Happy Birthday!

We have rolled around to that time of year again. I am another year older.

My wife bought me two books off of my Amazon Wish List. She got me Running Through the Wall and Hal Higdon’s Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. I have no idea when I will actually get them, but they have been purchased for me. She gave me two envelopes with a picture of the books she bought.

I also was handed a package that was squishy. I had a pretty good idea what was in it. I had been looking for a short sleeve white shirt for a few months. I finally found one. Why it was so hard to find I am not sure. I picked it up Thursday and threw it in the shopping cart. I told my wife she could wrap it as a birthday gift since she was having trouble picking out something for me. I was a little surprised that she actually did.

I don’t think I am going to be going out and stuffing myself like I did last year. I mostly took care of that last night. We had some friends who had an open house type party. Lots of candy and such. I had more than my share. Tonight we have an activity at the church where we will be eating more candy. If I have any caloric deficit, it is being made up this weekend.

While running this morning with my friend Jeff I told him it was my birthday. Then I got a big laugh out of it. I was thinking about being 38 years old. That means that in less than a year my older brother turns 40. hehe

New Running Goals

I settled on a goal of 600 miles for the year which meant I only needed to do 15 miles a week. The first week went well and the second week did not. But, I am not going to fall short. In fact, I am upping the goal. How about 1000? No, not 1000 miles, but 1000 kilometers. That would be 621 miles.

Though I fell a bit behind, I have a new running partner. He is a new runner and is only able to run between 2 and 3 miles at a time right now. I run 1.6 miles to his house and then we run together. I return home for a total run of 5.5 to 6.5 miles each run. We are running 3 days a week right now which should give me at least 18 miles if I make sure to tack a little extra in when I can. According to my running log, if I can keep up this pace and mileage (all helped if I find an extra weekend race) I am right on track to hit 620 miles by the end of the year.

The goal of 600 was looking a bit too easy for me and I knew I would not have to push myself too hard. But this goal of 1000 kilometers will make the rest of the year just a bit more interesting.

Happy running!

500 miles down the road

500 miles on my training logToday I ran my 500th mile for the year. I was planning to go over that mark, but my run last night with a friend was cut short. He had what he thought was a three mile course mapped out. It ended up being less than 2 miles. When I put the 1.93 mile run into my log last night, I was pleased to see that it brought me exactly up to 496.0 miles for the year.

This morning I went out and ran my 4 mile loop and capped off the day at 500.0 miles.

I have 7 weeks to try and get 100 more miles in for the year. 15 miles a week will take care of that. That is a comfortable number for me, but I just have to work on staying consistent. I would like to keep my weekly long runs between 8 and 10 miles, but without any specific reason, I have trouble staying motivated to do it. I have scaled back the number of miles the last couple of weeks just to give my body a small break. I will get back to the longer miles this coming week.

My Thought Spot 17: Running Records Abound

Show Notes:

Last run til Saturday

Yesterday morning I made my final run getting ready for my half marathon this weekend. I had run 12 miles last Saturday and then was supposed to run 4 miles on Monday and Tuesday. I ran about 2.5 on Monday and 4 on Tuesday. My schedule calls for no more running until the 13.1 mile distance this coming Saturday.

Right now I have a goal of 2:17 (hours:minutes). Last year I ran it in 2:39 and the half I ran previous to that was 2:29. I felt great and invincible last year and therefore did not take in any food while on my run. That came back to kill me in the final 4 miles of the race. I will stick to my fueling plan much more closely this time, no matter how good I feel.

My training has gone very well this year. Early on I was able to get in some good speed work and long tempo runs. The last couple of weeks have not gone as well, but I have still been getting the mileage in that I need from week to week, and I did not have to cut any long runs short this year. I plan on getting plenty of rest over the next couple of days.

This is the first time to run this distance with an actual time goal. In my first half marathon my only goal was to finish. The second time I just planned to beat the previous attempt (which I failed at). This time I have a specific time and pace planned. I will watch my mile splits and see if  I can run a consistent 10:27 per mile. I often start off much faster and finish slower.