This afternoon was the last cross country of the year. The National Novice took place over 4 laps of the Curragh Camp. Despite running hard and feeling like I had a good race I came 118th out of 253. Granted that 10 places is a few seconds in a race with such a large field but it just isn’t good enough.  I’ve tried training hard for most of the year. I’ve tried less miles, long miles and it hasn’t worked. Apart from a few good runs like the last graded (2:04) 800M and the Rathfarnham 5K (15:42) I haven’t hit my targets.

I’m going to set a goal of getting down to 70kg by the end of April. I’m currently hovering around 74kg  (169 lbs).  I eat well but then binge allot, especially when travelling with work on calorie dense foods.  This means reducing my daily calorie intake down to around 2600 and just eating less and better. The two come together.

After a terrible October my millage at the moment is hovering around 70 on average with 3-4 supplemental training sessions a week. I’ve just come off 4 races in Lanzarote where my performance was OK but not amazing. I’m back enjoying running for the first time in a few months. Removing the sessions and bringing my miles up has worked in that regard.

I finish up work for Christmas on the 16th and rather than take a break I’m feeling good to use the time to start the weight loss, catch up on any supplemental training  I have  neglected. I’ve started a plan for the year. It’s 30 weeks until  nationals and I want to run the 800M in 2:01 and the 1500 in a sub 4:10 before then. That means running the road relays mile  in 4:29. According to RW author Amby Burfoot, the table is based on research that runners, on average get 2 seconds per mile faster for every pound they lose. The times you see above are the amounts a runner can shave off his/her race times by losing weight.  Getting to 70kg should see me get to around 15.15 for 5K by the end of 2012.