Happy 2012, boys and girls! I know you must be be on the edge of your seats in anticipation of learning my latest mile time, but I have bad news: I didn’t do it. Almost immediately after declaring that I would soon be doing my mile test, I got a terrible winter cold and recovered from it just in time for the holidays, and to study for a big terrible test I have to take (not the running kind). And so sadly, the mile test is going to be put off for at least, but hopefully not much longer than, another week. But I promise it will get done, since I know it’s so important to so many people.
On a happier note, I am pleased to announce that my personal blogosphere is growing! Earlier in December, I met with Kelly Barten, who runs the Run Oregon blog on OregonLive.com. She invited me to be one of their community bloggers, and I have since contributed one race preview entry, with a race recap to be published later today! Kelly started the Run Oregon blog about five years ago (if I’m remembering correctly), as a way to promote running in the community and create a a place for people to share information about events. It was great meeting someone who has the same goals as I do, and has found a much more effective and much less narcissistic way to accomplish them.
Speaking of goals, it’s resolution time! In 2010, my resolution was to run 25 miles a week, every week. I was really successful at this until around May, and then after my first marathon in June I became injured, and ran almost not at all. Last year I resolved to run five times a week. I barely kept track of this, and certainly didn’t do it. This was a bad resolution, because if I hadn’t gone on a run by Wednesday, I had already failed. Aiming for a certain week mileage was better, because it forced me to go on my long runs at the end of the week if I hadn’t taken care of my mileage earlier. My shortcoming here was that I never stretched or did any cross-training, and so injury was inevitable.
This year, my resolution is to average 30 miles a week, and to do it without getting hurt. This will be a very challenging goal to meet, but I’m going to give it my best shot. I tried out 30 miles a week for the two weeks in December before I got sick, and I felt really good, and achieved a PR (for the last 8 years) in the middle of these two weeks. I’m also 25 going on 26, so it’s time to step up my game as I enter my prime long-distance running years.
I would like to give a year-end report on my mileage for 2011, but sadly my records were terrible, despite my intent to keep a detailed running log. I moved a bunch this year, and somehow lost my running log, so that was useless. I did give myself hints of how much I ran throughout the year however, the last three months being the most helpful, as I was using Nike+. So I’m going to estimate that I ran 500 miles in 2011. Slightly less than my 536 in 2010, a bunch more than I ran in 2009 with 307 miles, and way less than the 1500+ miles I’ll have to run to accomplish my 30 miles a week resolution this year. Like I said, a lofty goal, but I’m going to try it.
Did anyone else come up with running-related resolutions? Or interesting resolutions of any kind?
Miles run this week: 3.5
Miles run in 2012: 3.5
Average miles/week in 2012: 3.5
3 Comments
pascal is competing really well with that yellow lab pub.
You’re still the best runner I know! (Can I have my prize now please?)
P.S. When did you get so old? =(
i resolve to run 3-4 days a week for some distance. it doesn’t matter how far, just that i get up and do it. so next time you talk to me, ask me how many times i’ve run so far that week.