2006 Recap

Miles for December: 96.4

This month includes 2 marathons and is still my 2nd lowest month in 2006. I made a conscious effort to keep the miles low through the end of the year before ramping up in 2007.

2006 represents my third complete year of running and my first full year of blogging. I've "met" a whole bunch of great people through the blog. Those I've met in person have proven to be top notch people. I look forward to meeting more of you.

I can recap the year in these two graphs: my monthly and weekly totals for the year. January was a short month due to my trip to India, but then I got right back into it getting ready for SEAFAIR. With some motivation from more experienced runners I tried to increase my weekly mileage to 50 average from about 35 during the buildup to SEAFAIR. I never got there but I was rewarded with my highest mileage month during May with 181.3. June represents the three week taper and July is the recovery. In August I switched schedules to a 6 day a week program topping out at 50 mpw. August, at 182.5 topped May by just over a mile. September would have been even higher but, I only made it through 3 weeks of the 6 day per week schedule before my left piriformis revolted. It has responded somewhat to chiropractic therapy as well as the decline in mileage since September. Thankfully is doesn't bother me much while running.


This view shows the weekly totals. The little orange diamonds represent marathons. My attempted mileage increase shows up clearly in August with a decline to pre-SEAFAIR levels after that. I purposely kept my mileage low after St. George to help the piriformis and because I had no real time goal for Tecumseh in December.

My total mileage for 2006 was an all time high of 1629, a nearly 12% increase over 2005. My average weekly mileage in 2005 was 28.0 while 2006 was 34.6. I would like to get that closer to 40 in 2007. I definitely saw an improvement in marathon times with increased mileage.

High points of 2006:
1. Breaking 4 hours at the SEAFAIR Marathon.
2. Starting and finishing SEAFAIR with Rob, although I never saw him for 26 miles.
3. Setting a 3:40 PR at the St. George Marathon.
4. Running along side both Sam Thompson and Dean Karnazes in SEAFAIR and St. George respectively.
5. Training runs with Jeff.
6. Meeting other southern California runner/bloggers: Jessica, Nattie, Greg.
7. Planning and running the Tecumseh Trail Marathon with Joe.
8. Adding Otter Creek to the schedule 1 week after Tecumseh.
9. Qualifying for the Marathon Maniacs (#440 - Thank you).

I had one marathon planned for 2006 - SEAFAIR, with one more possible based on lottery results - St. George. The two trail marathons can accurately be ascribed to serendipity. They were a blast and although my times were slow after coming off the PR, I would consider more trail marathons in the future. I nearly doubled my state total, not to mention changing the blog title four times, in 2006.

2006 was a pretty darn good year in terms of running. I look forward to what 2007 has in store.