Lots And Lots Of Miles

This year has been a good year in terms of mileage. I've logged a total of 383 miles, or thereabouts. That averages out to about 31 miles a week and that's sort of my target these days - 30 miles a week.

Now, miles aren't my only motivation. It's nice to get in five miles or seven miles or whatever miles, sure, but it's better to have a complete series of runs each week. Intervals, tempo runs, hill repeats, fartleks and other speed workouts may be short when compared to regular runs, and on paper it might feel like less of a feat - 3.87 miles is less than 6.01 for instance. But your body needs all those types of runs to progress and develop.

Anyway, I've been able to track my mileage using a couple of things. On the web, I use dailymile.com and it's been a great resource. Some of my blog buddies are on there and it's nice to see their progress and their own runs. It's a good motivator - if they're running and I'm not, I feel left behind. The site is great in that it keeps you informed with all of your running and workout details.

Also, I've kept a written log. Of course I'm too lazy to take a picture of it (one of these days I will) but it's a small notebook where I write down the distance and time of each run, and if I can the pace and my heart rate stats.

It's kind of amazing that I've stuck with both for a while since I'm usually horrible at keeping track of things like that. I'm disorganized with a lot of things like that and tax time is usually tough on Mrs. LB since I don't do a good job of keeping tabs on some of my business expenses.

But it's just much more fun when it comes to keeping track of my runs. And it's a bit necessary for me too. I feel like I want to keep myself where I am right now, running at least 30 miles a week, mixing in hills and intervals and tempo runs, as I try and maintain myself in my top physical condition which I think I'm in right now.

Since I'm at about 383, I'm going to crack the 400-mile mark pretty soon. That's quite a distance to have traversed. I'm on pace to run about 1,600 miles this year, which is insane. I did not keep track of my miles run in 2009 but I'm pretty sure it wasn't even half that. I'd guess I ran between 600 and 700 miles last year, if that.

Now that I'm here at this level, running 30-plus miles a week, there's no turning back and no slowing down.