Lifetime Monthly Mileage

I started running in March of 2005 on the Tiffin Calvert track team. I am assuming I ran roughly 400 miles during the season but did not start documenting until June. I really began increasing the mileage around my sophomore year in college; which is when I ran most of my personal bests in distances ranging from 3000 meters to the marathon.

My mileage continued to rise post collegiately when I began training for the Leadville 100. During the summer of 2012 I was running 100+ miles per week consistently while working twelve-hour days at Molyet’s Greenhouse in Tiffin, Ohio. In July, I moved to Leadville temporarily and lived out of the Mountain Peaks motel. July 2014 remains to be my highest mileage month all time with 487.99 miles.

Most of my highest mileages during the mid to late winter and early spring months were in 2013 when I was working at the Rocky Mountain National Park Greenhouse. Whereas my highest mileage in the autumn months occurred in both 2010 and 2011 when I was running cross country for Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. My highest mileage late fall and early winter months occurred after my first Leadville 100 when I moved back to Tiffin, Ohio for a short time.

The two years that I competed in the Leadville 100 (2012 & 2013) remain to be the highest mileage years of my life. These years are followed closely by my sophomore, junior and senior years in college. Most recently, 2014 was a bit of a down year for me mileage wise, due in large part to the time commitment of Physical Therapy school.

However, I view 2014 as my best racing year since 2011. I attribute this to the quality of the mileage as opposed the quantity of mileage. I started the year by running a 9:17 100K race in Smithville, Texas. After taking a long hiatus from racing, a couple of friends from PT school and I coordinated a track race in Austin. The event was a 3200-meter race in which I would compete against a relay of four people. I ended up losing by three seconds but was happy with my time of 10:36 considering that I had not done a workout pace faster than 6:30 since 2012.

After a trip to Washington State at the end of the summer I returned to Texas and ran a 50K in 3:52 at Rock Hill Ranch. Upon toeing the line at JFK I was undefeated in ultra-marathon trail running for the year. However, the races were very small and did not hold near the prestige of the JFK 50. Therefore, I was unsure how I would perform on more of a grand stage. I was very pleased with a top ten finish and a personal best lowered by two hours in the 50-mile distance.

I look to keep the pace fast for 2015 and bump up the mileage a bit more. However, because I will not graduate Physical Therapy school until December, I am not expecting anything extensive. I would like to compete in some races during the year, but time and funds may not permit. At the very least I will try to implement some track workouts and test my legs at the marathon distance. After running a 2:39 for my first marathon in Cleveland I would like to break 2:30 at some point in my life; perhaps 2015 will be that year.

I expect to turn over 30,000 miles for my lifetime in mid February this year. This is a milestone that I have been looking forward to for quite some time. I foresee this being the shining moment of 2015 in the running realm for me.