Falling Behind, Now Reaching Forward

It may have been wishful thinking, but at the start of the year I had the goal in my head of running 1000 miles
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.