Post-Season Review
I generally break down my own running into seasons that can last anywhere from four to ten months and culminate in one or more goal events. After a goal event, I will always take some time to review both the event itself and the season or block that led up to it. It’s the same approach I take with my athletes after one of their goal events. As I have recently completed a season and am now embarking on a new one, I thought I would share my own post-season review and how that is impacting my approach to this new season.
This season started in earnest after a reset following the Faultline 100-miler in April 2025 and finished with three major goal events over the summer: S-K Tarn Ridge attempt in December 2025 , M*A*S*H Backyard Ultra in January 2026 and Old Ghost Ultra in February.
Overall, I was pleased with how the season went. All three events had successful outcomes without being breakthrough performances. I completed the S-K Tarn route in one push and while I was disappointed to not do it inside 24 hours, I was on track after 18 hours and know what it will take to break that barrier in the future. M*A*S*H was a PB performance and the longest distance I have run in one go, though I would have liked to have broken 30 Laps/200km. Old Ghost was a fun day out, but I didn’t have the same specific fitness for the demands of the event that I had the previous year, so I shouldn’t be surprised I ran slower overall - it was pleasing that I did the second half in a similar time to last year though.
Celebrating a fun day at OGU, especially after awesome runs by YRP athletes Lucy and Dave
My main success of the season was my progress in improving my 24-hour craft. This is the sum total of lots of component parts: fuelling, hydration, mental resilience and a confidence in my ability. M*A*S*H was my sixth adventure of 24 hours or more of continuous effort, and it is satisfying to reflect on how much I have improved over the course of these six adventures.
Overall, it was an ambitious plan for the summer and I probably shouldn’t be surprised that I wasn’t able to achieve my stretch goals for any of the events. The main limitation in my training was probably that I didn’t sufficiently prioritise developing my running economy. By the end of the season, that really showed at OGU.
The biggest challenge of the season was the knee injury that I suffered by falling down a hole in the Tararuas at the start of November. I was able to recover from the immediate trauma to my knee and rebuild some strength through targeted exercises. However, the injury caused some knock-on effects in my right hip and glute that presented discomfort in the second half of M*A*S*H (ultimately stopping me after 28 Laps) and throughout OGU.
The biggest lesson of the season was probably to be more realistic in my goal-setting. I do find it tricky to create the best balance between challenging myself, making my goals realistic and not having too much focus on one single event that defines my success. For this season, I probably over-did it by having three big goal events in the space of 10 weeks, and could probably be a little more focused for next season.
Since OGU, I’ve had some time to recover, reflect and to look forward to next season and the longer term. One thing I’ve really focused on is the result I want to create. For me, that is feeling that I am building towards something mostly through consistency with a sprinkle of trying new things, and the feeling that is a scary challenge ahead of me.
The scary challenges that are exciting me right now and keeping me motivated are adventures that take 24 hours or longer. Right now, the one that is lighting my fire is attempting S-K Tarn in under 24 hours again in November or December. Succeeding in this will require me to keep improving in areas that I have made progress in recent seasons, in particular in that 24-hour craft, and it will get me out into the Tararuas more, which I love.
Hoping to be back here with an even bigger smile on my face after finishing under 24 hours next summer
One advantage of setting my next challenge over six months away is that it gives me the opportunity to work on some of my relative weaknesses for the next three months, before increasing the specificity of my training and focusing on my strengths nearer to my goal event. For me, my biggest weaknesses are my strength and my running economy, while my relative strengths are fuelling, hydration and the ability to keep going for long days.
Over the past three years, I have consistently been doing 100km and 3,000m of vert per week on average. This training volume has definitely helped improve my running in lots of ways, but I am at a point where stacking another year of that volume is going to have diminishing returns and a slight change in focus could be helpful. I spent a fair bit of time picking the bones out of what has worked for me, what hasn’t worked so well, what I should tweak for this season and who can help me to do that.
For these next few months, I’m going to drop my overall training volume slightly. I’ll still run six days per week, but instead of doing two long runs and one quality session per week, I’ll do two quality sessions and one long run and also not do as many double-run days. I’m also going to complement this with an increased focus on strength training to improve my muscular endurance in longer efforts. To inform that, I am partway through a Performance Screening programme with Marcos at Rehab Co in Thorndon, which will give me a specific and realistic programme to support my goals.
Once we get to August, I will look to increase the specificity of my work, possibly returning to two long runs per week, and certainly starting to do some bigger days out in the Tararuas. This will allow me to focus more on fuelling, hydration and increasing the amount of vert in my training. I will look to consolidate the great work I did with Hannah from Real Health Sports Nutrition through that period to fully dial-in my fuelling and hydration.
I know that I will also lean on Lucy and the rest of the awesome YRP athletes. Seeing the consistency of everyone’s effort towards their own scary goals inspires me every day and will help to keep me accountable on those rare days that I am less motivated to get out there and stack the bricks.
It does feel like it’s taken me a little bit of time to reset and refocus after OGU, but I’m really looking forward to the season ahead now. Investing in a proper post-season review and goal-setting exercise is invaluable if you are going to stay the course and achieve big things. I always love chatting about this with athletes, so drop a comment below to share your plans or drop me a message if you want to grab a call, a coffee or a run to talk more about your goals for the season ahead and how I can help at Your Running Pal.
