Monthly Wrap-Up: September 2017

I could say a lot of things about September if didn’t try to avoid using profanity here, so I’ll just say good riddance to September.

One of the things that really bugged me about September is that it started out with reasonable weather, and then, around the halfway point, it got warm again. It never reached August levels of misery, but for late September, it was pretty uncomfortable.

September 2017
Total Mileage:
 191.23 miles
Average Pace: 11:45/mile
Number of Runs: 22
Last Month (August2017): 164.47 miles
Last Year (September 2016): 168.52 miles
Races: None

Total Mileage for 2017 (through September 30): 1,304.06 miles

So, 191.23 miles is a new record for most miles in a month. I was definitely slower overall, but that’s mainly due to 2 really bad long runs and one that wasn’t really bad, but I still took it a lot slower than normal.

Once again, I’ll check in on my 3 goals, and only the first one has changes.

Goal 1: 1500 miles

Rather than do the math to figure out how many miles I’m on pace to run this year, I’ll just say that I’m less than 200 miles from my goal. It looks like I’ll hit my goal either during the week before the race, or possibly during the New York City Marathon, which would be awesome.

Goal 2: 6 races, with 2 that are 13.1 or greater
Goal 3: A PR in 3 different races

Once again, no races this month, so no change here. It looks like I may be doing a race on Thanksgiving, which would be race #6. If I can’t PR in New York City, I’ll have to get my third PR there.

The non-specific goals are unchanged. I’m getting a little bit of exercise, although my mileage has reached a point where my Sundays are supposed to be complete rest days with no exercise, so I really only have one day a week with exercise. I’m not sure if it should really count towards my goal, but I am foam rolling twice a week, and it helps. I’m still running slowly on my easy runs, although given the general fatigue in my legs at this point in my training, sometimes it’s not exactly a choice. But cooking, better eating, and more blogging just aren’t happening.

Best Run: September 11, 7.01 miles, 10:23/mile

Yes, it turned out to be my fastest run of the month, but I was really pleased with my performance. This is the workout that I moved up to Monday so I could get it in before the worst of Irma arrived. It went really well.

Shout out to my 20 mile run on September 30. It was slow, but it was successful, and I really needed that.

Worst Run: September 16, 18.01 miles, 12:28/mile

Just 5 days after my best run. I had a few runs in September that I’d like to forget, but this one had a misplaced Gu packet that made things worse, so it gets the (dis)honor.

September was a really tough month for me, both for my running and for everything else. I’m hoping that, after I finish New York City, if it goes well, I’ll look back and say, “September is where I earned it.” (And if it doesn’t go well, of course I’m going to blame September.)

Anyway, now we’re in October, when my training peaks, then the taper begins. My coach sends me my training plan one month at a time, so when I saw October last week, that’s when it finally started feeling real. We’ll see how it goes.