Hello all,
Last year I wrote a long post that went back through all my previous years' overall mileage and stats. This post will be like an addendum to that.
In 2020, I ran 1211.7 miles total. I ran on 146 days this past year, which breaks down to an average of 8.3 miles per run.
While this wasn't the highest yearly mileage total for me (that was 2016), it was actually higher than either 2019 or 2018. I'd consider this a pretty big deal, since the pandemic made it difficult for many of us, including myself, to be consistent with running.
Despite the challenges, I still made two marathon-length efforts during the year, in place of races. The first one was an early summer run up Williams Canyon and Rampart Range Road, and the second was a big autumn loop by Mt. Herman and Balanced Rock Road.
I spent a lot of time running through open fields and meadows, and quite a few cool summer nights running when no one was around.
Overall, I made it work, with actually somewhat limited time on the treadmill.
In fact, I wanted to share a few photos from my last run of the year, on December 26th, at Ramah Reservoir State Wildlife Area. I caught some nice photos during the evening golden hour, with the sun's long evening rays.
I ran a little less than 7 miles. I finished the year out by running a few miles on the treadmill to bring my year total above 1200, or a little more than 100 miles a month.
Looking forward to 2021, I'm planning on having to do a lot more treadmill mileage. Especially with the new strain of COVID, and increased transmissibility, I probably won't even leave the house until I am vaccinated.
Despite this, I have big distance goals for the new year. In fact, putting them down in writing is a little intimidating because then I actually have to commit to them, rather than just kicking them around in my head.
My goal is to have a yearlong running streak, and to run a minimum of 10k a day. It sounds like a huge goal, but not completely unreasonable for me. After all, in 2016, I ran 2171 total miles, which averages out to almost 6 miles per day (even though I ran on only 240 days that year.)
This would mean, if I stuck to a minimum of 10k each and every day of the year, I'd have my highest yearly mileage total ever.
Of course, being realistic, I might not be able to stick to my yearlong streak, although I sure will try. In the situation that I have to break my streak for one reason or another, I'll still aim for running at least 2200 total miles.
And who knows. Maybe I'll be able to pull it off and run 10k or more every day of the year. Amazing things are possible!
I started the year off with a 7 mile treadmill run on January 1st.
I'm hoping that this will be the year that I'll be able to go back to the mountains and see my favorite trails again, like Barr trail. But I'm not holding my breath for it. If I have another year of isolation ahead of me, at least I can make the best of it and get into fantastic shape.
Plus, maybe it'll give me something to blog about. I'll try to check-in at least once a month on the blog to keep myself accountable and to keep everyone else updated.
For now, I wish everyone a Happy New Year and I hope you are excited about your goals for this year as well, running or otherwise.
