January 2009 Mileage

Saturday's PR at the Lake Benbrook Half Marathon was the last run of a month in which I ran the most miles in any month: 194.75, just edging out the 193-mile month I had last October. And the thing is, I only ran 20 days in January. I took more days off, ran less 4- and 5-mile speed runs, and concentrated more on endurance. 14 of the 20 runs were at least an hour long, and four of those runs lasted at least 2 hours.

Here are the numbers...

Miles: 194.75

Time: 26 hours, 7 minutes, 40 seconds

Pace: 8:02 minutes/mile

Avg heart rate: 78 percent of max.


I did a 7.3-mile recovery run today, going as slow as I could without screwing around with my stride. Got it done in 1:04:58. Pace was 8:54. I was not as sore as I thought I'd be after Saturday's half marathon. This week is the last big mileage week before the Cowtown Marathon on Feb. 28. This is what I hope to run this week

Today: 7 miles (done)
Monday: off
Tuesday: 8 miles
Wednesday: 10 miles
Thursday: 8 miles
Friday: off
Saturday: 22 miles (running the Cowtown Marathon course just to know what those hills feel like)

Total: 55 miles

Back in the saddle

Feet felt great when I woke up this morning, so decided to do a 6-miler in the cold foggy morning. Averaged an 8:40 mile, and that includes a 10:00 mile warmup. Ah, yes, it feels good to run fast. My heart rate for the whole run never got above 85 percent, so thats a good thing. Hopefully, if I can keep this up, I can run 8:20s and 8:30s and have my heart rate below 80 percent. Of course, Ive written tons here that I can run fast but I can't run fast long. I posted the, "What's wrong with me" question on Runners World Forum and got some pretty good answers.
The pictures from the half marathon are back and I will try to see if I can put them up as soon as possible.

Here are my running stats for this month
Miles: 114.91
Time: 17 hours, 18 minutes, 23 seconds
Pace: 9:02 minutes per mile