How do you like the socks I wore today? These are some socks that you wear like a glove. They actually fit over each toe and are quite comfortable. If you ever join the ultra running community, then you will see a lot of women and men wearing these because it helps reduce rubbing between toes--which helps prevent blisters. I'm a fan, but I only have one pair because they run about $10 a pop. Kind of expensive for a sock.
I've been talking about this for a few weeks now, and today I hit 20 strait weeks of running 40 miles or more. Over the past 20 weeks I have averaged 42.5 miles/week. That's pretty darn good. You may wonder why this is important or significant. Or...you might say to yourself, "Josh is off his rocker." But...their is a purpose (like most thinks I do) to this madness. When you run and try to race, then you have to put together your total level of running fitness in a couple stages. Stage one is always base building. Specifically, what you want to do is build a running base so that your body is used to hitting whatever mile point you want to hit on a consistent basis. I did not randomly pick 40-45 miles, but rather I know that once I run above that mark then I am more prone to injury and once I go below that mark I do not end up running to my full ability. Everyone's weekly mile total is different and dependent upon your body and the time you have for running. For the last two years I've not been able to train consistently as I've dealt with injuries (IT Band in 2008, IT Band for first part of 2009 and sprained ankle in fall of 2009). For the 2008 and 2009 about the best I could do was about 10 weeks of consistent base building. Ultimately, I never reached the point where my legs were strong and had enough miles in them to really start heading into the second phase: race specific training. After you build up a nice base, what you want to do is work on getting faster for the races that you'd like to run. For me this fall, I've decided to focus on the 5K and 10K and possibly complete in a half-marathon. However, my main focus will be on running very quick 200s and 400s on the track and also some mile repeats (all out miles with a little rest in between). Now that I have a good base built up, I should be able to really lower my times.
At the beginning of this year I set a goal to try and run really well at the 5K distance, 10K distance, and the Half-Marathon distance. In my first crack at the half-marathon I did not run well. But...I feel like I have a shot this fall. The last two races I've run I have actually won, and I ran a 5K about a month ago that was good. My next race will be on 7/31--a 5K at Fort Ben here in Indy. Goals for the fall: 5K in 16:30; 10K in 34:55, Half-Marathon in 1:15:50. We shall see.
Have a great Sunday. My yearly total after today has hit 1131.6. To put that in perspective, I only ran 1130 miles in 2008 and only hit 1365 last year. So...if I stay healthy I should really be able to hit my 2000 mile goal for the year. Happy running to you...
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