One Week, Two Milestones

This has been a busy week, as far as milestones go. On Sunday I ran my longest distance ever...15.5 miles and on Wednesday I will celebrate my birthday. I find it somewhat funny that these milestones fell within the same week. I am in better shape than I was even just five years ago and this new distance milestone seems to support my reverse-aging philosophy.

The run itself was nothing extraordinary. I have been wanted to increase my longest run by a couple of miles for several reasons. One because I believe that going a couple of miles beyond the half marathon distance of 13.1 miles will help me mentally in the closing miles of a race. Another reason is that I have set the goal of completing a marathon in 2011. This run was the first bit of work towards that goal. I really wanted to see how my body would handle that distance as far as fatigue and recovery. Erik was a huge help to me especially during miles 10 and 11. The man loves to run and really kept the energy up during these miles when my mind was growing weary. We went our separate ways for the last 3 miles because Erik was running 18.5 miles in preparation for the Cowtown Marathon in February--his 3rd. The last mile was directly into the wind coming off of White Rock Lake (ahh..Winfrey Point....my enemy!) but I still managed to focus on a couple of runners ahead of me and pass them at the very end of my run. My legs were very tired on Sunday afternoon and evening, but I felt almost normal on Monday and had a great recovery run on Tuesday. This is encouraging as far as marathon training goes, but I couldn't help to think that a marathon would include another 10+ miles at the end of that 15.5. Ugh....however, I know that anything is possible with good training.

And the other week's milestone....on Wednesday I will be 36 years old. I can hardly believe these words as I see them in print before me. I do not feel 36 years old and cannot fathom that 40 is only 4 years away. Like I said, since I started running I have felt stronger with each year. I feel like I have the numbers to back this up too as my race times have gotten consistently better. Perhaps I have found the fountain of youth in running? My dream is to tell people my age and have them exclaim "No way! You can't possibly be THAT age!" So if you happen to run into me in the next few days....if you wouldn't mind....I would really appreciate it!

Next up on the racing schedule is the Too Cold To Hold 15K. It is a favorite of Erik and me and was the scene of our famous "duel" last year. During the course of the race I snuck up on Erik and we sprinted together to the finish line....and he beat me by 2 seconds. This is my 15K PR (1:19:30) and I would love to beat it....but it will be hard.

And a sneak preview...March 4-6...200 miles, 40 relay legs, 12 girl team members, 2 vans, LOTS of fun....you won't want to miss this!

A Journey of 100 Miles

Who picks the hottest month of the year to log their highest mileage month to date? Yep, that would be this runner! Today marks the end of August and it also marks a bit of a running milestone for me. As I finished up my Tuesday 5 miler, I was also finishing up 100 miles for the month. I have been more aware of my monthly mileage over the last few months because I have set a goal to run 1,000 miles in 2010, and I have been monitoring my progress very carefully. Recently I have been looking ahead at the coming month and totaling the number of miles possible if I don't miss any runs or cut any short. When I was looking at August, I noticed that there was a possible 98-99 miles if I ran all of my planned runs. I made up my mind right then and there that I wanted to run 100 this month. It was the perfect opportunity because I had help from the calendar as August had 5 Sundays and 5 Tuesdays. I typically only run on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday--as you can see the "extra" days really helped bump up my total. I have found that these mileage goals really push me to keep my planned distances or to go a little bit further. It is a good thing and something I intend to keep up in the future. I do best when I have a fixed or concrete goal on my horizon. This morning was pretty brutal too--I was so tired and it was 80 degrees with 90% humidity. On any other day I might have cut this run short--it was just so hard (insert whine here!). However, I could see that big goal in my mind and I couldn't let myself down. I had some peer pressure too because I had been talking about this goal on Facebook and Daily Mile. I am glad that I did it and am pleased with my accomplishment. Those 100 miles were some of the ugliest running that I have ever done. This August was so hot and humid, with the nightly low rarely dropping below 80. I can't wait for cooler weather!

I am happy to see September come because the fall racing season is my favorite time of the year. Coming up on the calendar we have the Tour des Fleur 10K and the Heels and Hills and Him Half Marathon. Two of my favorite races, stay tuned for more stories!