Halfway there!

Yesterday I hit an important number.  Since I started training for the five half marathons in five days, I’ve run 369 miles.  That’s 369 miles in 11 weeks.  I have 7 weeks of training left and, you guessed it, 369 more miles to run.

This has been an interesting experience for me.  I’ve learned that my mind is way stronger than my body.  And my determination is way stronger than anything else.  My run yesterday is a case in point.  Everything felt “off”.  Lots of little sore spots.  Various muscles tightening up at various times.  Nothing about the run felt good.  Thankfully, nothing felt really bad either.  Despite amazing weather (I was wearing shorts in January!), it was just a really unpleasant run.  I ran 10 miles (when I wanted to quit at 2) at exactly the pace I wanted.  Sometimes, you don’t want to do it, and you do it anyways because you need to.

I needed to finish that last long run.  In the past 6 days, I ran 9, 7, 13.1, 7.5 and 10 mile runs.  46.6 miles.  I’m slowly creeping up to the point where I know I can finish all five halves.  I may not be fast and there may be some walking, but I will finish.

Now that last week is behind me, I’m in a recovery week.  My body is feeling every one of the 122 miles I’ve run so far in January.  I know I’m walking a very fine line right now.  I’ve gone right up to the cliff, now I just need to not fall over it.  What remains to be seen is whether I’ve hit my individual mileage max.  I know I’m there mentally.  When your shortest run in a week is 7 miles (and you run as slowly as I am these days), you start to feel like you are doing nothing but running.  Hopefully, this lower mileage week will give me the reboot that I need, both physically and mentally.

Because February, the shortest month of the year, is shaping up to be the month I break 200 miles.  And that’s a big deal, folks, because I will probably never do that again. Ever.