Training Update. Fall 2k18. The Road to the Men's 4 Miler

First, a look at this week's volume from previous years.

2016- 8/14-8/20: 382 min.

2017-8/13-8/19: 367 min.

2018- 8/12-8/18: 478 min.

Hooray! I ran much more minutes this year! In 2016 though I ran a 4:45 full mile by myself in 90 degree heat on the 14th. Don't know if I'm in shape to do that right now. But I did run a 70 second quarter in sandals yesterday in 90 degrees. So...kinda comparable?

The year to beat is 2016. In Fall of 2016 I ran 20:31 for 4 miles at the Men's 4 Miler on 11/6.

That is about 12 or 13 weeks away.

In 2017 I was hurt all Fall and ran a ton of miles but never raced and got injured the DAY BEFORE I was going to race.

In 2016 from 8/21-8/27 I ran 409 min. In 2017 of the same week I ran 482 min. So this coming week I'll aim for like 520 minutes.

The big goal is to better the training from 2016. In 2017 I had much higher volume but fewer workouts. In 2016 I had great workouts and really good volume. So this year will try to take the best of both.

Volume in 2016 from 8/14 to 11/6 (12 weeks): 6,407 minutes. Or about 533 min/week.

Volume in 2017 from 8/13 to 11/4 (12 weeks): 6,902 minutes. 575 min/week.

What's crazy is that in 2017 I was only running 6 days a week because every Saturday I was working for 15 to 16 hours. So I could have easily averaged much higher every week. In 2016 I was doing that off 7 days a week. But in 2016 I was also deliberately taking easy weeks every 4th week to allow myself to recover. It all balances out. This year I think I will run every day and have some lower weeks. I'll probably focus less on workouts than in 2016 but have more intensity than 2017 which was mostly easy easy runs because I was training through a foot injury that was really aggravated by anything fast.

Anyway, more updates might follow. I felt really motivated today to get after it and get back in racing shape. Other times I've felt less excited about the prospect of hard running again. It's really good to be healthy and even though it's been a really long time since I've felt significant progress in my fitness, I can tell that it's still there. So now is the time to really find out what I can do!

goal for 8/19-8/25: 520 minutes!