40 miles a week. To some less competitive runners, that may sound like a lot. For the more serious lot and those who are attempting to be more serious like myself, that is an easy goal. I realize that this thing is about baby-steps. I need to set reasonable goals that I can accomplish and then stick with. That's the tried and true way to reach any goal.
I used to run 80 miles a week in college without ever thinking about it. Now that I'm getting older and running isn't as central to my life anymore, it is much harder to stick to my plans. I started training more consistently in July. I took a first good step to consistency by keeping a running log on September 21st. That gives me 12 full weeks of running where I was actually making myself somewhat accountable. Out of those 12 weeks, I had three weeks that I did 40 or more miles. That's a nice .250 batting average. I've only gotten in a quality week 25% of the time. There's no running away from that fact. I may have been disappointed in my November and December races, but I haven't put in the work to really improve. On a side note, it's scary that my initial reaction to this connection was to be content with my time as opposed to disappointed with the effort. If I do want to get my times down, I've got to find my motivation somewhere.
40 miles a week. Starting...now! Okay, starting... now! That's what I feel like, but let's see if this time it sticks. I already missed two days this week. That's right. I didn't run Sunday (cooking chili and Christmas shopping) or Monday (woke up late; getting work done slowly; the wife was home; general malaise accompanied by a headache). That means to hit 40 this week, I need to average 8 miles a day for the rest of the week. I will of course count a substitute for running if my foot starts really hurting. As I alluded to above, the rest of December is dedicated to getting my aches healthy while developing a consistency. Let's make 40 miles a week the minimum over the next 4 months, alright? Starting...now!
--Gotta run.
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