Looking back and moving forward

With three months of 2008 in the rearview, this is a good place to see what my goals for running were and see how they were or were not achieved. The trick here is to remember that a black swan named “shingles” knocked me flat before judging the results of 91 days too harshly.

The January goal of 100 miles run was met with scary precision. In retrospect, it almost looked easy: set the distance, see the distance, run the distance, repeat. I was elated to see a nice round number filled in completely, but it was supposed to be a beginning, not something from which I needed to recuperate. I found that February is where elation goes to die.

I’ve said before that February is the longest month of the year. The chronologically short month seems much longer, like the purgatorial wait for the doctor to see you. February is the waiting room for sunny spring. No one even has the energy to pronounce the first “r” in “feh-brew-eh-ree.” (This goes doubly so for those who say “lie-bear-ee” and “new-kew-ler”) Since this particular February had 29 days, I tried to juice up Groundhog Month with a goal of 110 miles run. It was here where the best-laid plans went awry.

Instead of 110 miles run, I covered 50.2 miles. I ran only 7 of those 29 days, compared to 20 of 31 days in January. At least they were longish efforts: one 10-miler, two 8-milers, nothing less than 4.8 miles.  At least March would be a fine place to rebound.

Or not. March made February look like wall-to-wall Mardi Gras. The shingles outbreak really sucked the life out of me for a few weeks. I again ran 7 days in a month but this time the longest run was 4.8 miles.  I ran on the 1st and 4th, then essentially slept for 11  days before running 11 days later on the 15th, then essentially slept another 11 days before firing off a string of four 3-milers from the 26th to the 29th.

March’s original goal of 130 miles, set on the last day of 2007, was going to be scaled back a little bit since February had been such a setback. The result was actually 24.6 miles run, a deficit of over 105 miles. The result was further off the March goal than the entire result of January. I have finished three marathons, which means I’ve run more in ONE DAY than I did this March.

Let’s take a moment here to look away from the numbers and count my blessings. One of my favorite sayings goes something like this: Instead of whining about what you wanted but didn’t get, think about all the things you DIDN’T want that you DIDN’T get. I had shingles. I did not have a stroke, get hit by a car, or witness the planet’s demise. Nothing is over. Tomorrow is another day.

So, for April, I’m going to take a whack at 100 miles again instead of the 150 miles I penciled in as the goal during “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve.” It may wind up being 80 miles or 70 miles, but the chances are slim that it could be less than 25 miles. Right?! I already ran 3 miles today, April 3rd, in 34:57, an 11:39 pace, which is in line with the streak I pulled off last week.

I don’t know if I can cover 97 more miles before May Day. But I do know three things. 

• We are promised nothing.  
• The sun does not go down. 
• When you look forward, that is generally the direction you travel.

Explore posts in the same categories: endurance, health, jogging, running

Tags: April, endurance, energy, February, goals, groundhog, health, January, jogging, March, mileage, momentum, pacing, reset, results, running

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