I made it through week 10 of running 10 miles per week. That’s 100 miles! I’m so very happy to have gotten to that particular benchmark. There were a couple of iffy weeks in the last 10 weeks, but the streak pulled me through by making NOT running a bigger disappointment than running when I didn’t quite feel like running.
I don’t know how much longer I’m going to keep the streak up, but I want to try to hold on to it through April. Once May starts, my weekends may start involving car camping and/or backpacking. That will naturally reduce my mileage, since I might not always have time on Saturday or Sunday to devote to a long run.
What I might do, for over the backpacking season, is set a new goal for 5 miles per week. I know I can hit that with just the two runs per week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That way, I can still have some steady running, but I won’t have to try and get quite so many miles.
Of course, if I’m going on a week long backpacking trip, there won’t be any running happening that week. Just a lot of hiking, while carrying a heavy pack. Yeah, that’s still pretty good exercise – and I’m really only running to get my body prepared for hiking.
I started week 11 of my streak with my longest run yet, 6.84 miles. I could have pushed it to 7, but I really wasn’t feeling it on Sunday. Maybe next Sunday, I’ll try for 7. I know I can do 7 in a day, since I did that last week to make up for not running on Sunday, but that was split into a 4 mile and then several hours later a 3 mile.
The weather in Boise has been very indecisive. We had temps in the 60s last week, and we’re still hanging out above freezing in the 40s this week. Trees are budding, and I’m pretty sure we’re in for another hard freeze, because that’s what Boise winter usually does in February, offer a little false spring. I’m looking forward to the weather getting warmer. Since it was so warm last week, I was able to run at 5 am without feeling super cold (or encountering ice); I’m thinking as the days get hot, I might run at 5 and go to CrossFit at noon on some days. Though that will only work if I continue to be able to work from home on those days – otherwise there just isn’t enough time in my lunch hour to go to CrossFit AND shower afterwards.
Tuesdays’ run was nice and short, just over 2 miles. The 40 degree weather felt colder than I expected, but I managed to warm up pretty quickly. My pace was actually pretty good; I managed to run two miles in under 24 minutes, which is good for me. I’m happy to make slow progress, and putting together two sub-12 minute miles is the step before putting together two sub-11 minute miles. I’ll get there one step at a time 😉
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| An Oregon Trail in Boise marker that I ran past on Sunday. |