It was a good month.
March 2017
Total Mileage: 140.11 miles
Average Pace: 10:36/mile
Number of Runs: 22
Last Month (February 2017): 130.10 miles
Last Year (March 2016): 49.95 miles
Races: 2017 Tobacco Road Half Marathon, March 19, 2:08:01.250 (PR)
Total Mileage for 2017 (through March 31): 397.98
If I had known that, I would have added an extra .02 to my last run of the month. Anyway, last March is really low because that’s when I hurt my ankle, and due to the slow recovery, my monthly totals from last year are going to be pretty low until July, but I’ll go for consistency and keep them in there.
It seems so long ago, but on March 3, I found out I got in to the 2017 New York City Marathon. I also hit a major milestone in my running career, 5000 miles.
Like I said, it was a good month. Let’s check in on my goals.
Goal 1: 1500 miles
Average miles per day would be 397.98 miles divided by 90 days, that’s about 4.42 miles per day, times 365 days for the year, comes out to over 1614 miles for the year. Wow.
Goal 2: 6 races, with 2 that are 13.1 or greater
I ran the Tobacco Road Half, which counts as race #3 out of 6, and the first that’s 13.1 or greater. I also signed up for the Teal Diva 5K, so that will be race #4. My plan is to do another warm-up 5K during marathon training, then the New York City Marathon on November 5. That would meet the goal.
Goal 3: A PR in 3 different races
I did get my PR in the Tobacco Road Half Marathon, so along with the Joe Davis 10K, I have 2 PRs this year. I just need one more, and I’ve got 3 races to do it. I’d really like to change the header banner again.
The non-specific goals? Pretty much the same as last month. I did miss doing my bodyweight routine the day after my race, but I was also at my parents’ house so my routine wasn’t normal. I think I got it done on every other rest day, though. Unless you count the days when I had a cold and wasn’t eating much of anything, I can’t say I ate any better this month. I’m still drinking too much Mountain Dew. Progress on the blog? Not unless you count updating the header image with a picture from Tobacco Road and a post about hitting 5000 miles.
Best Run: March 19, Tobacco Road Half, 2:08:01.250 (9:46/mile)
Of course. A half marathon PR will always win. (In theory, a full marathon PR would be better, but I don’t see me ever running both a half and a full in the same month, let alone PRing both.)
I do need to give a shout out to my March 25 run of 10.01 miles, because I hit 5000 miles at the 9.9 mile mark.
I should note that I had a couple of treadmill runs that were at a faster pace than Tobacco Road, but you’ll probably never see me declare a treadmill run as my best run of the month. Besides, come on, a treadmill run over a half marathon PR? No way.
Worst Run: March 28, 5.31 miles, 11:33/mile pace
It happened to be my slowest run of the month, but even if it was a second or two faster that one of my other runs, the conditions (59 degrees and humid) give this one the edge. It was pretty freaking miserable out there. Of course, I’d better get used to that. By August, I’d probably kill for just 59 and humid.
I’m pretty sure there’s no way April will be able to top March. I might be able to run a few more miles (it does have 5 Saturdays), but I won’t get into my favorite race, get a PR, or hit a milestone. I guess I’ll just be in base building mode. Also, with no race scheduled for April, I have no idea what I’ll do about the Best Run in next month’s wrap-up. I’ll figure something out.