Running recap

Kelly, Della and me -- the hardcore runners of the family!

I went all public with my running resolutions here and wanted to give an update on them. I ran my third half-marathon a couple weeks ago in Portland, Oregon, my first Portland Rock ‘n Roll. I knew the two-hour goal was a long shot so I aimed for 2:10 instead, a 10-minute mile average. I didn’t quite make it in 2:10 but did manage 2:12, shaving off five minutes from last year’s time! Even though I was short of my goal, I was still pleased to have taken off minutes from my previous PR. And now I have about four weeks until my next half-marathon, my third time at the Seattle Rock ‘n Roll. Four weeks to take off two more minutes!

As for running four times a week? Well… I’ve been managing three. When we had our church small group on Mondays, I was able to easily run Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Now that we’ve been attending small group on Thursdays, I’ve had to switch my running schedule to Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. And let me tell you, it’s HARD to run on Fridays. We so often have plans that it’s pretty difficult to throw a run into the mix. But any other day would have me running three days in a row and I don’t think I’m strong enough for that. So right now I just have to be fine with not getting in that fourth run if that’s what happens. And that’s ok.

And the treadmill? Guys, I haven’t been to the gym in ages so I don’t think I’ve touched a treadmill since February. I got much better at braving the cold and rain and doing my winter runs at the local high school track, which meant I didn’t have to truck it to the gym to get in my running. So, that’s that. And that’s ok.

My new goal that I’ve been tracking is to run at least 50 miles each month. April saw 63 miles and May saw 52! May was the real shocker to me considering I took two weeks off running, one because I was in Colorado and another to “recover” from the half-marathon. I’m really getting my money’s worth out of these shoes of mine.