Marathon By 40

Any fellow Nike+ runner is familiar with the cheery encouragement of your iPod chiming in with the “Half-way point!” declaration if you set your workout to a specified distance. It’s always encouraging for me to hear, knowing that my goal for the day is (figuratively) all down hill from then on.

Well, this morning I completed day 15 of the streak. I’ve gone 27.03 miles in those 15 days, and hope to increase that mileage over the last 15. The basic pattern has been to run a 5K at least 3 days a week, running or walking a mile on all other days.

For the most part, it’s been easier than I imagined. There have been one or two days that I didn’t get up in the morning and I’ve realized just before dinner “Doh! I need to go run.” On those nights I simply walk the mile circuit around the neighborhood to meet my self-imposed requirement for the goal.

This morning was particularly rewarding. It was about 30° before the sun came up. While it was expected, it was still a shock to the senses considering the high yesterday was 80°. Anyway, I wore the appropriate layers and headed out for a 5K (including 5 minute warm-up walk). I’ve been doing these 5Ks as 3/1 running / walking intervals, and my times have been slowly decreasing over the month. My final run this morning felt particularly strong.

I have started to feel slight throbbing in my shins in the afternoons of my 5K runs, especially when I actually run on the mile days. I’ve started to only walk on the off days, and I think that’s helping.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the long-run habit this weekend with another 10K.

So for the next 15 days, keep running!