More fun with charts

This was the first year I tracked my running mileage. My intent was to keep myself on track while training for the Mickelson Trail Marathon in June. By the time the race passed, I was in the habit of noting my mileage on my dachshund puppy calendar upon returning home. So, I kept up with it.

Tallying my monthly distance produced the following chart:

August turned out to be my big month. (Ah, summer. It seems so long ago now.) Cross country began mid-month. And I put in several long runs in preparation for the Sioux Falls Half Marathon.

March would have been my most productive month if not for the two blizzards that hit at the end of the month. (A third blizzard hit during the first weekend in April.) I only put in 18 miles in the last nine days of March. My marathon training boosted my mileage before then though.

I was surprised when I saw June was the month with the lowest mileage. I only ran 75.9 miles, and 26.2 of those were during the marathon. In fact, the marathon was the only time I ran through the 12th. My number one excuse for not regularly running marathons is the amount of time necessary for training. But it looks like my overall mileage drops both before and after race day as well. Half marathons good, marathons bad.

My seven-mile run this evening under a blue moon brought me to a grand total of 1,108.65 miles of running during 2009. That's roughly the distance between Boston and Atlanta.

I'll probably note my mileage during 2010 as well. I know I looked at the calendar a number of times this past year to find stretches of two, three, or four days where I hadn't run. It was easy to lose track because the year was so hectic, especially the summer. So, this exercise definitely kept me on my toes.

I don't think I have a target mileage figure for the coming year. My lone goal is to run 13.1 miles in an hour and a half.