A Month of Running

9 December - 6 miles (45 minutes), in Baltimore City

10-11 December - off

12 December - 10 miles at APG, including a mile "time trial" (5:54, near-DNF), followed by 10 minutes easy, then 3 minutes faster, 1 minute easy, 3 minutes faster, 4x(90 seconds faster, 90 seconds easy), warmdown (70 minutes)

13 December - a.m. 5 miles (35 minutes), p.m. Baltimore City Christmas Lights Run +, for 12 miles (90 minutes)

14 December - a.m. 5 miles (35 minutes), later a.m. 4x(Patterson Park hill, up), jog down (@ ~4:00 each, both ways) - 4x(30 seconds faster, 30 seconds easy) in both the warm-up and the warm-down. 11 miles total (73 minutes)

15 December - Wandering around Great Falls Park for about 130 minutes - 17-ish miles.

16 December - a.m. 5 miles (35 minutes), p.m. Gunpowder Falls trails for about 10 more miles (80 minutes)

17 December - 10 miles in part with the Monday Night Run, including 10x(30 seconds faster, 30 seconds easy) (70 minutes)

18 December - off

19 December - 10 miles at APG, including a mile "time trial" (5:37), followed by 10 minutes easy, then 3 minutes faster, 1 minute easy, 3 minutes faster, 4x(90 seconds faster, 90 seconds easy), warmdown (70 minutes)

20 December - 10 aimless miles at APG

21 December - 4x(Patterson Park hill, up), jog down (@ ~4:00 each, both ways) - 4x(30 seconds faster, 30 seconds easy) in both the warm-up and the warm-down. 11 miles total (73 minutes) - windy and a little snowy the whole time

22 December - 27 December - holiday frenzy = only figurative running-around

28 December - 4x(Patterson Park hill, up), jog down (@ ~4:00 each, both ways) - 4x(30 seconds faster, 30 seconds easy) in both the warm-up and the warm-down. 11 miles total (73 minutes) - weather-wise, less bad than the last time, but worse than the first time.  First hill felt easy, in 3:55, but crashed and burned at around 3:10 on the second interval.  Pulled together to finish the last two in 4:07 and 4:10.

29 December - 8+ miles (60 minutes) around the Inner Harbor

30-31 December - off

1 January - 6+ miles (45 minutes), Patterson Park/Fells/Inner Harbor

2 January - 10 chilly, windy miles at APG - 34 degrees, feels like 28 - gravel and bay loops. (70 minutes) Later, 3-ish miles (20 minutes) around the Inner Harbor, just for fun.

3 January - 9+ slightly-less chilly, windy miles at APG, with a "mile time trial" on the gravel loop, starting at 20 minutes in, in 5:50.  Slower than the last time, faster than the first time, but a far more even-paced effort than either time (and not all-out), so it's acceptable, for now.

4 January - 10 miles in cold, dark downtown Baltimore (70 minutes)

5 January - 11 miles in bright, sunny, daytime Baltimore, including 10x(30 seconds fast, 30 seconds easy) at around 50 minutes in. (80 minutes)

6 January - 8 miles across the city and back, post-Ravens-game (60 minutes)

7 January - Back to the grind at APG; 10 miles on the gravel loop and bay loop (70 minutes)

8 January - And, at long last, back to the Gilman track, for my first workout in forever. 2.5 miles warmup, 2x1200 @ 4:36, 4:34, 4x800 @ 3:05, 3:05, 3:04, 3:04, 2.5 miles warmdown. 3 minutes jog rest between reps. ~9 miles total. (~70 minutes total)

Total time: 1569 minutes
Total distance: 212 miles

. . . And that's a whole lot of numbers, without a whole lot of sense behind it, which just goes to show how much "on paper" really counts.

The interpretation, though, is that, really, since sometime this past spring, I've had a hard time putting together any sort of consistent training mileage. From late April until, well, pretty much this past month, it's been race, race, race until I finally burned myself out. It was fun while it lasted, and served a purpose at the time, and even led to some pretty nifty experiences and results, but was hardly a plan for long-term progress.

With that in mind, my first and foremost goal for 2013 is to train consistently again, which means a lot of testing the waters to figure out what sort of training pace/volume is supportable at this point. Based on my recent running, 60-70 miles per week, to include some higher-quality faster stuff, seems to be pretty achievable for right now, while still being challenging by virtue of incorporating faster stuff. I'm not feeling terrible on every run anymore, and, more importantly, I'm enjoying running.

Make no mistake, I've got a long way to go. Christmas logistics cost me a solid week, and my most recent track workout (first in forever), while not totally draining, was not very fast, although those paces FELT really fast. It's going to take a while to get some speed back. But I'm feeling ready for that process now, and excited to see where it takes me. I have some thoughts in mind for how I'd like 2013 to play out, but for the time being, I'm enjoying the feeling of all of the possibilities that come with being back on track.

(P.S. - if anybody's looking for a cat, I still have two good ones that need good homes . . .)