47 Weeks - Setback
There’s one unfortunate thing about starting my 48 week training block and this blog now - I’m injured.
Well, not super injured. I have runner's knee - a common overuse injury that comes from too much running without the leg strength to back it up. In hindsight, running the Chicago Marathon in October, then diving into the Monterey Half Marathon in early November, followed by the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving (each of which I set a personal record) probably was not kind to my knee.
It hasn’t prevented me from running - maybe it should be. I can still run at an easy pace - initially at 11-12 min per mile, but now slowly getting back into the 8:30-9 min paces.
I’m not just running to be stubborn (though that’s definitely part of it, since I hate not running). I actually have 2 running-related goals for 2025:
Running a sub-3 hour marathon at CIM on Dec 7 -
Sub-3 hours is about 6:51 min/mile pace
Running 2,025 miles in 2025
That averages to a little more than 5.5 miles per day (38.5 miles per week)
I like these two goals for this year because they compliment each other. Getting to sub-3 requires more mileage. Having a goal like sub-3 will motivate me to run more. Feels like the perfect combination.
So starting off the year not running would put me back quite a bit on my 2,025 miles goal. Luckily, running at a slower pace has a lot of benefits, and I’m hoping it will actually aid in my runner’s knee recovery.
Last week, I was able to hit 42.92 miles. That’s pretty high mileage for me, even during a heavy training week in 2024.. It’s intimidating to think that this will have to be the standard each week for 52 weeks this year to get to 2,025.
Last year, I was just shy of 1,500 total miles total. I was only about 25 miles short, but the runner’s knee sidelined me toward the end of December. 1,500 miles is about 28-29 miles per week, so I’m going to need to increase my weekly mileage by close to 33%... yikes.
On Feb 2 (just under 4 weeks from now), I have a Half Marathon on books in Huntington Beach (Surf City). I’m hoping the knee will be fully good to go by then, but it’s still feeling questionable. We’ll see how January goes, and if I can attempt my personal best time (Sub 1 hour 35 minutes) for the half. I’d love to go for a PR, but I’m also prepared to run it easy if my knee isn’t 100% back. I need to remember that the North Star this year is sub-3 and 2,025. Everything else will just support those goals. Crossing fingers though that the knee pain continues to ease up.
