Posts Tagged ‘streaks’

“If you want to be a better runner, you’ve got to run more. It’s as simple as that.”
- Tom Fleming, running coach

The above quote came through in a daily email from Runner’s World a month ago. Usually those quotes quickly get deleted in my inbox, but I hung onto this one. It stuck with me. It made me think a lot about my running streak in April and how great it felt.

So in the past few days I’ve been thinking about that quote, the streak and how great I feel this month — a month in which I’m now over 120 miles, one of my highest mileage months ever. After the Virginia 10 Miler on Saturday, I’ve done what I’ve done a few times this year after a race — I’ve just kept going. 2.2 miles Sunday; 4.1 miles Monday; and 4.4 miles today. The old me certainly wouldn’t have done that.

I think runners don’t take enough time to appreciate when things are going so well, but I’m not taking these moments for granted. Marathon training this time around has me more focused than ever and I can’t wait to see what these final 45 days bring.

I’m a huge proponent of rest — I’m a firm believer that rest is just as important as running. After running every day in the month of April, I knew I needed some downtime. After a great run last Wednesday on the trails, I could just feel it … that feeling that my legs needed a running break.

So I took four days off from running, which is the longest break since not running the first three days of the year. Last week was my first single-digit week of the year, coming in at just under 10 miles. It was only the fifth week under 20 miles for a week all year. Coming off last year in which I ran just a little more than 600 miles, I had to take a break so I wouldn’t get that burned out feeling.

When I went out for a run yesterday, I had a great feeling of my legs being rested. Four days off from running was just as good of a decision as pushing myself by running 30 straight days in April.

Certainly not the best photo I've taken of myself, but here I am at mile 100 in April.

It will never go on my Race Times page, but the month of April was a race, a personal race. I set a goal back in February to run every day in the month of April — and for the first time ever, I came in first place. I won this race. I did everything I set out to do and then some.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that April would include a PR in a 5K or a half marathon on a mountain or running 100 miles. All I wanted to do was run every day for at least a mile and maintain slightly above the pace of 1,000 miles for the year. I was focused on quantity, but what I got was quantity AND quality. With marathon training yet to come this summer, this couldn’t have occurred at a better time.

By the numbers

Running at least a mile every day really wasn’t that hard. It was more about finding the desire to do it every single day rather than it being a physical challenge. And with two races mixed in, I had to make sure that I had several “rest” days of a mile or so built in. Here’s a closer look at the streak by the numbers:

• 10 runs of 1-1.9 miles: 11.1 miles
• 5 runs of 2-2.9 miles: 11.5
• 6 runs of 3-3.9 miles: 21.4
• 5 runs of 4-4.9 miles: 21.3
• 1 run of 5-5.9 miles: 5.6
• 1 run of 7-7.9 miles: 7.2
• 2 runs of 10+ miles: 23.1

• Total miles: 101.2
• Average per day: 3.373

• Total miles in 2010 through April 30: 359
• Average per month this year: 89.75
• 2010 pace: 1,077 using the monthly average (4 months); 1091.95 using the daily average (120 days so far)

More Highlights

I cannot remember a month in which so much happened. In addition to what I’ve already mentioned, I almost forgot that April was the big month in which I launched this site, officially becoming a dot com. I also took part in Relay for Life, a wonderful experience that I will never forget. I learned a lot about myself in the past 30 days, but I struggle to find the right words with how — I think that has shown or will show up the more I write.

As I’ve written about before, I don’t throw around the words “best ever” very often, but April 2010 may very well be the best running month of my life. I’ll wait several months before making that claim, but these feelings are going to be tough to beat.

I needed 2.9 … I did 4.1. What a great month of running … 30 straight days of it. I’ll post more on that later this weekend, but I wanted to celebrate my 100th mile for a little bit — and celebrate this streak — and share the great view of where mile 100 this month came.

Running streak: 28 days.

Miles ran: A little more than 94, the highest monthly total this year.

So I have two days to run a little less than 6 miles to get to 100 for the month. I haven’t had a triple-digit month since August 2008; I’ve had just a small handful of triple digit months in the six years I’ve been running, with most of them coming in 2007 when I was training for the Richmond Marathon.

100 miles will be mine this month. On Monday, I think I talked myself into saying it can’t be done, but now I’m saying it can. It will. I’m not going to let myself run for 30 straight days and fall just shy of this milestone.

I’ve probably had this headline before, or something very similar. As with any given race — whether good or bad — the question of “What’s next?” always comes up quickly, whether or not I want it to.

