It was fun to listen to a running coach talk about, you guessed it, running. One takeaway I had from listening to this is the importance of consistency. This was not the first time that I have heard of the importance of consistency in running but given that I am trying to improve my consistency this year, it was a message I was open to hearing.
Consistency is what I am banking on to get me through the half marathon in a 1:28:xx this year. I have NOT followed my 18 week training plan to a T and when I get down on that, I think of how much more running I have been doing this year than last. This led me to wondering, I wonder how many more miles have I run leading up to this race than last year?
Last year I ran the PNC Milwaukee Running Festival Half Marathon on Nov 7. I used Kara Goucher's 10 week training plan for Oiselle, which I started on August 29. I logged 250.66 miles using that plan prior to the 13.1 which I ran in 1:29:22 (6:49 avg pace), significantly under my 7:00/mile goal pace that I trained for. The day of the race was PERFECT for running.
This year, I planned on running the same half marathon which went through a name change and a management change, and thus, a course change. So while it won't be perfectly correlated with last year, it will be similar. The race this year is also 3 weeks earlier - so greater chance of being warmer. I picked an 18 week, Hanson plan to train this year.
July 4 would have been day 1 of an 18 week training plan for the race last year. I logged 340.95 total miles for the 18 weeks leading up to my half last year. At this point, I am 15.5 weeks into an 18 week training plan. 15.5 weeks in last year would be Oct 13, 2016. During July 4 - Oct 13 2016, I logged 254.91 miles.
I began training on June 13 this year for my 18 week training plan. During June 13 - September 21 2017, I have logged 497.14 miles which is already more than I did in the total 18 weeks prior to last year's race. Day for day, I am 242.23 miles ahead of last year. That is pretty incredible!
I plotted my monthly mileage totals for the last 3 years (through August) below. Purple is 2017, Red is 2016, Blue is 2015. You can see peaks in spring for all three years because I have trained for and ran a marathon all 3 years. I anticipate that the purple line will have a similar peak as the red line once I get through the remainder of training. My goal for 2017 is to hit 100 miles every month (dashed black line below) and so far (*knock on wood*), I have met that goal.
I love the chart. I agree that consistency is much more important than nailing a single workout from time to time. I didn't see improvements in my running until I was able to run for a full year without injury. I think you will get your goal 1:28 because you have been consistently training this year and you certainly have the speed to put behind that mileage as well.
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