Good run and 2010 mileage totals

I'm on vacation this week so I have been less motivated to run.  You would think if you didn't need to get up at 5am to run that you would have more motivation?  Sleeping in until 8:30am makes for more time to think about whether to run or not.  I did run today and got in the 6 miles that I was supposed to do according to my plan.  Yesterday was a really tough run.  So tough that I really did not feel like running so I negotiated with myself.  I said to myself, if I get up and weigh myself and I'm less than 134(believe me I don't need to lose anymore weight) that I would skip today's run.  Why I used my weight to determine the run is beyond me.  Anyway, I get on the scale this morning.......134 even.  Shoot.  I need to run today now.

I'm glad that I got out there but it was a chore to get up and out.  I actually had a pretty good run and felt much better.  There was no wind today so it made it a much easier run than yesterday.  Now I'm happy I did it, otherwise, I probably would have been disappointed that I did not run.

Today, I went through my mileage to see what I did for 2010.  I started keeping track of miles(manually then in October on Dailymile) when I decided that I was going to run a half marathon.  I decided this on March 8th so I don't know what I did for January and February because before then I just ran and walked until I didn't feel like doing it anymore(which was usually for an hour).  Here's how things broke down for 2010(including a 3 mile run for tomorrow to finish out the year):

March - 44 miles running; 57 miles walking
April - 81 miles running; 66 miles walking
May - 105 miles running; 56 miles walking
June - 122 miles running; 37 miles walking
July - 133 miles running; 40 miles walking
Aug - 160 miles running; 34 miles walking
Sept - 160 miles running; 28 miles walking
Oct - 96 miles running; 2 miles walking
Nov - 87 miles running; 6 miles walking; 22 miles biking
Dec - 109 miles running; no walking; 36 miles biking

Total miles running - 1,097 miles running; 326 miles running; 58 miles biking

Total miles of activity - 1,481

I learned several things over this first year of running:

1) I was over prepared for my half marathon in October(It did help me get that 1:45 time though)
2) I'm surprised I did not crash and burn sooner.  I was sometimes running 8 miles three times during the week and then doing a 12 mile long run.  What was I thinking?
3) Just because they say it's Ok to increase you running each week by 10% doesn't mean you should continue to increase - this is what I did before I couldn't do it anymore - more stupidity.
4) Biking is good crosstraining and will be continued
5) Stretching is a very important part of running and should not be skipped.  While I did stretch after each run, it was for like 5 minutes.  Certainly not enough(for me anyway)
6) I ran too much during the Detroit Marathon Relay(16 miles) which then led to IT band problems.  You can see how my mileage went down dramatically in Oct, Nov and I'm slowly building up again.  Ah, the days where I could just run without worrying about this are over.  :(
7) The foam roller is your friend; this helped solve my IT band issues along with more stretching(hopefully)
9) I was a running fool; the week of my first 10 miler race in June, I ran 7 on Tuesday, 7 on Wednesday, 6 on Thursday, Rest on Friday and the race on Saturday.  What the hell was I thinking!  Not about tapering - that's for sure!  The funny thing is I ran that very hilly race in about an 8 minute pace too - insane!  Even the week of my half marathon, I ran 8 the Sunday before, 7 on Tuesday, 6 on Wednesday - stupidity!
9) With as many miles as I did, I probably could have run a full marathon in October but at least I had enough common sense not too.  It really would have been stupid to run a full when in March, I only was doing 44 miles in a month!
10) Following a plan by an accomplished marathoner(like Higdon) is a good thing and you will not get burnt out.  I will be following the intermediate plan for Higdon for my marathon in May.

Have a great day everyone and.....Keep Running!