The month of March was a good running month for me this year. It was the first month in a long time that I reached the 100 miles mark.
At the end of February, I began running again. I had taken some time off running near the tail end of 2020 to heal up a bit. After having the last of the 2020 races canceled, it made sense to allow a nagging injury to heal up, and the break allowed me time to focus on my change in employment.
But by the end of February, I was a month into my new job and feeling settled in the new role. With my new work-from-home situation, I took advantage of the lack of commute to hit the pavement before it got too dark. At that time, I was just trying to log some miles here and there to get back into running form. My goal was to get out for a run when I could and for that run to be four miles.
When the calendar flipped into March, I had the same mindset. Log some miles, don’t worry about times. And try to stretch out the mileage if I was feeling good enough to do so. The first couple of weeks went well. I felt myself getting back into form, and except for built-in rest days, running after work became part of my routine. I missed some runs in mid-March due to some business travel – the schedule didn’t lend itself to much free time – but I quickly picked up where I left off.
Because I recently purchased new running shoes, I spent a little more time in my run tracking app than usual. I needed to go in and add the new shoes to my gear. While doing so, I took a closer look at some of my recent metrics and discovered I was on target to reach the 100-mile mark easily. It wasn’t a forgone conclusion, but as long as I kept pace with recent efforts, I’d make it!
Sure enough, making sure to squeeze in a few short runs while on another work trip and logging a couple of longer runs when I got back was all I needed to cross the threshold. It’s a minor accomplishment but an encouraging way to kick off training for races later this year.
After barely breaking the 100-mile mark, I squeezed in one last run so that it wasn’t too narrow a hurdle and then declared March 31 a rest day. I’m taking today, April 1, off as well. My knee was telling me on my final March run that a little more rest was in order. Since I’d like to duplicate my March efforts this month, I decided to listen. I’m also traveling today to spend Easter in California with my family and will be in California for over a week. My running shoes are already packed in my bag and ready for me to log a chunk of miles on the golden coast.
Trevor Carlsen 