in 2013. It didn’t seem too lofty, running around 20 miles a week – or as I have it in my Excel running log, 83.5 miles per month. The year started off slow with January and February at 63 and 71 miles respectively, but then I finally cracked into the 80s for March. I again ran 80+ miles in April, but the inevitable happened in May…
Injury. Shin splints.
It seemed so out of the blue to be getting shin splints, the
dreaded scourge for newbie runners, after I had been running decent mileage for
so long. I’m still baffled as to what
caused them. No big changes like shoes,
running surface, anything like that. The
only thing that I can maybe guess is the job I started at the end of
March. I’m on my feet for hours at a
time, so maybe my legs were still adjusting?
The end of May / beginning of June was basically a wash when
it came to running. I jumped the gun a
few times and went on runs when I shouldn’t have. However once I became more patient and
started a routine of icing my shins and wearing compression socks, the pain
finally subsided.
During that gimpy stage, I never even cracked 50 miles for a
month – May totaled 40 miles run, June with 21 miles. However, July was a solid comeback with 77
miles run. Still, sitting here on August
5th (11 miles into this month) where does that leave me with five months to
go? 550.75 miles. To make that 1000 mile mark, I now have to
run 110 miles (ok, exactly 110.15 miles) for each of the last remaining
months. Hmm… that seems like a lot.
This month I’m scheduled to finish at 85 miles for the
month. That’s definitely doable. Can I increase my mileage (very drastically I
might add) for the last months of the year?
That’s the huge looming question mark.
Being good / safe / responsible, I’m taking the realistic approach – looking
at my running one day at a time, then one week at a time, then one month at a
time.
Will I be bummed if I don’t hit 1000 miles for the
year? Of course. But I’ll be a lot more bummed (bordering on a
mix of depression / anger) if I push things and get injured again – even if I
did crack 1000 miles in the process.
