It’s the first day of April, which means I’ve been working toward my goal of running 1000 miles in 2019 for exactly three months. It’s going well, despite a not-so-promising start.
My first run of the year was a 7-mile slog around Rutland Water on New Year’s Day. It came after a long break away from my trainers and turned out to be really painful. The soreness lasted for days. Not the best start for a running challenge! I finished the first week with a little less than 11 miles (9 miles short of my 20 miles goal) hoping it was not a sign of things to come.
Thankfully, it wasn’t. I finished January with a total of 91 miles.
I had a couple slow weeks since then – the dreary weather and irregular work hours were not particularly helpful – but I managed to stay on track. I’m finally settling into some kind of routine. I try to run the required 20 miles during the week, leaving the weekends for long trail runs and bonus miles.
I’m certainly learning a lot about motivation, discipline and the art of prioritising! I’m also learning a lot about nutrition and recovery. I’ve made some minor changes to my diet and I’m experimenting with food on longer runs. I can’t stand gels (the texture makes me gag) and you can only drink so much Lucozade/Tailwind, so I started making my own snacks. On the recovery side of things, foam rollers and cold showers are my new best friends. Yoga is also very useful to stretch out stiff and tired muscles.
My biggest challenge these days is boredom. Most of my runs are on the same two or three routes – it gets old pretty quickly! Hopefully the arrival of spring will bring more trail runs.
253 miles down, 747 to go!
Ooo super impressive start! Congratulations!!! I hope you keep learning and adjusting to make things better and more fun as the weather starts to turn nicer
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Thank you! 😊 There is a lot to learn, but it’s noce to have a goal to aim for every week. The weather is certainly getting nicer… Except today: all the rain!
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:)
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Woooah you are amazing Frede! What an epic start!!
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Thanks! ☺️
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I’ve been missing all your running posts! I guess you must be getting close to 500miles by now!?
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Aww, that’s so nice of you to say! I’ve stepped away from blogging and social media a lot in the past few months… I’m in a weird place with it all and wondering if people even care so it’s nice to hear you do! 💕 I’m getting close to 600 miles but I’m a bit behind schedule. I hope to catch up by the end of next month. Maybe I’ll write a post about it! 😊
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Woooah! That is awesome! Just 400 more (eep!)
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