In those five months, I’ve surpassed 100 miles and then, recently, 200 miles. In recent weeks the pace slowed to the point that I came dangerous close to a 1 mile per day pace. I blame that on a group of friends who convinced me it would be a good idea to participate in a flag football tournament. If I had a prime, I’m well past it. The muscle soreness only took a few days to subside. The pain in my left knee took a few weeks. So not wanting to end up spending more time on the couch than I already do, I took some time off, but was still able to keep ahead of the pace. And I now have a fancy knee brace to keep me from falling over mid run.
That will all go for naught in a few days though as I go on vacation for two weeks. While there will be plenty of walking during my trek with my wife through Italy, there won’t be running. On the itinerary is sightseeing, relaxing, eating lots of pasta, drinking even more wine, and enjoying ourselves. Not that I don’t enjoy running (it’s turned into one of my favorite things to do, which is extremely surprising if you know me well), but there are no plans to work it into the schedule. It will put me briefly off pace, but I’ll have more than enough time to make it up when I return.
As I surpassed 200 miles (and $350 raised), I set a goal for myself for year one. 400 miles. For someone that didn’t run prior to the start of this on November 3, 2010, I’d say that goal is more than reasonable. Since keeping to 1 mile a day early on, I’ve upped that to 1.5 and recently had some 3-mile days thrown in there. Baring another ill-advised jump into a flag football tournament, all signs point to a higher pace during the next few months. For now, I’m off on vacation with a return to the miles in a few weeks.
