Further Up and Further In

This month has been huge for milestones. I've seen my biggest week ever, my new biggest month ever, and my first 300km month.

And I'm feeling great. In fact, I don't think I've ever felt as good about my running as I do now.

Don't get me wrong--I've had my tired and sore days. But when I think about how far I've come and what I've accomplished over the past few months, I almost feel as though the training for this race is as significant to me as the race itself.

Thinking back to January: At the beginning of the month I wasn't even running; I was still getting over my injuries. I started running again in the second half of the month, pulling in a grand total of 26 miles for the entire month.

February: Feeling a little better, starting to run more frequently. 68 miles for the month. I remember being concerned about the nagging pains, issues of compensation, lower leg problems, etc. I remember wishing I could just run again without being afraid of re-injuring myself. I just wanted running to feel good again. I was out of shape and still had some leftover problems, and didn't know how much I could safely run without overdoing it. I was frustrated. And yet it was at this time that a friend put the idea in my head that maybe I could still do White River this year. My first response was, "are you insane? That's only 4 months away and I'm barely running!" But as I walked away from that conversation, the fire was kindled, and I thought, "well... maybe I could do it..."

March: I decided to use March as a test month. Could I safely increase my mileage to a good starting point to get me on track for White River? I designed an ambitious training plan and decided that there was only one way to find out. If I crashed and burned, I would do so early enough to revise my plans for the summer. But it was worth trying. So in March I ramped up the mileage (I never liked the 10% rule anyway!). 110 miles for the month might not seem like a lot, but it was a major increase. And I had no setbacks.

April: 170 miles. Again, huge increases in a short period of time. This was my highest month ever, and I hadn't even been near that since January 2007. Confidence was building, but I knew there was still lots of time for things to go wrong.

May: holding rather than increasing. I gave my body some time to adapt to the increases. I battled through some difficult runs and worked on my mental training. My first 100k week. Constantly hungry. Feeling good. 160 miles for the month.

June: starting to get tired, and starting to feel as though I'm ready to be done. I seem to vacillate from day to day. One day I feel exhausted and cranky and I'm not sure how I'll get through to taper, and the next day I feel awesome and confident. First 50k training run (pb!). New biggest week ever. New biggest month ever. First time past 300km in a month. Trying really hard to get enough sleep and enough food and water to keep me going.

And now here I am. I feel as though I've already climbed a huge mountain, and I'm really happy about how far I've come. I want to celebrate, but I will wait until the last big week is done! (Still scared of the race though!)