That number’s not exact. I didn’t have GPS when I was a kid, and I didn’t even log my miles from 1997-2009. But, based on the back-of-the-napkin good-faith estimates I’ve been using, I've now run 50k lifetime miles.
I started running on a regular basis when I was 12, so that’s about 4.5 miles a day for 30 years. Certainly not a huge number, but that’s a long time to have been a runner on a consistent basis. I’ve never consistently done more than 55-60 miles a week (with the exception of a couple of big blocks before my two 100s), but I’m almost always at least doing 15-20 miles a week.
I’ve known a lot of runners who kicked my butt for a few years and then quit. Here I am, still at it. As the blog title says, "a lifelong runner who makes up for in consistency what he lacks in talent."
I wonder if I’ll someday make it to 100k lifetime miles. Barring injuries or early death, you know, I hope I just might. I mean, if I’ve been running consistently for 30 years, why would I stop now (or in five or ten years)?
Just crazy to think that if I continue at this rate, I’ll be 72 by the time I get there.
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In case anyone’s interested, here’s a data dump of my training over the past couple of months:
Feb 17
Short speed endurance workout on the Cherry Creek trail. 1.2 mile warmup then plyos then 4 x 15 seconds, 1 x 20 seconds, 1 x 30 seconds. All on full rest. All averaged around 4-minute/mile pace, plus or minus a few seconds. 3.92 miles.
Feb 18
5.5 miles easy in 42:40 along Cherry Creek path. Max HR 135. Decent weather today, but it’s supposed to get sloppy again tomorrow.
Feb 19
2 x (5 x 30 seconds @ mile pace w/ 45 seconds jog rest) along Cherry Creek path. Four minutes rest between sets. Averaged 4:56/mile pace for the “on” sections.
This is a classic Mihaly Igloi workout. Since I have very little time for training right now, this is the kind of workout that I’m emphasizing right now. Short, fast bursts with relatively short recovery. The mix of intensity and rest makes it mostly an aerobic workout. From the first interval to the second-to-last interval, my heart rate was mostly between 140 and 170, which for me is pure aerobic running to tempo range. It’s a blend of intensity, aerobic stimulus, and speed that I find invigorating rather than exhausting. 5 miles total.
Feb 20
7.21-mile prog run along Cherry Creek path in 49:45. Felt great the first half while keeping the heart rate down and then struggled to get the pace and the heart rate up as much as I wanted the last three miles. Route wasn’t conducive to an aggressive finish, with lots of intersections to cross in rush hour traffic.
Feb 21
6.07 miles easy, HR max 140. From the Cherry Creek trail and around Wash Park. Felt sluggish.
Feb 22
6 x 3 minutes at goal 10k pace; 2 minutes rest in between. I’m signed up for the Bolder Boulder in a few months, so it’s probably a good idea to do some 10k-type work. Starting the workout, it was clear I wasn’t fully recovered from Wednesday/Thursday, so I felt less than ideal for the get-go. Averaged 5:54 pace for the group, but they felt harder than they should have. 6.7 miles total. Probably just a little too much intensity this week.
Feb 23
Had a 5:20 am wake up call for an early-morning run with an old high school friend. He was once a sub-15 5k guy but is coming off a sprained ankle. Jogged 4.3 miles in 38 minutes around Wash Park. Don’t think my heart rate ever got about 120. Felt good, actually.
Feb 24
Was thinking I’d try to run a sub-5 minute mile before the baby was born, sometime in the next 17 days. So today was a test of my fitness to see if I was in good enough shape to give in a shot. I failed the test. Wanted to do 2 x 800 @ sub-5 pace, but barely got halfway through the first one. Just didn’t have it. After 90 seconds at 5-minute pace, I ended up quitting that interval and doing 5 x 1 minute at 5:10 pace. Felt like garbage the whole time.
It was windy, so that might have been a factor, but I think the real problem was a combination of not being on a track and just not quite being there fitness-wise. 4.1 miles total.
Feb 25
Back to the hospital. No run.
Feb 26
7.62 miles in 54:57 around Wash Park. HR < 150, fairly windy. Good run.
Feb 27
Zero runs. Zero miles. One new baby.
Eoin Michael McCarthy (Eoin is the Irish spelling of Owen and pronounced the same) was born at 6:17 am. 5 lbs, 11 oz., 19.5 inches. He was a little more than five weeks premature, and so he’s going to spend the first few weeks of his life in the NICU.
Feb 28
2.45 miles in 19:28 w/ a few pickups in the middle at 5 am.
Feb 29
2.8 miles around the perimeter of the hospital in 20:20.
March 1
Had to move out of the place we were staying in Cherry Creek. Went and got one last run on the Cherry Creek path. Did the middle 30 minutes at subtempo pace. Ran 4.54 @ 6:37 pace. 6.16 total
March 2
Wife discharged from the hospital. Busy day getting her situated. Zero.
March 3
4.96 miles in 36:13 around “trails” near Stapleton. Got an Airbnb out there near the hospital.
March 4
8 x 2-minute pickups with 1-minute rest in between on trails near Stapleton; averaged about 5:48 for the pickups on a rolling trail. Adequate workout, all things considered. 4.89 total.
March 5
5.4 miles in 42:20, Max HR 135.
