My 160 mile Summer.

Back in July I started using a GPS watch to keep track of my running distances. I used it a little for pace setting but mostly I just wanted to know when I got to 2 miles or so and I could turn around and run home. One of the side effects of this habit is that, for the first time ever, I have a cumulative record of how many miles I've run over a long-ish period- 3 months.

Now I'm a statistics minded guy. I love interrogating data and making it talk. If a sculptor's role is to reveal the form in a block of stone or wood then I'm a sculptor of data. I ruminate over where I could shave a few minutes in my triathlon races. I slice and dice the number to see where my strong points and weak points are. Where's the strongest potential for improvement, where could I give up a minute to save 3. On occasion I've tracked times daily on a known route to see what kinds of improvements I could make over time. Up until this summer I resisted the lure of a running GPS. Part of me likes to just get out and run and forget about all the numbers, just run as fast as I can and as far as I can until I decide I'm done. But I broke down and decided a GPS watch would make it easier to just pop out for a training run and not worry about planning a route, so in a way it would free me up too.

Today I crossed the 160 mile mark and I'm calling it the end of Summer. The leaves are in full foliage mode, the lake is too cold to stay in for very long and the days are getting shorter and colder. Many of my running friends will scoff at 160 miles as not a big deal, especially over 3 months. And it wasn't, I didn't kill myself to make it and mostly I didn't think much of how many miles I'd get too. I just chipped away at it days at a time. Mostly I ran after work, 2.6 or 4 miles. Sometimes a little over 5, some days just over a mile at my fastest pace. And a few days I didn't bring my watch or it didn't start up until half a mile in so I'm sure I'm over what it's reading but for the sake of recording I'm sticking by what's on the GPS.

My normal route was the dirt road between the camp and the tar road. It's 2/3 of a mile each way. I'd do anywhere between 1 lap and 4 then go down to the lake for a swim. At first I'd change between events but then I realized I might as well save the laundry and just swim in my running clothes.

I did a few laps with friends. Ryan is definitely a faster distance runner and we blew my normal pace when we ran together but that was good for me. Becky is just getting back into running so we came up with a routine where I would run as normal and we'd pass each other at the turns and meet up at the end. I enjoyed running with both Becky and Ryan and I also cherished the many times I ran alone, letting the thoughts flow out of my head behind me like an imaginary con-trail. The routine of it helped a lot. Knowing I had to get a run in before it became too dark forced me to wrap up work at a somewhat reasonable hour and it served as a wonderful buffer between work and whatever came next.

Knowing that I was going to run every day made it easy to do too. I find the hardest part of deciding to run on any given day is the decision. It's cold. It's raining. I skipped lunch. If there was a decision to be made it was easy to find excuses. Having made up my mind that even if it was only for one lap, I was going to run, end of discussion, that took away the decision and I usually found that the cold, and the rain or the heat and the humidity weren't so bad once I got started. Rarely did I just do one lap once I got started either, "Heck, I'm out here, I might as well keep going now...". Though I did mix in some high intensity single lap days, it wasn't usually the days I was resisting going out. And every day really is an exaggeration, I usually only ran between Monday and Thursday, sometimes Friday and took the weekend for recovery.

So what's next? Well I'd like to get to 200 miles before the year is out but changing my routine is going to make it a challenge. I know even being back at home away from the lake is going to make it tougher and double that with going into the office and the commute but I'm optimistic. Hey, I had a good Summer, it's be nice to convert that into a good Fall as well.