Apologies to The Proclaimers for hijacking their lyrics.
I am a numbers junkie.
I work with metrics all day long at work, attend Business Intelligence
conferences, and generally just swim in a pool of statistics all day. That bleeds over into my non-work life as
well, where I love to crunch numbers and maintain spreadsheets and pivot tables
for all kinds of things, many of which have no business being in a
spreadsheet. My trusty Garmin has
enabled my numbers addiction in many wonderful ways. At the heart of all that data, however, is
the key question of how many miles have I run.
As of yesterday morning’s run I crossed over 1,000 miles run
for 2012. It sounds like a big number,
and many days feels like a big number, but taken in isolation it’s not
particularly significant. However, when
I look at that number relative to last year, it starts to tell a story. Part of what drives me with running is trying
to get better. Not trying to win races
or any crazy lofty goals, just pushing myself to get better in terms of the
quantity and quality of my training, and hopefully my performance when race
days come along.
When I finished my run yesterday I was at 1,004.3 miles of
running for 2012 spread across 113 runs.
On this same date last year I had run 585.87 miles spread across 116
runs. Basically the increase is a
combination of a more strenuous training plan, but more importantly, I’ve
stayed relatively injury-free this year versus last year, where I started the
year with no running and lots of quality time with my PT. Although I’m sure luck plays some part in
staying healthy, I’ve worked very hard to try and learn from my injuries and
address the root causes. At the risk of
jinxing myself, it seems to be working fairly well this year. Knock on all things wood.
Looking back at all of 2011, I ended the year with a grand
total of 1020 miles run, so I’ve nearly reached my full-year numbers from last
year. Additionally, this time last year
I didn’t even own a bike, versus this year where I’ve logged 582 training miles
on the bike. I think that may be a big
reason for my relative health this year.
At least I like to think that to justify the investment I made in the
bike. I thought running was expensive
until I started buying bike accessories.
Ouch.
I’m really excited to see how my body responds to the next 3
months of training prior to my first try at a 50-miler. The long runs are getting plentiful and
lengthy, and even the shorter runs are lengths that a couple years ago would
have seemed crazy to try and get done before heading to work for the day.
Miles to go before I sleep.
