My Running Log

About 2 months ago I made a goal to work up to running 5 miles on the treadmill in 30 minutes. Before today I think my furthest was about 2-3 miles at this pace. Well, today I felt really good and thought I'd give it a try. During the first couple miles I was pleased with how smooth it felt. It didn't feel like I was straining too hard. This was good because at the beginning of the year it felt like a full-on sprint to run this pace. Anyway, after 2 miles it started getting harder, and I started counting each tenth of a mile. But fortunately, I was able to hold on for the full 5 miles. I feel really grateful to be making progress and to be healthy. I guess I'll have to come up with a new stretch goal for tempo runs.

I ran 1.5 miles of warmup and 0.5 miles of cooldown.

5 miles easy in 37:46. Felt nice to go easier.

8 miles on treadmill in 59:10. I didn't think it would come to this, but I'm getting bored of the treadmill. Good thing I have a good, long outside run planned for Saturday on Antelope Island.

At the beginning of today, I needed 7 miles to reach 2000. So this afternoon I went to the treadmill and started my normal hill workout. I didn't feel very good, so I decreased the incline a lot to get through it. Towards the end, I came up with a "bright idea." I shortened my run to 6.9 miles, giving me an official total of 1999.9 for the year. My reasoning was that it would give me something to shoot for next year!

So I went home and told my wife this, and she said it was a pretty silly idea.

So at my parents' house tonight, I ran 0.1 on the treadmill.

So I reached exactly 2000 miles for the year 2009. Pretty good milestone for me, especially considering I did about 0 miles last year.

The year has been really nice. I've been fortunate to stay mostly injury free, ran 5 days a week without fail, qualified for Boston, met some great people on the blog, lost 25 pounds, and gained confidence in my ability to set and keep rigorous goals. Thanks to those of you who read my blog and have given me encouragement throughout the year.

I'm not sure what 2010 will bring, but hopefully I don't lose another 25 pounds or I'll get blown away by the wind. I'm seriously considering the Buffalo Run 50 miler just because I've wanted to do 50 miles since I was a teenager, and the scenery should be beautiful. Besides that, I'll probably do some shorter road races and possibly a marathon or two. The plan for Boston is 2011.

Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope your 2009 has been great and that you're excited for a fresh start in 2010! 

I'm changing my 5-day running schedule to Mo-Tu-We-Fr-Sa, so I ran today to start off the year on that schedule. But I just ran my one mile loop because I ran yesterday and wanted to take it easy.

This morning I drove out to Antelope Island to do a training run for the Buffalo Run (buffalorun.org). There were about 10 runners, and I met some new people, which was great. We ran a loop on the hilly portion of the course. Some of it was on packed snow, and some of it was on fresh snow about 6-8 inches deep. That made it challenging, but I felt great on it. It was about 7.8 miles but harder than most of my miles.

Antelope Island is beautiful, and the course looks excellent for a trail race. It's hilly but not mountainous. So I'm now almost sure I'll do that race in March.

I might do some more miles tonight, not sure. But if not, I'll just say it has been a solid week of running, and I'm ready for a fun year of running.