It's Friday!

Well another week has past, and a lot has happened this week.  I did a very nice rain run, I missed my cycling outing and I'm planing a PB for distance (9 miles) tomorrow.

I'm closing in on some goals here in the next week or so;

• Monthly distance is currently 104.7 miles my best month is 108.6 so I should pass that today.
• Current running streak is 14 days - I'm shooting for 30 days which will beat my yearly goal of 25 days.  (I might have to revisit this goal.)
• I'll be making an attempt next Saturday (the 23rd) at a 10k PB - currently my best stands at 1:04:11 that I did last March.  I should be able to destroy this.
• I'm attempting a PB in distance (9 miles)

If everything goes well I should have a record month in regards to my goals that I set earlier in the month.  I never dreamed that I'd be so close to so many of my goals for the year this early.  Now if I can maintain this level, it would go a long way to becoming more consistant (another goal I set.)  I'm still on pace to log 130 miles this month so I'm very pleased with my effort.  I feel good and strong with very little aches and pains so I'm very encouraged that I should be able to continue at this level.

Last night I finally ran the 4 miler that I thought I was running from my last post.  The weather was perfect, no clouds, no breeze and nice cool air.  Too bad I was runnning bad.  I completed the 4 miles at a 10:40 pace.  Now there were several reasons for this slower pace so I'm not too disappointed.  First there was my running parnter; Bogey, he wanted to smell everything we past. So I stopped for him a couple times thinking he had to 'do his business', but actually he just wanted to smell the roses.  Second I was trying out some new running shoes - I won't say much other than they are currently on the way back to the store.  I'll write a complete review on these shoes sometime next week. Finally I wanted to keep my pace down since lately I've been running a little too fast, so the 10:40 pace is ok for a run or two right now.

Also I wanted to thank everyone for their recent comments / questions - I'll try to answer most of them.
(more bullets)

• I'm not a 'streak' runner.  I've always been interested in people who do streak because to me it shows more than just dedication, but rather a way of life.  These people aren't just running for health, time, or to get better.  They run because they truely enjoy it.
• I run because I do want to get faster - and because it keeps me healthy, sane, and finally because I do enjoy it.
• Last summer I was going through a difficult time after getting laid off from my job that I had for 9 years.  I was transitioning to a stay-at-home Dad as Beth went off to work full time.  Because of this, my running suffered.  In fact I missed a couple of races because of my conditioning.  I did spend a huge amount of time with the kids since they were home for the summer - something that I wasn't able to do while I was working full time.
• My activity levels have taken off because I believe that I've put in the hard work over the past two years to get to this point.  I've always believed that it takes about 24 months to get your body used to certain 'levels' of running.  It's only just about now that I think my body can handle the extra workload.  I really think I'll stay healthy through this current push for more mileage.  I expect to keep at the 100-200 miles per month level for another 2 years though.
• My graphs - they are really just an by-product from using RunningAhead as my on-line log book.  Once reason why I chose this site (other than it totally free) is because I can get this kind of breakdown very easily.  I find this VERY important because it makes me a better runner oveall.  I can look back and know exactly how much I'm biking, walking, doing easy runs vrs tempo etc....  I can pull almost any 'stat' I want in about :30 seconds.  Having this information helps me plan ahead.  I can't every begin to express how happy I am with this site.  Eric (the creator and owner) is great and is always improving the site in real time.  Don't worry if you have another site with data - he's created automatic downloads to most major on-line sites to transfer data.  (Including downloading your Garmin data!)  And if you have your data in just a excel page - he'll download it for you.  The link is on my sidebar - check it out.  I'll continue adding graphs that I feel show my progress, or goals in future posts.

Next week is going to be difficult getting in  my planned mileage - we're supposed to get 6-5 days of rain, and I'm not too keen running in this stuff everyday next week.  I don't mind doing it every once in a while, but all week?  There is a reason why I don't like in Spokane anymore.  I do have my 'streak' to think of so I'm sure I'll try to keep that going even of I only get in 1-2 miles daily.  I can't really complain though since we've had a very mild winter so far cmpared to the rest of the United States.  Hopefully I'll get in at least 20 miles next week.

Tonight I'm planning another 4 miler (at least) - nice and easy becasue tomorrow morning I'm attempting a PB for mileage.  I'll be running both runs with my old shoes but hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll find another pair of shoes.  And as always I'll write a review on them.


Keep Steppin'
Bob