Thursday, August 24, 2006

305 miles behind me

This morning I completed another good 5 mile run. I have decided that I can move up my mid-week runs to 5 miles vs 4. That will help build the endurance I am going to need. Takes me nearly an hour (about 56-58 minutes) but I will need to run that long to build to a 5 hour race.

305 is the number of miles I have run this year. About 500 more miles to go before the marathon. At least that is what I have in my plan. You see, I have a spreadsheet that tracks my running progress. It allows me to put in my plan and actuals for running, tracks my total, monthly, weekly averages and calculates my pace for the run if I enter distance and time. It even lets me track how many miles are on my different pairs of shoes.

Now this sounds a little bit much, but actually my running log is a good motivator for me. As soon as I get back from my runs, I fire up the computer and record my time. I think about how far I have come since the beginning of the year and get to celebrate how well I have progressed. I can see how my times have improved, how my miles have picked up month to month, and how my races continue to get better and better. Besides, the mathematician in me likes to count!

Now the test will be to see how my heel holds out today. After some ice this morning and later today, hopefully I will be ready for another 5 tomorrow morning!

1 comment:

MarathonChris said...

Hey sis - running on out on the road is different from a treadmill. I do the treadmill when I have to travel on business and it feels like I can run forever. I do good times then too :-) - easy 32 minutes on the 5K. Early mornings are ok, I am back by the time the kids are getting up (fortunately dad is home while I am out) and it is a good way to start the day. Besides, they are old enough where they get themselves ready for the most part - I just make sure they don't forget anything. Dad makes breakfast and lunch for them.

I like running outside. I think running late would keep me up...but it is a thought. I considered having Jim get one so he can get his run's in (he doesn't get up early and it is hot in the afternoons) but he doesn't want to make the investment right now.

As I get closer to the race, the weather will cool a little more, allowing me to go later in the day. Also, I am planning on taking morning time off from work to get a few of the longer runs in mid-week. We will see how that works.

Thanks for following my blog. :-)