Well done! I used to enjoy running until I injured my knee but Iā€™d love to get back into it, even a little at a time.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. No injuries from running every day for 40 days. I think that’s a testament that running actually builds our strength instead of destroys our joints. I look at people like Cam Hanes who run a marathon A DAY, and I think that as long as we remain sensible, that exercise actually benefits us and not turns us into old, broken people, as so many people say. Thanks for this post!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Liked hearing your (rapid) progress! It’s always good to do these year summary posts – I didn’t do one in the end last year as I focused on 2022 goals then ran out of time! But PB’s in 5km, 10km, half marathon, marathon plus longest ever run and first proper ultra marathon was a good year I think! Like your RED January and 40 days – I have never managed a runstreak anything near that length

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. Nice!! I started the year injured so 3 runs per week max for me. I also didn’t spot RED until after the first few days off as I could have done a short gentle run! Good luck reaching 200km, that distance regularly makes a massive difference to running!

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.