Category: Running

I have 3 weeks left to hit my goal of 621 miles for the year. Right now I am sitting at 565 miles. Until today I was right on track to easily make the goal. I was sick this weekend as was my running partner. I ran to his house this morning and needed to run almost 3 miles with him to make everything work right. Because we had both been sick, we decided to make it a short run, but do it fast. We ran 1.06 miles at a 7:25 pace. That is a great speed for me. I was really pleased to be able to do it. But, that means I did not get all the distance I needed today. Theoretically I could have made up the distance on the way home, but instead opted to just do the 1.6 miles straight home.

I will try to make up a little of the deficit on Thursday and then pick up the rest of my distance on Saturday.

I am only running 3 days a week right now, but doing at least 4 miles a day. The weekly goal is 6 on Tuesday and Thursday with a longer run of 8ish on Saturday. I am behind, but not out of the game by no means. I am glad to have a reason to run. While I am not training for anything, it is a help for me to have some goal.

I have 270 miles on my New Balance 857 shoes that I bought in April. My Saucony Hurricane 9s that were bought in June have 137 miles. I should be good for a while on shoes. I may look at picking up another pair in February when I am in the US, but only if I can find a really good deal.

I have been looking at my running log from last year and have been a bit disappointed in one aspect. I had hoped to run 100 to 200 miles more this year than last year. But, going into my half marathon training this summer, I realized that I was behind even just keeping up with last years miles. I don’t remember how many miles I was behind, but it was not more than 50. I knew that if I stayed on pace through my training, and pushed just a bit more that I could catch up. Now I am fewer than 20 miles behind last year.

Last year I was helped in the higher mileage early in the year because I ran two half marathons. The training schedule early in the year kept my mileage up. This year I only had the one half marathon. Which is actually encouraging. I know that I have put in the miles even though I did not have a specific training plan pushing me to do the work.

This week I have really been able to bank some extra miles. I have not done a run longer than 5 miles since my half marathon, but I have stayed on the road better after the race than I did a year ago. This week I have run 3 days and plan to run 2 more. Last year during this week I only ran twice.

I will leave town on a trip next Tuesday. If I can run a few days while I am gone, I may make up the mileage difference before the start of December. Then I will just have to run more often than I did last year (or longer) and I will at least run a few more miles than in 2006. As a new runner, I would think that I can add more miles each year for a few more years to come.

I was sitting at dinner with a friend this summer and we were talking about exercise. The last time I saw him was about four years before this conversation. In that time he has added 20 to 30 pounds to his already overstretched skin. In contrast, I have dropped 80+ pounds since then.

He was telling me that I should not run “because it damages your body.” He went through the normal set of excuses as to why he could not run. It is too hard on his knees, etc. He actually counseled me to stop running because of the damage I was causing to myself.

I wonder how much damage he is causing his body by not exercising? Grant it, he does not have to run, but instead he does nothing. This is a man who talks about his “glory days” when he was young, trim and very physically capable. He was in the military and joined the police force when he got out. But those days are gone, he assumes, forever. The sad thing is that he is only about 45 years old. There is plenty of time for him to get back in shape and save his body from the early grave that he is headed to.

Right along with this conversation he also took it upon himself to inform me how toxic and bad for me the Diet Coke was that I was drinking. I admit that Diet Coke is certainly not the best thing that I could be putting in my body, but it has to be better than the 2 X 32 ounces of regular Coke he was guzzling down. He drank almost 800 calories at that one meal!

I don’t want to go around criticizing all my friends for living like I used to, but I also can’t ignore how foolish his words sound to me now. Many of the same things I used to say.