More Milestones Achieved in October

Although there is one more day in October, my running is complete for the month. And, what a month it was! I just completed week 13 of my 16-week training program for the Philadelphia Marathon and it was the most strenuous of all training weeks. During week 13 alone, I logged 9.12 hours of running and that included a 20 mile long run (on the treadmill) today!

Since August, I steadily increased my running hours and distance covered. I remember back when I was in running camp during July when the coaches talked about logging 40-50 hours a week and thinking there was no way I'd be able to pull it off. But, to my surprise and satisfaction, I was able to keep up with the program and do what I had to do.

In fact, today I had to resort to running my 20 mile long run on the treadmill due to unfavorable weather conditions. Yesterday, we had a very unusual Nor'Easter storm that dumped close to 7 inches of snow in the area where I live outside of Philadelphia and the roads were still being cleared this morning so I bit the bullet and went to the gym to do my 20! My goodness – what a challenge that was! I tend to run slower on the treadmill so I took my time, listened to music on my iPod and finished in 3:47. Looking forward to my REST day tomorrow.

Here are some of more notable achievements for October:

• Ran a total distance of 201 miles. That represents a 21% increase from September (166 miles) and a 40% increase from August (144 miles).
  
• Hit a weekly mileage milestone of 50 miles during the week of October 3-9.
  
• Hit a weekly duration milestone of 9 hours 12 minutes during the week of October 24-31.
  
• Placed 2^nd in my age group (Male 55-59) at the OctoRun 13K Race in Hatfield, PA on October 24.
  

So, with October coming to a close and the Philadelphia Marathon just 3 weeks from TODAY, my taper officially begins tomorrow. This will be interesting for me since this will be my first full marathon – that means, this will also be my first taper after preparing so hard for the past 13 weeks. I am going to have to re-discover some lost hobbies to fill in the extra time that I'll be having on my hands!

Happy and Safe Running Folks,
John