After Saturday’s race, I feel great. My calves were a bit sore yesterday, and overall I can feel that I’m a bit tired, but all in all I can’t complain. It’s amazing to come away from that mountain adventure feeling like this. There’s a big part of me that wants to reflect on the Blue Ridge Half and think about what I could have done differently, but I won’t. It was a first-time event, I enjoyed myself, I did all I really knew how to do being unfamiliar with the course and that’s it. It will remain an “instant classic” and a race I will do again next year if all the pieces are in the right place.

For now, I have to focus on the next five days — completing my streak of running every day in the month of April. I think I’m going to fall just shy of 100 miles for the month, but I’ll certainly put some effort into hitting that mark. I’m not going to log miles for the sake of logging miles, but I’ll do as I’ve done all month — I’ll do what feels right. If it feels right to have a long run this week, I’ll do it; if not, I’m not going to risk injury. I’ve learned a lot about myself in these 26 consecutive days of running and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next four days have to offer.

If you’re new to my site, I’ll warn you now - I’m a numbers guy. I like to take them and analyze them in weird ways and use averages in ways that averages probably aren’t used. I’m in no way a nerdy math guy … well, in high school I did tutor fellow classmates in algebra … and I used to want to be an accountant … so, maybe I am. My career path just went a different direction.

ANYWAY, if all goes as planned tomorrow, I will hit 300 miles for the year and hit more than half the miles I did all of last year. Even back in 2007, when things were at their best with my running, I was not at mileage like this at this point in the year. I’m now well on pace for 1,000 miles, a goal that I thought I would never be in reach again. Sure, there’s a lot left in the year, but keeping my mind on the big prize now will keep me going through the summer.

My April streak is still going well. The Relay for Life run completely on sidewalks on Friday and Saturday took a lot out of me, but after a short and slow trail run on Sunday, I had a great run last night that revived me a bit. My runs this month have been pretty ho-hum and I feel like I’ve just been logging miles because I said I would. Now, though, I’m ready for the second half of the streak to be a little different.

Lastly, be sure to check back here in the morning as I have a Q&A with a fellow blogger … and I appear on his site. That’s all I’m saying for now!

I’m not sure if there’s anything more chilling than hearing “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes. Especially live. Check out a clip from last night’s Relay for Life at Lynchburg College:

As promised, I ran 10 miles after raising $500 through 4 p.m. yesterday. It was very interesting to run customized loop after loop to do it, but as I ran I thought about all the people in my life who have been impacted by cancer. An inconvenient run is simple; battling cancer is not. But thanks to the many people who donated to this effort, we’re perhaps one day closer to winning the battle.

After participating last night, I realized that this is something I have to do again. I already have some ideas in my head that I’ll keep to myself right now, but running to raise money to fight cancer is at the top of my list of things to continue doing.

A while back I mentioned how this run would be part of my streak of running every day in April. I ran 5.6 miles before midnight. I started around 10:30 p.m. and took a few breaks up to that point. I then ran 4.4 miles after midnight. I had to veer off the loop that was created for the event. The loop created in LC’s Dell was just under two-tenths of a mile and very crowded with the teams of students — those of us with the Central Virginia Alumni Club were certainly much older than most everyone else around there with the exception of a few faculty and staff.

After a few laps, I always stayed within distance of hearing the music, speakers and seeing everyone else walking. It was quite a site. All told the 36 teams raised nearly $30,000. My team was No. 4 overall and I was actually the No. 3 fundraiser with $550 — $50 coming after my mileage cut-off. To hit 110 percent of my goal is just awesome. I can’t say thank you enough to everyone who helped out.

I’m not sure when I ran four days in a row last, but the April streak has started off well, despite the challenge of traveling over Easter weekend and keeping very busy. My mileage hasn’t been what I had hoped, but that’s not the point right now. I wanted to start off slow and not burn myself out.

Day 1 was supposed to happen around 6 a.m. Thursday, but I slept to my normal time and ended up running 2.2 miles that evening. Since I traveled on Friday, I got up the next morning and ran 3.5 miles — perhaps the first time I’ve ever ran twice within 12 hours. At least I don’t recall if I’ve ever done that. Also on Friday, I spent much of the afternoon at the North Carolina Zoo, which is enough exercise for two days in itself. I capped off the day by playing cornhole for about 2 hours.

Saturday morning I got up and ran 2.1 miles in my brother-in-law’s hilly neighborhood. I wanted to do more, but I was flat-out tired from the day before. Then last night I had a decent run of 3.8 miles. Four for four.