As of today, I’ve gone running on 20 different occasions this year. Using my initial goal of running 3 times a week as a gauge, this means that I’ve missed 5 scheduled runs. These misses were mostly due to inclement weather (it’s not worth it to run when it’s super icy or slippery!). However, since I’ve started running longer distances, the detrimental effects of these missed runs on my yearlong running goals have been mostly mitigated. If I continue to pile on the miles at my current pace, I’ll accumulate 541 miles this year. That’s only 3 short of my goal!
I can do it.
Earlier this evening I went on my longest run of the year so far – 9.43 miles!!! This is a teensy bit longer than 15 kilometers. Initially, I had intended to do a 15k run with a couple of my buddies tomorrow morning, but those plans fell through. I felt bad for missing out, so in an act of pseudo-solidarity I went and ran the equivalent distance tonight. My left quad is kinda sore and my knees hurt a little, but it felt really good to go run around for so long. Hopefully I can move my legs tomorrow…
Tonight, I reached 88 miles on the year. This puts me Just south of Ashtabula.
In addition to being able to run longer and longer distances, I’ve also gotten a bit faster.
The first time I went running this year was on the evening of January 3rd. I ran 3.05 miles in a little over 26 minutes, good for a mile every 8 minutes and 35 seconds. (I was pretty pooped when I finished.) This translates to a running speed of just under 7 mph. It feels a little bit disingenuous to use this number as an absolute baseline, because I did run some last year, but I think it’s probably the best I can do.
As a comparison, a week ago I was able to run 3.22 miles in under 25 minutes. I’ve shaved almost a full minute off of my minute/mile pace and increased my speed by over 12%. Woo!
It turns out that this post has A LOT OF NUMBERS. But that’s okay. Here are some more! Today, on my 15 km run, I posted a pace of one mile every 8 minutes and 38 seconds. That’s nearly the same as pace as my first run of the year except tonight I was able to go more than THREE TIMES AS FAR. I do not anticipate that these improvements will continue at the same rate, but I’m already pretty happy with what I’ve been able to do. Hopefully I can just keep goin’ and not get hurt.
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Miles run in 2014: 88.0
Books read in 2014: 17