My Covid Era Running Challenge

 It has been a while since I've posted anything here. Ever since my last race, we have been part of a weird and scary year, and although we are almost at the end of the year, nothing much has changed since. I have been working from home since March 12, and although I have been able to go to the office one day or two for specific purposes, the federal government does not expect us back for at least six more months if we are lucky. It's has been quite a year!

With the pandemic, many races have been canceled, including all marathons I was training and planning for. Indiana fared relatively well during the worse months of the pandemic and we were able to reopen in stages (this is no longer the case). With that, races started happening, smaller ones at first, then somewhat larger ones. The first ones occurred during the Summer, when it was hot and my lungs had no intention of running outside at all. But that does not mean there were no challenges to attempt.

100 Mile Week Challenge

One of the few things I had not tried after my Vitamin D deficiency issues was a high mileage week. I've done 80, and even 90 mile weeks before, so I wanted to something that would serve not only as a challenge but as a victory lap to my health recovery. So I thought I should try for a 100 mile week in late April. In order to accomplish this, I had to run doubles every day, as I did not want to run 14 miles every day in one shot. I was also working (maybe a week off work might have been good then, but it didn't even occur to me), so chances of having a 3 hour block to run before or after work was impossible. But splitting the runs would be feasible.

I was not sure I could accomplish it, but I started getting excited about attempting. I knew I had to be focused every day and hop on that treadmill (it was getting hot and my allergies were pretty bad in April) in the morning no matter what and then repeat after work.

The days went by pretty quick and I was surprised when Thursday rolled along and I was actually slightly ahead of pace. By running 15 miles every day, I had the chance of taking a "short" day when I only needed 10 miles. Initially, I thought of taking that short day midweek but as the days rolled and the 15s kept on rolling, I even considered running 15 every day to achieve 105 miles for that week. I was physically tired but not exhausted; but rarest of all after my mental blocks with marathons in the last year, I wasn't mentally tired. But I also wanted to meet my goal without overdoing it. So sanity prevailed and I finished the week with 100.59 miles. A celebration of what my body had gone through and what it can achieve if my physical and mental goals and drives are aligned and work in tandem.