2006 Miles

My 12 mile lunch run today launched me over 2,000 miles for the year. It's funny how it almost happened unnoticed. I have been semi berating myself over not getting in everything on my Richmond training plan and haven't been taking the time to realize just how impressive what I have put in is in comparison to my past training, and that perhaps I wasn't quite ready for all that the program had to throw at me in the first place. And just because I didn't get in every last recovery run, doesn't discount all of the quality miles and key workouts that I did put in.

I have run over 130 more miles in this training period so far than I did for Boston this year, 250 more miles than I ran all of last year, and 915 more miles than I ran in 2006 (and there are still 2 months left!). No wonder I am a little burnt out and a little crazy about whether or not the goal I have set for myself is achievable most days.

But my 12 mile run today felt fantastic. I was clipping off sub 8s with ease. I'm sure some of that is due to the fact that I took yesterday off and that the weather was so much nicer today than it was yesterday, but really I know it is because all this hard work is paying off and in just over 2 weeks I am hoping it will all pay off big time with a monster marathon PR. I have to trust in my training and know that I have the miles logged to back up my ambitious goal.

Now if I can just hold onto this perspective for two more weeks until I toe the line (taper madness anyone?)! And you can be sure there will be some serious partying and relaxation going on after this marathon. 2000+ miles deserves a little celebration and rejuvenation!