2015 Statistics

Today I had my last run of the year. After a very warm December that felt like late autumn, two days ago we finally got a dust of snow followed by frosty temperatures. It was a beautiful day today. Like yesterday, at -5 to -10C it felt a bit cold. However, it was sunny and calm with perfectly clear atmosphere. The thin frozen snow on the trails gave one of the best surfaces for running! So I enjoyed my run through the forest very much! Much more than I would have enjoyed skiing on mostly artificial snow and crowded slopes, just a little bit higher than my running route on Postavaru Mountain.

Here is a photo I took during today's running session with my poor phone camera:

As it was my last run of 2015, it is time to do some statistics. This year I logged all of my runs with the Strava app so gathering the statistics was very easy! This is what Strava reports:

Distance	3,664.7 km
Time	410h 21m
Elev Gain	170,388 m
Runs	196

I ran just a little bit more than last year but otherwise the year looks quite similar to the previous one.

So here is a statistics table for the last four years that includes strictly only running sessions.

	2012	2013	2014	2015
Runs	110	173	196	196
Total DIstance	1529	2915	3599	3665
Total elevation gain [meters]			150000*	170000
Total running time	156h 41m	347h 32m	433h 18m	410h 21m
Average speed [km/h]	9.6	8.39	8.31	8.93
Average pace [min/km]	6:15	7:09	7.13	6:43
Average run length [km]	13.9	16.8	18.3	18.7
Races	8	9	2	2
			* Estimated

What strikes me is the fact that I had the impression that I ran much slower than last year. On most runs I tried to be relaxed and keep my heart rate low. However my pace in 2015 was quite a bit better than in 2014! This may mean that I am in better shape... and maybe my pure vegan diet during the whole 2015 also helped. There is another possible explanation. Maybe I had a bit less accumulated elevation gain than last year - The figure for last year is an rather conservative estimate, while this year the elevation gain is taken straight out from Strava and Strava tends to overestimate it a bit.
Speaking on pace and elevation gain, one can notice that in 2012 I had a really good average pace... but that was my second year of running. Not only that I struggled to run fast that year, but most runs were on city trains with rather low elevation gain.

2015 is also the year when I did not purchase any new pair of running shoes... I had already too many. I however threw away three pairs that had lived their life... Things will change in 2016 as most of my running shoes are approaching their end of life.

So this is it for 2015!

Have a Happy New Year!