Pretty good month

Overall, I was very happy with how my training went in September, especially in regards to running.  I had a lot of firsts this month!  To start with, I’ve tried to adjust my training schedule to have a lighter week every 3 weeks.  The long run on the weekend really can take a lot out of me and I’ve found that every 3 weeks having a lighter long day really helps overall.  This past Saturday I got in a 17 mile run for my marathon and I could really feel the sluggishness in my legs by the end and I know this week will be a little tougher.  I’ve done 75 miles the past 2 weeks so my legs will appreciate some lighter runs this week.

So I’ll start with the ups!  I had more miles this month than any in my life.  I’ve had 136.6 so far and I have a 1.5 mile run planned tomorrow just to see how fast I can go.  So I should finish with 138.1 miles.  Speaking of how fast I can go, my average pace for the whole month is 9:53 min/mile which is really great for me!  That includes some runs of 6 – 8 miles where I did right around my goal pace of 9:10 per mile that I want for my next half and full marathons. So I ran more miles than ever and faster than ever.  Pretty good progress!

I also crossed over a bit mile marker when I hit 700 miles on the year last week.  I’m up to 717 on the year which means in the first 6 months of the year Iran 345 miles and in the past 3 I ran 367 miles.  In the next 3 months I only need 283 miles to hit my 1,000 mile goal.  I’ll probably hit half of that in October so I’m feeling really good about where I am there.  I honestly can’t believe still that I went from thinking my goals were unreachable to being well within reach.

So that’s a lot of good!  There were a few down notes in my training but nothing serious that ruined my month.  Just some things to work on.  The worst was a run I did recently that was supposed to be my 17 miler.  It was nothing short of a disaster.  In retrospect, I put way too much pressure on myself for that run.  My flight the night before was delayed 6 hours so instead of getting home at 7 I landed after 1 am.  I had had an awesome week of running but I had been pushing hard so my legs were tired.  I woke up very late after not sleeping much and tried to do a 17 mile run at almost 10am in the Florida heat.  I made it 13 miserable miles before I felt faint and stumbled into a Starbucks to call a cab.  It was a pretty miserable day for me.

The only other things that I didn’t feel I did very well were my overall triathlon prep.  I only biked a couple times this month and swam a little more than that.  I bought an indoor trainer which I intend to set up this coming week.  That will really help with the cycling part.  I just need once a week in addition to the weekend.  So that’s a good thing for me. Swimming I need to just be better about hitting the pool at least once during the week since I usually have an open water swim on the weekend.

Nothing I’d consider bad at the end of the day.  I’ve been very consistent with my running this year and haven’t set any goals for anything else.  That will change next year but for now I just need to work on consistency.

October will be great.  I have the Disney Tower of Terror Ten Miler next weekend and at the end of the month I’ll be doing a half marathon.  The only thing that kinda sucks is I’m pretty sure due to my schedule and everyone else’s that I may not see any of my training partners until November since we all have races on different weekends.  I’ll have to plan better in the future!