Mileage

I banged out ten treadmill miles back on Saturday morning. Ten boring miles at the fitness center, with nothing but the speed and incline buttons to amuse me. When I was preparing for the Eisenhower half-marathon several years ago, we were on holiday in Kansas City, and I ran 10 or 11 on the treadmill at the Crown Center and felt sore and tired the rest of the evening. Not this time. Ten on the treadmill does not compare to ten on the open road here in Tuscaloosa. I felt great the rest of the day. Weekly mileage: 29.

I also learned a few weeks ago that in 2012, I ran 994 miles. Pretty pissed off when I made this discovery. It was, by far, my best year of running, as mentioned. But leaving six miles out there is disappointing. On the other hand, it means there are still things to accomplish. I think right now I'm at 360 miles for 2013, so I'll miss the halfway pole, unless I want to to ramp up to 35-40 weekly miles from the mid-20s.

So keeping things in the mid-20 neighborhood for now is a good plan. But marathon training begins the end of this month. On the agenda is the Atlanta Marathon, October 27th. The wife and I are moving to Athens, Georgia next month, so it'll be a shorter trip into town.

Anyhow, the marathon training will really get the mileage up, and the miles will be difficult, since Athens is much hillier than my current stomping grounds. I think I'll make it to 1,000 miles easily enough.