BIGGEST "YEAR" EVER... But Now Injured

In Thursday's post I noted I'm having a heel issues that have stopped me from running for at least a little while. It's been a nice "consistent" year of running up to this point. I've been smart, and I didn't do anything "dumb" to injury myself. It just happened.

For fun, I looked back in my log, and plotted out my weekly long runs. Here's my weekly long run from when I started "ramping up" miles for last year's TC 10 Mile through this past week:

NOTES:

• I had more races in there, but the blue dots are just when my long run was SHORTER BECAUSE of a race. You know how I like to "be smart" and not over-do it. There were shorter or "easier" races where I still got in a decent long run the week before and/or after.

• After those 2 green dots (a knee issue in December), I had a great 10 week stretch of long runs between Christmas and "O'gara's Irish Run" in March. That's a good stretch! And then after 2 weeks of races, a non-race week, and then the Goldy's Run 10 Mile, I had 7 long runs in a row that were all 10+ miles! (An easy week after Goldy's in early April, then that stretch that went through the TC 1 Mile in May up until the 1500 on the track as part of the "USA Track and Field MN Outdoor Championship in June.)

• Notice 3 weeks ago was the lowest RED dot on that chart. I had a *little* ache creeping in, and just thought "you know what? I don't need to push it this week. Let's do a week withOUT a long run." My middle run that week was a good track workout, so I didn't want to be dumb - I just ran easier earlier and later that week. I guess that's when I noticed something was starting to be "off."


NOW FOR SOME BETTER NEWS: I knew I was getting close to my biggest running year ever. I was hoping that 2019 would eclipse 2012 when I ran so many long runs with baby Henry. Nearly HALF of my miles that year were with Henry, and I ran 1,027.62 miles total.

Pic from near the turn-around of a Thanksgiving race with Henry in 2012.
We'd pass both of those guy in front of us to take 4th overall.

Through last Saturday (August 10th), I'd ran 679 miles in 2019. That's an average of 92 miles/month, which is a GREAT average for me this far into a year! But that's still a long way from 1,027. But I looked back at my milage from the previous year FROM THAT DATE. From August 12, 2018 through August 10, 2019 (which is 364 days including the end date), I ran 1,073.40 miles. That's a lifetime yearly PR.

I'm not going to "push through the pain" to try to officially break 1,027 for the calendar year. I'll be smart. I hope I can race the TC 10 Mile, but who knows. (Dr. Folske seems VERY positive, but I'm less so.) For right now, I'm just happy I was able to run so many decent miles quite injury free over these last 52 weeks. :)