Personal record month

[shipo]

Back in September of 2013 I ran ten miles per day for seven straight days for the first time in my life, and when I finished up that week I wondered if I'd ever be able to average at least ten per day for a full month...

I just finished my final run for October 2016; my final total for running miles this month ended up as 345.20 miles.  I'm thinking I'm in no hurry to exceed that monthly total at any time in the foreseeable future.  🙂

[GershonSurge]

Congratulations! Great job.

[KMartin3733]

That's fantastic!   I'm at 118.14 and I was okay with that.   I only do about 6 or 7 a day.  I did have a few days in Oct. that I didn't wear it also.  

[shipo]

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@KMartin3733 wrote:

That's fantastic!   I'm at 118.14 and I was okay with that.   I only do about 6 or 7 a day.  I did have a few days in Oct. that I didn't wear it also.  

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To me, anybody doing 100+ miles in a month is doing more than enough to be able to compete in any given 5K or 10K race, and running at this rate works great as a base to jump up into half marathons.  🙂

[dragonpupps]

That's awesome! That's a lot of miles to put on in a month!

[jessica88]

Wow! That seems like a ton of miles to me! Inspiring to see that stability with load - congratulations!

[shipo]

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@jessica88 wrote:

Wow! That seems like a ton of miles to me! Inspiring to see that stability with load - congratulations!

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Thanks Jessica,

If one builds his or her mileage base slowly there is no reason why any individual shouldn't be able to ramp up to this level of running over a period of two or three years.  In my case it has taken more like six and a half years due to work/commute/life/family balance issues compounding years of inactivity and little things like previously broken legs and such.

One of the cool side benefits from the miles I ran in October was speed.  With the exception of one 5-mile day (last Friday), I logged at least 10-miles every day, and would you believe it; I got faster.  Looking at my run logs, my first weekday 10-miler (a 10.15 mile loop around a local lake featuring ~1,300' of climbing) of the month was run on Monday 03-Oct and my last run on the same course was yesterday Monday 31-Oct.  During the month I noticed my times gradually increasing, but I am surprised how much faster I was yesterday compared to a month ago.

 -- 03-Oct: E/T: 1:34:56 Pace: 9:19 per mile

 -- 31-Oct: E/T: 1:26:47 Pace: 8:38 per mile

Notes: Both of the above runs included a quick trip into the woods for a bio-break; in addition, a local police officer stopped me yesterday looking for a specific vehicle suspected in a series of home invasions, and, if that wasn't enough, I had to take a minute or two to deal with a couple of aggressive dogs.

After this I'm looking forward to next year even more.  Why?  I turn 60 and get to race in a new age group.  🙂

[dragonpupps]

@shipo, I had a question: how do you have the time to go for 10 miles a day, and how did you get yourself to that point? That's a lot of steps and exercise, and it takes a lot of time and dedication to go so far.

[jessica88]

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@shipo wrote:

One of the cool side benefits from the miles I ran in October was speed.  

After this I'm looking forward to next year even more.  Why?  I turn 60 and get to race in a new age group.  🙂

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I've have heard that increasing mileage naturally increases speed over time. I hope this is the case - I would love that. Doesn't seem to be happening for me, but one can still hope! 

And pre-grats on the new age group!, that's incredibly inspirational stuff right there!

[shipo]

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@dragonpupps wrote:

@shipo, I had a question: how do you have the time to go for 10 miles a day, and how did you get yourself to that point? That's a lot of steps and exercise, and it takes a lot of time and dedication to go so far.

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I've managed to get to the point where I can typically make it from my desk to the locker room, change, log ten miles, shower, grab a salad or sandwich, and get back to my desk in under 100 minutes; I extend my work day on either side (or both sides) to make up the difference.  On days where I cannot run at lunch for whatever reason, I typically run on the way home from work; this time of year I sport a very bright headlamp and stop at a local rail-trail where all I need to avoid are walkers, cyclists, horses, and in the winter time, snowmobiles.

Getting to this point was a multi-year effort (with some fits and starts); what follows is a somewhat simplified chronology:

