Sixteen Weeks

Another long run done, another month in the books, and exactly one month left before the Twin Cities Marathon.

This weekend's long run was also along much of the marathon course. I like that our coaches schedule these locations near the end of our training. It's a great opportunity to once again familiarize ourselves with the route. Between the past two weekends we've covered most of the first 22 miles of the course. The weekend after next -- tapering, finally -- will be the last handful of miles.

I've been happy with my consistency for the past six weeks, following my early plan to run three times per week, do some kind of cross-training (usually spin class) twice a week, leaving two days for rest. When in doubt, I've chosen to sacrifice a day of cross-training instead of a run. In fact, over the past sixteen weeks, there's only been a single week where I ran for less than three days to go along with four weeks where I put in an extra day of running. Mixed in at least one day of cross-training in all but one week.

I've also put in just about as much mileage in the past six weeks (and 19 runs) as I'd done in my previous ten weeks (and 32 runs). So while my runs have all been in the range that I'd hoped for -- 13 - 15 a month -- my mileage has steadily increased with each passing month.

The consistency and mileage is way better than last August. Then, I'd only run three times a week once, got nothing more than Wednesday and Saturday team runs in two different weeks, and another week only saw me get my long Saturday run in.

Even though I had a stretch of several consecutive lousy long runs -- mostly through our super hot July -- I feel much better prepared for the marathon this year. And last year, I honestly thought I'd done a really good job of getting ready. That's the good thing about baselines: you have something to measure against.

• 3 runs for 29 miles (long run of 20 miles)
• 2 days of cross-training
• 2 days of rest