In May 2009 I ran my first half marathon in a respectable 1:58:59. I had set 3 goals for myself:
- Finish. Period.
- Finish faster than 2:30
- Finish faster than 2:00 (in a dream world)
Fast forward to May 2010 when I ran my second half marathon. I was fighting an injury and trained far less than the year before. I finished in 2:29:something. Which might have been okay if it was a respectable performance, but instead I had to hobble/walk/run the last 5 miles.
Being the numbers person that I am, I got to thinking. How many miles was I running while training for my stellar first half...how many was I running while training for my dreary second half? Where should that put my numbers for this year's third half, where I would love to PR? Let's take a look, shall we?
| 2009 | 2010 | |
| January | 59.7 | 6.1 |
| February | 48.3 | 21.5 |
| March | 67.0 | 17.0 |
| April | 77.1 | 52.5 |
| May | 33.1 | 35.1 |
| June | 34.5 | 0.0 |
| July | 26.0 | 0.0 |
| August | 31.7 | 16.9 |
| September | 28.5 | 33.3 |
| October | 20.2 | 22.7 |
| November | 8.6 | 16.4 |
| December | 1.0 | 33.0 |
Clearly I had a far better mileage base going into the race in 2009 than I did in 2010. I know there was an injury that slowed me down in November and December and into January. Then I had to build back up from there. The thing is, I had knee and hip trouble in '09 as well but I didn't let it slow me down. Was I running smarter in 2010...or wimpier? Hard to know the answer. What I do know is that to have a race that rivals 2009, I'm going to have to put in more impressive mileage than I did in 2010.
So far in January I have put in 17.5 miles. I still have about 2 weeks to go, including a long run tomorrow that should get me about 6 miles. Projecting that out, I can expect at least a 45 mile month. Looking at the numbers, that may not be good enough. One thing I am certain of is that it's time to get the mileage up.
*I use the term tempo very loosely.
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