I guess MCM Mama and I were on the same page tonight! I just sat down to blog about something that's been on my mind lately, and figured i'd catch up on a few other blogs first. Read her post, and I guess it's been on her mind too! :)
I set myself a goal of 1000km for 2008. Having started running in May 2007, almost half way through the year, I wasn't sure what a reasonable goal was, so I stuck with an easy number, nothing fancy about this resolution. I wanted something challenging yet attainable. 2008 was my first full year of running... but "full?" Not so much.
I reached a milestone that I never thought I'd ever do. I ran my first half marathon in March, but got a hip flexor injury which had me sidelined for a month. Started training again, found out after my 15k in August (I had really wanted to do the 30k, but wasn't feeling right) that I had stress fractures. That had me out for 2 months. Sigh!
Here's where I'm at. So far, I've run 864km this year. All things considered (having to take a total of 3 months off running, and start again slowly to rebuild both times), I'm still happy with this. This leaves me 136km for the year. There are 35 days left, which is an average of 3.88km per day remaining.
I'm obviously not going to be running every day between now and Jan 1st. However, most of my runs lately have been 5-8km; so on an 8k day, that would count as 2 days, allowing me a rest day. Make sense? That would be Plan A.
I'm not going to risk re-injury just to reach this goal; 2009 is another year, for which I will set myself another goal.
But wait... I started cycling this summer, and have done 948km so far. Mr. Q once commented that cycling is about 3 times the distance of running (I hope I remembered that correctly!)... so to be fair, 316km.
Add that to my running mileage, and I've travelled 1180km (using the digits as of today) using my own feet, muscles, body, surpassing my 1000km mileage goal! Always good to have a Plan B right? :)
Whether this counts towards my goal or not, to think that I've actually travelled that distance within a year, without the use of a motorized vehicle, gasoline, or anything, just me, seems pretty incredible. I certainly would never have thought this to be achievable in my whole lifetime!
MapMyRun.com has an interesting section when I log in:
Green Stats
Total Workout Days: 265
Distance Traveled: 1,759.78 km.
Gas Saved: 229.96 liters
Money Saved: $211.40
Carbon Offset: 1,176.1 lbs. of CO2
Pretty neat that I've done this by exercising. :)
Good luck to those who are Turkey Trotting tomorrow, or participating in any other races! Happy Thanksgiving for those south of the border!
Oh boy, Jay just got home with an ice cream bar, must go eat it before it melts. Yum. Not sure how I'll get to sleep tonight but I'll deal with that later.
9 comments:
I can relate to being off for 3 months and then heading back to it. How long did it take you to get back into the groove?
That's a lot of running! And a lot of cycling!
I'm really glad you aren't going to try to hit 1000K and risk re-injury.
Happy Thanksgiving
Those are some great numbers, even with being hit by an injury! I think cycling definitely counts in the total. Why not?
Those are some awesome stats - what a year! Imagine what the numbers would have been sans-injury. We'll find it in 2009. ;)
Congrats! Mmm, ice cream!!!
I think it should count!
Your summary is neat! I think you should stop beating yourself up about it and just feel great about what you have done this year. It is a lot more than most people out there!
You've kicked butt in 2008! I bet 2009 is going to be even better. :o)
Both goals are very admirable! You're giving me ideas for 2009...
You are doing awesome, especially for having been sidelined for so long! Even if you don't actually reach the 1000k, you will have run an impressive amount! WTG!
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