January 2011 Recap

My month in a nutshell:

• # of days I ran = 29
• # of miles run = 188
• Average miles per run = 6.48/day

After taking virtually the entire month of December off, the theme for January was consistency. Even though my mileage wasn't super impressive, I quickly started to get strong again and for the first time in almost two years, I'm running pain free! Somehow, I just woke up one morning and the Plantar Fasciitis pain was gone. And by averaging just over 10k per day, I'm nearly running the mileage I was at in July/August last year.

Overall, I'm pleased with where I'm at fitness wise, and the fact that I successfully avoided the most recent wave of sickness (chest cold/flu) that's been going around my office.

Highlights of the month:

1. Back-to-back long run weekends (32 mile and 23 mile days).
2. Beating JT at the Winter Series II 8 miler. (He'll deny it since I registered as 'Dirk Diggler', but it still happened. Oh, and ignore the slow times, we'd run 15 miles before the race.)
3. Running into a rabid squirrel who was chasing its own tail.
4. Meeting and (briefly) running with Scott Jurek.
5. Making page 21 of Runner's World.
6. Being touted as the featured athlete on the Brew to Brew race website.

With just over two months until I begin my 'official' race season, my main goal is to steadily increase the mileage while starting to incorporate speed work, tempo runs, hills, and interval training. Both of my April races are going to be more about leg speed than endurance (Brew to Brew, and the Boston Marathon), so it's time to get my butt moving.

Last but not least, my good friend Andy Henshaw just laid down a 2:26 marathon in Miami last Sunday, which has also inspired me to run fast! With a little help from him and others, I'm putting together a training plan that will hopefully have me in sub-2:45 shape by Boston.

Brooks