Up up up
Over the last few weeks I have been slowly formulating my new running goals and rules. I have been letting them shape up on their own and not forcing myself to establish new ones.
First, my new rules. I use rules to help me stay focused and on task. It also makes scheduling my runs easier because I know what criteria I have to meet. Currently my rules are, no run can be less than 3 miles, and I can’t run less than 3 days per week. I also have to have one long run per week that is a minimum of 8 miles. The last rule is not set in stone, but I plan to follow it and more. That is, I don’t want to run less that 20 miles in a given training week (Which for me is like a regular week running Sunday to Saturday).
This brings me to my goals. I want to up my mileage (it was really hard not to title this post “I upped my mileage, so up yours!”). To that end, I decided that I would run 20 miles this week as a foundation week and build from there. As the week moved forward, I decided that I would actually get 22 miles in this week. While out on my 6 miler this morning I came up with my schedule for the next two weeks in order to continue increasing.
Next week (which starts tomorrow) I will run 10/5/5/4 and the following week I will run 10/5/5/6. That will get me to 26 and within 4 miles of my new goal, of 30-35 miles per week for winter. After these next two weeks I can reassess and probably will add a day to my week taking me to 5 days per training week.
With all this running to think about, I needed a good run this morning to sort it all. I drove down to the rail trail in Newville and hoofed it out 3 miles to the turnaround. I was really pretty cold and didn’t get comfortable till the middle of the 5th mile. It was pretty unpleasant. I have to get some warmer running clothes.
1 mile splits: 9:08, 9:02, 9:13, 9:32, 9:20, 9:28
Some stats (these are a little off b/c I didn’t turn off the Garmin when I was done):
Distance: 6.06 Miles
Time: 56:37 (pace: 9:20)
Average Heart Rate: 148 bpm
Calories Burned: 881