Major milestone

I have been keeping track of my mileage since the first of the year. Even before NYC entered my mind I wanted to see if I could possibly run 1000 miles in 2010. That averages out to a little over 19 miles a week and in the beginning of the year I was lucky if I was doing 12. I knew it was a lofty goal but I thought it would be fun to keep track anyway just to see how many miles I could cover in a year. As of today I passed the halfway mark and hit 503.17. That's. Pretty. Awesome. If my training contines to go well I should make the 1000 miles and maybe a little more. Back in January, I wasn't even sure I'd get halfway. What a difference 6 months makes.

Today's run was great, I felt strong and never really struggled. My overall pace for the 5.67 miles was 10:34, a 12-second/mile improvement from a week ago for this workout. I know not every week will be faster pace and some weeks I'll have setbacks but it's been nice to see some solid improvements my last few runs.

Yesterday I started up the Shock Training System again for strength work. I did this program in the spring and really liked it and got good results. It's 3.5 months with 2 recovery weeks built in between phases. My training program allows for 2 days of cross training and I've been lax about it lately, to be honest. With my work schedule so unpredictable sometimes my main focus is to make sure I get in all my runs and the cross training days have been a lower priority. I'm going to work on that. I like strength training a lot so it's not like I'm struggling to add something that I don't enjoy. It's just been a matter of prioritization and time.

Today I'm happy that I got both my weekday runs in and it looks like I'll get both my cross training days in as long as I workout tomorrow. Saturday I plan to do 10 on the trail, Sunday I'll shoot for 5.