Monthly Running Recap - January

Included in my personal goals for 2018 are two specific goals related to running.  December was not a good running month for me because I came down with a cough and a cold that both dragged on for more than two weeks.  When I'm sick, especially with a cough, I can't run.  I won't even attempt it.  I ran once the week before Christmas and then a few times the week after Christmas.  It felt like I had lost most of the endurance I had built up before running that Stuffed Turkey 5k.

For January, I wanted to get my body used to running three to four times a week again.  To avoid injury and to ease back into it, I decided to avoid speed work.  I can tell you that running 3 miles now is a lot easier than it was at the beginning of January.  And that's a really good thing!

Unfortunately, because of the weather, every run except for one was inside on the treadmill.  Our treadmill is not calibrated which means that whatever speed the treadmill says I'm running is not the real speed.  For example, six miles per hour on our treadmill is practically a sprint for me.  Six miles an hour is a 10 minute mile which I can run outside without sprinting.  So I can't say exactly how fast I've been running on the treadmill but I'd say it's faster than an 11 minute mile.  (I hope.)

I did run once outside about week after the blizzard at the beginning of the month.  It was supposed to warm up to the high 50s but rain was coming with that.  When I went out, it was 51 degrees.  Still a little too cold for my liking but I went with it.  Some of the roads I have to run on do not have sidewalks or, in the winter, those sidewalks are covered in ice.  I drove to the nearby recreational path because I had read online that it had been plowed and was down the pavement.  So, yes, that was true for some parts of the path but most of it was still covered in ice.  So much so that I had to stop running and walk in order to avoid wiping out.  There was another runner ahead of me and he had to keep stopping as well so I didn't feel so bad.  I covered 2.5 miles in 28:54 which I was initially bummed about but I had to stop and walk around 12 times so who knows how fast I was running.

I ran a total of 40.5 miles in January.  Below is break out of what I ran and when.  For February, I plan to start incorporating some speed work while slowly bumping up my mileage.  


1/02 - 2.5 miles
1/04 - 2.75 miles
1/06 - 2.75 miles
1/08 - 2.5 miles
1/10 - 3 miles
1/12 - 2.5 miles - 28:54 (icy)
1/15 - 2.25 miles
1/17 - 2.75 miles
1/19 - 2.5 miles
1/21 - 3 miles
1/23 - 3 miles
1/25 - 3 miles
1/27 - 2.5 miles
1/29 - 3 miles
1/31 - 2.5 miles