Overall, 2016 was a good year for running.
When I set my 2016 mileage goal of 1,000 miles, I thought it would be a bit of a stretch since I only ran 843 miles in 2015. I had joined an online running group through a site called. www.runningahead.com. It’s a virtual league where runners are put into teams based on your predicted mileage and then teams go head to head each week to see which team exceeded their goal by the most miles. Once I had committed to my “team” to run 1,000 miles I knew I was going to do it. I also hadn’t decided to run another full marathon in 2016. So when I made that commitment in the summer, I knew I’d reach 1,000 miles by fall.
Here’s how my weekly mileage looked for 2016. The first half of the year I was fairly consistent at around 20 miles per week. In Michigan, if I can keep my winter running at that level I feel that’s an accomplishment. I only run inside if there’s ice on the roads or temps in the single digits, so last winter I was able to get outside all except a handful of days.
The second half of the year I started following the Hanson’s marathon training plan. Their theory is run hard miles each week but don’t run the typical training runs of 20+ miles. Their plan tops out at 16 miles for the long runs.
I took a few weeks to recover from the Detroit marathon and then worked my way back to close to 20 miles a week but kept on the low side for the balance of the year.
So I closed the year at 1,301 miles. 300 over my goal. Overall, not a bad year.
Now, what about 2017…?