Monthly Archives: July 2008
July (and more) by the numbers
In my mind, this month has been a disaster. But when I look at my numbers, someone should tell me to shut up and be happy with what happened after taking a tumble down my stairs. I think my issue is that I wanted so bad for July to be the best month of the year, but it just didn’t quite happen.
I set a reasonable goal of 75 miles for the month, with the thinking that I’d probably be around 80 or so. With today’s 5.2 mile run, my total is actually 79.5. That’s just 7 miles short of my high for the year set in February. Had I not hurt my tail bone, I likely would’ve been in the low 90s. It’s like I’ve suddenly set low expectations for myself with running.
July marks the third consecutive month of fairly stead mileage increases. It’s almost hard to believe that my mileage was four times that of April, which I basically took a break after my foot issues. Basically since April, my mileage has increased 20 miles a month … will that trend continue?
What’s missing from July is biking. Before the injury, I got in 9.2 miles and was pretty much on pace to have 20 or so. My goal was 25. So despite things going great with running, I feel behind on things because my cross training — which basically didn’t exist until this year — is way off.
Of note is the fact that I walked 38.9 miles, my highest total for the year by 7 miles … all thanks to not being able to ride my bike. Walking isn’t nearly as important to me as biking, but it’s better than nothing I guess.
My official training numbers since June 1 are as follows: 140 running miles, 58.4 walking miles and 51.7 biking miles (thanks to a great week in the Outer Banks). For the year, I have 641 total miles, which are broken down like this: 381.7 running, 162.9 walking and 96.4 biking.
It’s no secret that I’d love to hit 1,000 miles in a 12 month span, so if it’s to happen between July 2008 and June 2009, I’m off to a good start. To hit 1,000 miles, I have to average slightly more than 83 miles a month. August is going to be good — my goal is for 90-plus miles. After that, I’ll have to figure out if pursuing 1,000 is what I want to do. As for now, my tail bone needs a break from sitting at the computer …
Slowly, but surely …
One of the worst things about my tail bone injury is how limited I feel to do certain things. Sitting in a car is difficult; lifting weights is very limited; setups are out of the question; doing the plank is uncomfortable; I can’t ride my bike. … Oddly, running has been going great, although the injury forced me to really slow down.
For the first time in a few weeks, I did some speed work today and each interval felt like I was running into a wall. I’ve been doing some speed bursts with my dog in the past couple of weeks, but nothing serious enough to call a speed workout. I’ve intentionally ran more hills lately just because I haven’t felt like doing intervals or tempo runs. Today I did two-half mile intervals — 3:45 and 3:50 — and two quarter-mile intervals — 1:53 and 1:56. I’m happy to stay under the 8-minute mile pace considering the way the past two weeks have gone, but it felt miserable today. The weather has a lot to do with it — it’s hot and humid and temperatures are expected to be in the mid- to upper 90s all week with no end in sight. I was also pretty tired too thanks to my dog barking for no reason at all at 6:30 a.m.
Here’s a recap of what I’ve done since my July 12 fall:
July 13: Walk - 2.1
July 14-20: Walk - 14.7; Run - 11.6
July 21-27: Walk - 8.3; Run - 21.3
July 28: Walk - 1.1; Run - 3.2
July 29: Walk - 1.5; Weights
July 30: Walk - 1; Run - 4.5 (with intervals explained above)
The Magic 8
Eight miles today puts me at 21.3 for the week and only 9 miles away from my goal for the month. I don’t have the biking miles I had hoped for since I can’t sit comfortably, but if you would’ve told me two weeks ago I’d still get about 75 running miles for the month, I would’ve told you that you’re crazy.
Today’s long run went well. I was pretty tired toward the last mile, but I’ll attribute that to not having long runs in the past two weeks. Otherwise, everything felt great. The fact that it went so well has me really looking forward to hitting 10 soon — I’ll probably do that next week.
Oh what a beautiful morning
Mid-60s, low humidity - could it be September already? No! It’s just July, but today’s conditions could’ve had me fooled. While I’m good at complaining about the weather when it’s cold or very hot, I rarely praise the weather. So after some pretty hot conditions earlier this week, a cold front rolled through Wednesday night and left some beautiful and comfortable weather, if only for a couple of days.
All in all, this summer hasn’t been too bad. It was miserable in early June, but that was mainly because it went from feeling like spring to mid-summer overnight. Earlier this week was quite uncomfortable, but manageable at 7:30 a.m. This weekend is looking hot, but nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year.
Since my injury, I’ve gotten out of the habit of my “Workouts since last post” segment, but I promise that’ll return next week. I wanted this week to be about getting back on track without thinking about training all that much. So far it’s been good. This morning I got in 5.1 miles, and all is looking well to do at least 8 this weekend to put me over 20 for the week.
Mid-week tail bone report
To quickly sum up the past couple of days, things have gone well. I’ve gotten in a couple of good 4-plus mile runs and my tail bone area pain continues to improve a little bit each day. I’d say on a scale of 1 to 10, it’s about a 2.5. It’s manageable, although it’s bothersome when I’m on my couch and in a vehicle. I had a great night’s sleep last night, but two nights ago it bothered me quite a bit. I think by the end of this week I can finally stop talking about it so much.
Looking ahead to "normal"
I didn’t hit my 5 miles today, but I did hit my original goal from a couple of days ago — to hit double digits for the week. All told I ran 11.6 miles this week and walked 14.7. I’m actually surprised I ran as much as I did, but all those little runs quickly added up. This morning was crazy hot, I was tired and I think my injury has created a chain reaction of making other things hurt. I had a lot of cramping going on and my legs just didn’t seem to want to move today. Tomorrow I will not attempt any running at all. I think I need a running break after doing some sort of running every day this week. I’ll resume weight lifting tomorrow - something I haven’t done in quite a while. I’ll be using my free weights since it will likely hurt to use my home gym.
This week I will attempt to pick up where I left off with running, meaning that my long run goal is 8 miles and my weekly total goal is the low 20s. If I can pull off 5 consistent weeks of increasing my long runs and my overall mileage a little bit each week, I’ll be in a good spot come race week with an opportunity to rest up that week. I’ll try to squeeze in a 5k along the way as a tune up since I missed my race this weekend.
If I can’t get back to normal this week, I’ll have to make the decision on whether or not to pursue the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. I know people who are running it who have slower goal times, so I can always hang back, and I could always use it as a long run while I focus on something else in September, but I doubt I’d do that. Since it’s Labor Day weekend, it’s a lot of money to stay at Virginia Beach for three nights. Also coming into to play is my job situation. I would hate to not run because of that, but it’s impossible to make the trip if something doesn’t happen soon.
I may be coming across as being negative, but I’m actually feeling good about things this week. I think a non-running day is going to help my pain, and I’m confident about things turning around job-wise.
Recent Comments