Ahh... December 31, 2008. Looking back on the year in running... not bad... not great... but not bad.
Let's start with today's end of year run. I had planned on running 8 miles pretty easy, but backed off to 6 miles due to a late start. On the plus side, I saw a beautiful sunrise. I turned onto a road (facing west) and saw the entire cloudy sky with spots of red on the underside. The red wasn't consistent, but only on the very lowest parts of the clouds. I turned around and saw the sun coming up bathing the everything in red in the eastern sky. It was quite a site. I normally don't see the sun during my week day runs, and I purposely started in the daylight today not because I wanted to see the sunrise (that was an added bonus), but it's a LOT easier to run in the light than in the dark. I ran 6.01 miles at an 8:54 pace.
Okay, now for the year end... I ran 1,066.09 miles this year (according to my running log), and out of a total possible 365 total days to run, I ran 160 of them (or 44% of the days). I averaged 88 miles per month, with a peak of 178 miles in a single month (March), but a low of 39 miles in a month (September). I ran in four races (sort of): National Marathon - 1/2 distance; Frederick Marathon; Phedippidations World Wide Half (1/2 Marathon); and the Goblin Gallop 5K. I ran the National with My Lovely Wife and the Goblin Gallop with My Number One Son. I ran the World Wide Half by myself - I'm counting it as I got a race bib :) and I ran the Frederick with my family cheering me on.
My goals for 2008? 1,300 miles and four races. I got the four races in.. but was short on the miles. The general malaise over the summer and late fall certainly impacted my miles, as at the mid-point of my year, I was averaging 27 miles per week, versus the 20 miles per week at year end. For those of you wanting to see a graph of my 2008 run summary, here it is:
Next year's goals? Dunno yet. I'll have to think about it a little more. I'm running the Shamrock Marathon with My Lovely Wife, but don't have any other race plans yet. I'm not sure I want to increase my distance right now, maybe I'll go back to running 1/2 marathons. As for mileage, maybe 1,100 miles is a good goal for now.
See you in 2009.
Okay, my titles aren't very original, but at least it provides information! Okay, over the holiday break, I managed to run -- you guess it -- 4 days in a row. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today (Monday). I ran 6 miles with My Lovely Wife on Friday, 10 miles with My Lovely Wife on Saturday, 4.4 miles on Sunday, and 6 miles this morning. Boy, my legs are sore! I haven't run consistently in quite a long time. In looking at my training site (BuckeyeOutdoors.com) , I haven't run consistently since October, although I ran for a good week in November. Other than than, it's been very spotty, averaging about one (that's ONE) run per week for most of November and in December. I'm thinking of cross-referencing my run totals, the number of runs, along with my blog posts to see how I trended this year -- although I'm a little afraid of the results! That'll be part of my 'year in review', which I'm sure all 1 of you are really looking forward to.
Anyway, I ran my 'Heart Rate' Run this morning (defined in an early post here) . Boy, it hurt. Although I ran a slow pace (9:49 overall for 6 miles). But, I guess that's the result of running inconsistently over the past few months. But, I'm still glad I ran (4 days in a row), as the Shamrock Marathon is now just around the corner (March 21, 2009). I'll be running with My Lovely Wife. And although the pace will be slower than previous marathons, it'll actually be a harder run, as I'll be running for 5 or so hours -- which will be a longer time than any other run I've done -- ever!
Okay, the last time I ran (admittedly, a week ago), it was 55 degrees. I ran in shorts and a long sleeve shirt. Today, it was 21 degrees. I wore long pants, UnderArmor, a heavy shirt, and a fleece vest (plus gloves and hat). Whew!
I'm glad I ran though.
I ran at Burke Lake. I needed to change *something* up, as I haven't had the gumption to get up and run all week long. It's a nice 4.6 mile loop, and I recognized a few runners (going the oppposite way) from my Lifetime Fitness Running Club days (3, as a matter of fact). I was kinda tired at the end (probably from not running). I had a fleeting thought of running two laps at the lake, but 3/4 of the way through the first lap, I gave that thought up! Maybe next time.