March 6
5.3 in 40:50 on Stapleton trails. Max HR 145. Warm.
March 7
6 miles of alternating 400 @ 10k pace and 1200 @ steady state. Average pace on 10k sections was 5:52. Average pace on steady state 7:07. 7.8 miles total.
March 8
4.8 miles easy, 36:40, Max HR 145, Stapleton Trails
March 9
8 x 30 second rhythm repeats at about mile pace, rest by feel. 3.35 miles total
March 10
5.1 miles in 39:50, max HR sub 140 around Stapleton
March 11
4 x (4 x 400, 200) with a 200 jog in between each interval around Stapleton. This felt way harder than I feel like it should have. Intervals were between 5:46 pace and 5:10 pace.
4.37 miles total
March 12
No running
March 13
7.88 miles in 59:45 w/ HR 150
March 14
Eoin comes home to Salida; no running
March 15
3.1 miles easy on CR 250 w/ Tanner
5.8 miles on CR 220 w/ 36 minute subtempo. Averaged 7:07 on subtempo.
March 16
2.84 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210
March 17
3.13 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 250
March 18
3.45 easy w/ Tanner on CR 210
March 19
5 miles HR sub 150 on Saddle Ridge loop, clockwise. 37:42. The great Tom Sobal was staying at our house and watching our dogs when we were away, and he clued me in to this loop from our house. Can’t believe I hadn’t discovered it before. It’s a perfect little near-exact five-mile loop with rolling hills and million-dollar views (running by some million-dollar homes—and a trailer park!)
March 20
3.13 miles along CR 250 w/ Tanner
March 21
3 x 10 minutes subtempo on CR 220 with 2 1-minute pickups at mile pace. One minute rest in between each. Subtempo reps at 7:31 uphill, 7:19 rolling, and 6:15 down. Pickups in 5:10 and 5:15.
6.05 miles total
March 22
Am: 3.4 miles on CR 210 w/ Tanner in the morning
Pm: 5 miles in 37:47 on Saddle Ridge loop counter-clockwise, HR sub 150. Man, the views on this loop are simply gorgeous. Or maybe I was just away from the mountains for too long.
March 23
1.43 miles easy with Tanner. Had planned to run farther but I didn’t get out until dusk and a fierce, brief snowstorm blew in at the exact same moment we went out for a run.
March 24
Am: Short speed day at the track. Some plyos and flying 30s, followed by 5 x 200 @ goal 800 pace. 2:30 rest in between each. All 5 between 32.8 and 33.2. Solid if not spectacular. 2 miles total.
First time at the track since Feb 3rd. Maybe I’m unusual in this way, but I really do enjoy quick, intense, but not super draining track sessions. Doing 33-second 200s, even when I have no races anywhere on the horizon, feels good to me. I just enjoy it, not as a means to some end, but as an end in-and-of-itself.
Don’t have much time to spare with little man back at the house, so minimal warmup and cooldown.
Pm:
3.26 easy w/ Tanner
March 25
Am: 5 miles easy by feel on Saddle Ridge Loop. 39:11. Windy AF.
March 26
am: 6.2 miles in 48:05 near Mears Junction
pm: 3.4 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210 31:21
March 27
4.06 easy w/ Tanner around CR 250 and nearby campgrounds in 37:10; snowstorm blew in half-way through. Cold.
March 28
5 x 5 minute tempo w/ 1:30 rest in between on CR 220; Paces ranges from 7:50 to 5:57 depending on whether I was running uphill, downhill, or with or against the wind.
March 29
6.12 from Mears Junction up Marshall pass and down, 48 minutes, HR < 150
March 30
3.2 easy w/ Tanner on CR 250
March 31
Went to the track to do a workout but it was locked down. I’m generally supportive of lockdown measures, but I’ve probably never been on the Salida track (except for when I was coaching kids) when there were more than 2 people on the entire track. Not sure this lockdown measure was strictly necessary.
Back on CR 140: 2-mile warmup, 10 x 1 minute @ 3k pace, 1 minute off. Averaged 5:13 on the on sections in Hoka Cliftons. This was mostly downhill, so I wouldn’t have been this fast on something flat (although I probably could do that pace on a track in spikes).
4.72 miles total
April 1, 2020
Am: 4.95 easy on Saddle Ridge loop, counter-clockwise; 39 minutes, max HR 145
Pm: 2.5 easy w/ Tanner
April 2
7.6-mile prog run on CR 220 in 58 minutes; 33 minutes out, 25 minutes back. First half uphill and into a 20-40 mph headwind, opposite on the return. Finished with segments of 6:49, 6:43, 6:20, and 6:11.
April 3
3.5 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210, 29:21. Tanner did a little better on this one. Actually felt like a real run.
April 4
Am: Plyos, 6 x 15-second max hill repeats on full rest, near 250 dirt road entrance. 29 minutes on Shavano’s horse. 4.25 miles total.
Pm: 3.1 miles easy with my very stubborn dog.
April 5
4 x 10 minutes subtempo near Mears Junction between 8500 ft.-9100 ft. 7:32, 7:28, 6:27, 6:14 on the reps. Rolling up on the first two. Rolling down on the second two. 1 minute rest in between. Good effort.
6.9 total
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