Last night I got an e-mail from one of the Read It and Weep boys, asking if I might be willing to participate in the next podcast (which is about terrible books and movies). This episode will be on The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. Of course I’m willing. I won’t say too much about this, because I’m saving it for when I have to say it out loud, but I’m obviously super excited to read a book that wants to help give me an Ultimate Hard Body. Which I think is the point of this book, although they don’t say it in so many words.
Maybe doing this will also help me get back into the routine of running regularly, which is important because doing so is my New Year Resolution. I know that the new year was 17 whole days ago, but I never got around to writing about it. First I should do the normal end-of-year wrap up, which I also neglected to do.
In January of 2010, I resolved to run 25 miles a week, every week. In 2009 I ran a piddling 307 miles, and so at 25 miles a week, I expected to run around 1300 miles, almost 900 miles more than the year before. Instead I ran 536 miles in 2010. You’re probably wondering exactly how horrible it feels to be 764 miles short of my goal. Only kind of horrible. I was injured a lot of the time, but I still squeezed in two marathons, which is one whole marathon more than I was even trying to do. And the 25 mile weeks were meant to prepare myself for the marathon, and clearly I didn’t need that.
But I did learn a lot. Like most of my running-related lessons, I primarily learned things that I already knew, but that I had to experience for myself to really take them to heart. The main things that come to mind are:
- Drinking water during long runs is important in preventing awkward poo-ing/diarrhea on the side of the trail.
- 3 hours of running is too long to go without eating.
- Omitting stretching entirely from a marathon training plan is counter-productive.
- The whole “increase your mileage no more than 10% each week” is probably right.
- Entire mileage for the week should not all be done in 1-3 runs.
With specifically the last two lessons in mind, I decided upon my 2011 New Year Resolution: run 5 times a week, with each run needing to be only at least one mile long. So far I have failed every week.
The first week I did 4 runs, and the next two I was sick (last week I did 2, this week I have done none). That brings us up to now, I think. The great thing about new year resolutions is that you have a whole year to get it right, so I’m going to keep trying. Again, my resolution is mainly a tool to achieve my real goal, which this year is a 5:50 mile. Last year I achieved my goal twice over – the question is, if I do the same this year, will I run a 2:55 mile? 2 miles in 11:40? Stay tuned to find out.
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