A couple of days ago, I updated the yearly mileage on Strava from 2018 to 3018 and watched in horror as the counter plummeted from 500km ahead of target to 250km behind.

Part of this “journey” in 2018 involved a series of Virtual Races – initially taken on as a bit of a motivator.
For about $25 you get a set challenge, and on completion you get a funky medal in the mail.
Now, I am not usually one for “race bling”, which is why I enjoy a lot of the trail events as usually the “also placed” get to walk away with only their memories of a great day.
But the ease of completing a distance challenge, and knowing my $25 was partially going to a good cause kind of made the difference and before I knew it I had entered, first the 1000 kilometres in 2018, shortly followed by the 2018 kilometres in 2018.
The maths worked.
With a 100K event booked in, hitting 1000 and 2018 kilometres was pretty much guaranteed.
Come the end of September and I finally crack 2018 kilometres – awesome.
But, I hadn’t claimed my 1K trophy some 1018 kilometres ago.

The question

Do I submit for both the 1000 and the 2018 in one go medals?
I could.
I’ve definitely achieved those distances – but how boring is that!

So — new challenge

Can I knock out an additional 1000 kilometres between October 1 and December 31?
It’ll be tough.
Mileage post Surf Coast Century (SCC) has been low as I slowly recover from my 16 hours 35 minutes’ adventure through lunchtime, dinnertime, bedtime, rain, thunder and lightning, rolled ankles, blisters and the emotional roller-coaster of being in one’s head for 16+ hours of emotional and physical endurance… it just takes time to bounce back from something like that.
But the minor injuries I sustained at SCC have healed and I am slowly bringing my weekly totals back up again, plus using this time to revisit and reintegrate strength training into my routine.
I now know I can cover 100Ks in less than 24 hours (with a lot of that going at something resembling a run) and I know that I like it too, so I feel happy returning to a high mileage / strength balance.

Last week (end of September) I managed 35kms and this week (first week of October) I will knock out 40kms – I am a long way off of the 90kms a week I need to be running to cover 1000km before New Year.

One set of kilometres at a time

A chance to run in the Dandenong Ranges on Saturday was hard to resist and I had a joyful 18km run from Montrose to the TV towers before running along the ridge to Kalorama and then back down the mountain to Montrose.

The weather was perfect, the views spectacular and I am looking forward to running more up there over the next few months.

And that’s about it. I am still running, and looking forward to running 30,40,50,60 kilometres over the coming months.
Next weekend, I am off to Creswick for a conference  — I think I have spied some trails near the hotel so I will see if I can sneak out for a dozen or so kilometres while I am up there.

How is your running, recovery going? Anything big planned in the coming weeks or months?