• 01-Apr-2009: I got "downsized" due to the economic collapse.  I hadn't run in over six years due to a badly broken leg (and partially torn off foot); the surgeon who screwed me back together told me I'd walk with a limp for the rest of my life and never run again.  I had tried numerous times over the previous five-plus years to run and gotten injured each time; in April 2009 I discovered a local network of converted 19th century rail dirt beds now being used as ATV and snowmobile trails.  I started running on those trails and, wouldn't you know it, the soft dirt absorbed enough of the wacky energy from my asymetric stride to allow me to start running again; a quarter of a mile at a time.  I logged a total of 8 running miles for that month, and I was thrilled to have been able to do it sans injury.
• 01-May-2009 through 30-Nov-2009: I gradually ramped my mileage up to a bit over 100 miles per month by July or August, and then sustained that level through the end of November.  In total I logged about 700 miles for 2009.
• 01-Dec-2009 through 31-Mar-2013: My new job ramped up to over 80 hours per week plus commute time into Boston; my time for running dropped off to basically zero.  In February of 2011, after over a year of 80-100 hour weeks, we delivered our project on schedule, unfortunately during those fifteen months I didn't log more than 20 running miles in any one month, and most months were basically zero miles.  In April 2011 I had the time to start running again; I managed a whopping fifty miles, and then in May the company which "downsized" me in 2009 asked me to come back part-time (I was a contract engineer at the time so I could pull double duty), so I worked mornings in Boston and afternoons in Concord, NH through the end of March 2013.  Yup, you guessed it, I barely logged any running miles for those two years.
• 01-Apr-2013 to present: The company in Concord asked me to come on as a full-time employee, complete with benefits and such (hadn't had those in over 30 years), so I took the offer, left my gig in Boston, and started running yet again.  By late summer of 2013 I was consistently logging over 200 miles per month; a pace I have pretty much maintained with the exception of a few months due to weather and a six month stretch late last year/early this year while recovering from a non running related injury.

[shipo]

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@jessica88 wrote:

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@shipo wrote:

One of the cool side benefits from the miles I ran in October was speed.  

After this I'm looking forward to next year even more.  Why?  I turn 60 and get to race in a new age group.  🙂

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I've have heard that increasing mileage naturally increases speed over time. I hope this is the case - I would love that. Doesn't seem to be happening for me, but one can still hope! 

And pre-grats on the new age group!, that's incredibly inspirational stuff right there!

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Hey Jessica,

I coach a fair number of beginning runners both with my company running club as well as a local community running club; my coaching methodology is what I call "Modified LSD".  "LSD," you ask, "what's LSD?"  Glad you asked; Long Slow Distance.

As for my modification; most LSD programs are pretty simple, plan a long run, start slow, stay slow, and finish slow, however, I coach my runners to start ramping up the pace in the closing phase of their runs, once they reach the ability to run for one hour non-stop.  As a general rule, they're usually be in the five to six mile distance range when they hit that magical hour long run, so I recommend bumping the pace for the last quarter of a mile, then the last half mile, then add a mile to their distance and still keep the pace up for the last half mile, then mile, then two miles.  By following this plan, the runners are generally able to break the 30 minute threshold for a 5K within six months of being a rank beginner.

As these runners progress I mix things up a bit by adding distance, changing courses from say a flat rail-trail to a hilly road course, and of course, extending the distance of the final up-tempo pace; the net result is typically sub-hour 10K times and several have broken the two-hour half-marathon barrier.  So far none of the runners I've coached have attempted a full marathon, however, that is most likely going to change in the next year or so.

Back to you; you say you don't think the extra distances you've run have made you any faster.  I find that kind of surprising; does that mean your 5K times from say three years ago are pretty much bang on the same times as you run today?

If the answer to the above question is, "Yes", I recommend you try the "Modified LSD" approach I coach and see if that makes a difference.

[jessica88]

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@shipo wrote:

"LSD," you ask, "what's LSD?"  Glad you asked; Long Slow Distance.

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 Glad you clarified, because that is definitely not the first thing I thought of. 😜

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@shipo wrote:

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you say you don't think the extra distances you've run have made you any faster.  I find that kind of surprising; does that mean your 5K times from say three years ago are pretty much bang on the same times as you run today?

If the answer to the above question is, "Yes", I recommend you try the "Modified LSD" approach I coach and see if that makes a difference.

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To be honest, I've been more attracted to increasing distance than I have been to improving speed. So I haven't really done 5Ks since graduating to 10Ks, and so forth. Other than easy training runs. That being said, I *do* notice my overall pace average for these events has slowed as I've increased distance goals - with the exception of 5K to 10K for some weird reason. 
5K PR: ~32
10K PR: ~58
half PR: ~2:30:00
full PR: ~5:45:00
So, yeah, I've definitely not gotten faster lol. I mean, from 10K to marathon, my average pace has gone down by 3min/mi. It's been hard not to notice. I know I *can* hit faster paces though - so I need to work on holding it. Now that I've finally finished a full, my goals are to increase speed - for my own self esteem. I will definitely give your approach a try. It seems like something I can easily implement into the programs I've been following thus far. I might try it out with a 5K and see what I can do. I've got a few months before beginning another marathon plan so this is the perfect opportunity. 
 
@Thanks for all your advice, @shipo! As a self-taught noob, I am very thankful to receive the input of a coach with so much success. 

[shipo]

@jessica88, when I discuss pace improving due to added training distance, I should have qualified what I meant.

Long story short, for any given distance on any given course your per mile times, and your final time on said course, will improve year over year with the added training distances.