1000 miles in a year

Francis and I went for a bike ride today (which was lovely) but on adding it to my dailymile.com log I noticed that the mileage had taken me over the "1000 miles covered in 2011" mark and it really started me thinking about my running mileage for the year.  That total on my dailymile log includes the cycling I've done, but I don't really think that counts, so I do keep a separate record on my training schedule spreadsheet (yes, I have one of those) and my running mileage, as of today, is 770 miles in 2011.

Back in May, I wrote a blog post about the number of miles my training schedule showed me completing by the end of 2011...it was 1,316!! I was realistic enough to know that I may not achieve quite that distance, but I remember thinking at the time, that I was definitely going to get to over 1000 and being really pleased with that as an idea.

Now though, with the various issues that have reduced my mileage (long recovery after races, injury, extended holiday, and too often laziness!), I still have 230 miles to run to get to 1000 miles in 2011, and in 7 weeks that's going to be a big challenge.  However, I'm going to try and do it.  Having spent quite a lot of time tweaking my training schedule I will just be able to get there by the 31st December, but only if I really focus and stick rigidly to the plan, even over Christmas.  Obviously, it's not quite the achievement of running 1,316 miles (that's London to Rome you know?!) but still, running 1000 miles in a year for me for be an achievement I could be very proud of! 

So, that's what I'm going to try and do.  I have a couple of races coming up too, a 10km in Ley Valley Park this Sunday and the Bedford Harriers half marathon at the beginning of December, so with those, and my 1000 mile target to complete over the next seven weeks, I will certainly be spending a lot of time pounding the pavements!