This is that time of the year again, for the 4th time on this blog!

The year was good academically speaking, with a best paper award and obviously my thesis completed!

However, 2009 hasn't been too great running-wise. I hadn't much time to train properly because of my thesis, and my left Achilles tendon has been achy when cold for most of the year. Then came the aborted Paddy Buckley Round attempt and a DNF on the PTL. Luckily, I managed to pull PB on the Nice-Cannes marathon thanks to a conservative race management, which ended up the year on a positive note.

My four main objectives for the year are then:
  • Hardmoors 55 (March) - 55 miles in the North Yorkshire Moors: the first half of the Hardmoors 110. First edition.
  • Thames Source Quest (TSQ) (May) - 296km along the Thames from the Thames Barrier to its source. A long-thought personal project.
  • Paddy Buckley Round (PBR) (July) - 104km +8,700m on harsh terrain in North Wales.
  • Petite Trotte à Léon (PTL) (August) - circa 240km +20,000m around the Mont-Blanc. It will be open to teams of two runners this time.
And obviously I'll enter other shorter events, such as a marathon in April to get under 3h20 :) . My training plan outline might look like that:
  • Nov, Dec: no running (circuit training, swimming, climbing), my Achilles tendon might hopefully recover...
  • Jan, Feb, March: progressive hill training for the Hardmoors 55.
  • April, May: building up to the distance for the TSQ.
  • June, July, August: hardcore mountain training for the PBR and PTL.
I've been briefly tempted by the Runfurther series, a sort of unofficial UK trail championship. The race list includes the Hardmoors 55 and the Lakeland 100. But that involves a lot of travelling unless you live in Yorkshire, in which case you've got half of the races at your doorstep :) .

Otherwise, I'm still working on a real-time runner tracking software, that I hope to test on the Hardmoors 55. More on that later.

Ultra loaded year.