It feels like that marathon is just around the corner, even though in reality, it's still about four months away. I intentionally started the training early to get through any injuries that might have occurred and to ensure that I would ease into heavy running weeks rather than jumping straight from 15 to 40 miles.
Well, at the halfway point, here's how it breaks down:
I have been training for 17 full weeks and amassed a grand total of 497 miles. That equates out to an average of a little more than 29 miles a week. My highest total for one week was 43 (my total last week) and my lowest total was 8 (holiday week with the family, kind of hard to find time to run). My longest individual run was 12 miles and my shortest ones were generally in the 3-4 mile speed drill range. For weight loss, my goal was to drop 25 pounds by June, and I have so far dropped about 9 (depending on the time of day and the scale, of course).
Overall. I'm pretty pleased with my training so far. I was hoping to be averaging more weekly miles at this point, but I had a lull during the holiday season and a sore achilles to contend with. My mileage has ticked noticeably upward in the last seven weeks (254 miles, average of more than 36 a week), and I'll take that as a sign that my training has progressed for the better. The weight loss has been a bit slow, but I'd rather focus on being "light on my feet" rather than obsessively trying to cut calories.
From here, I'm hoping to average around 40 miles a week, have a long run of 15-20 miles every week, and start ticking my average mile time down to the 7-minute range for average. I also plan on incorporating more hill workouts into my routine once the weather (and more importantly, the icy sidewalks) improves.
Considering my progression so far, those goals seem very reasonable.
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