Shifting back to miles per run

Happy September, my shirt even had a post-run smiley face

Labor Day greetings. I'm glad to report that I logged 80 running miles in August. It was actually 80.46 but who's counting? And don't get me started with Garmin GPS variance that generally under-counts run distance by 2.4%. So I ran 80.46 but I may have run 83.4. My August goal was 75 miles so any way you slice it, I'm happy. SIOR, who is not delusional even though she considers her upcoming trek to Everest base camp an easy hike, thinks I should go for 100 miles in September. I think I'm going to repeat the 75 mile goal for September and see what happens.

Now that I'm averaging 18+ miles a week, I'm ready to shift focus to running distances. My 80 miles in August and 71 in July were built around a lot of runs. With very few exceptions, I've run six days a week since mid June. I ran 27 days last month to get to 80 miles and I'm wondering if it would be more beneficial to aim for 75 miles a month, running 5 days a week. That would give me the flexibility to add another rest day to recover from long runs that aren't happening right now.

Back when I was commuting by train, I would usually run 2.5 miles at 4 AM from Tuesday through Friday and do 8-10 miles over the weekend. When I switched to commuting by car, my run schedule got disrupted and my weekly mileage and run frequency plummeted. Now that I'm commute-free, I have more options.

One thought is to do three days running with one day resting. It works out to six runs a week, but I'd never be more than three days from a rest day. My current schedule has me running five days straight for every rest day.  I could also go back to short runs (less than 3 miles) 66% of the time and longer runs (4 or more miles) 33% of the time. I could do that running either 5 or 6 times a week.

Since September has already begun and I've already logged 3.4 miles today, I think I'll aim for at least one run a week over 3.5 miles and edge up that target as I go. It's been a long time since I'd consider it no big deal to run six or seven miles on a weekend day. Right now, I just want to get back to doing four.or more.

Building up the monthly miles

On the comeback trail

Happy almost Memorial Day. It finally feels like summer and I've been doing my best to get out for runs early to beat the heat. I did that today and was rewarded with a cool and comfortable 66° temp. I wore a mid-weight shirt and shorts and wished I went with a lighter top by the end. I recently read that a worn heel is not a good reason to discard a running shoe because, "to patch such a heel prevents proper adaptation of the shoe to the runner’s particular heel strike pattern." That inspired me to pull out my well worn Kinvara 5s for today's run.

One of my goals for my post-work life was a return to running 18 miles per week. When I was doing 2.5 mile runs on weekdays and 7-8 miles over the weekend, I averaged about 75 miles per month. Over the past five years, my monthly average has steadily declined. Now that I'm running almost every day, I'm looking to build back to the 70+ mile target. A look back over the last 12 months shows an embarrassing monthly average of 30 miles with some pathetically low totals Jan-March.

The highest monthly total I've reached since June 2018 was 45.9. Now that I'm running six days a week, I was expecting to easily exceed that high point. A quick check on Garmin Connect made me think it would come down to the wire for May whether I would hit a new monthly high. When I went out on Saturday morning, my May monthly total was 40.8 miles. I was thinking I'd need to cover 5.1 miles before Monday.

We were invited to brunch yesterday and I was pressed for time, so I finished up after covering 3.2 miles. That left me thinking that I still needed 2.2 miles to reach my highest monthly total in a year. I beat that easily, and when I uploaded my final May runs to Garmin I realized that May doesn't end on the 26th. I actually have until next Saturday to build on that total. My new goal for May is 60 miles, double my 12 month cumulative average. 60 miles a month is a big improvement, but it's still less than 14 miles a week.

I will be aiming for 70 miles in June which would get me to almost to 90% of my target (18 miles per week). That means another 2.3 miles per week, either added to my shorter daily runs or as a step toward returning to long weekend runs. In the meantime, my performance is steadily improving. The gains aren't dramatic but they're real. Is it more frequent workouts, more miles or getting more sleep? Yes.