The 600

This morning was very nice 50 degrees and cloudy. The lake was choppy. Wild turkeys flanked the road into the park. A perfect day for a run. I met up with the few runners willing to show up at 8:00 am on Easter Sunday. Five of us hit the path and a nice slow pace as the creaky legs gradually came back to life.  Two of the runners soon headed off to run the trails.  Three of us continued. One runner soon took a break leaving two of us. My usual running partner, Michelle. We run similar paces. The pace gradually quicked as we went 9:38, 9:00, 8:33, 8:19, 8:29 (slowed as we looked for an owl reported to be in the trees over the trail), 8:06.  The last mile had the wind picking up into our faces about 15+ mph.
That was a very refreshing way to log my 600th consecutive day of running!

600 days. The experiment continues with no stretching, weight/cross training and letting shoes last a long time (>1000 miles). For me, mid foot (not heel, not forefoot) landing is the key to running longevity.  Also running high mileage at a moderate pace mixing up easy and harder days.  Only really push when you feel your body can handle the push.  That is, don't push hard when your body says "no" but a training plan says "yes".  Your body knows better than the training plan..  Mix it up: I run hills, flat, sidewalks, bike trails, dirt roads, trails (big wide ones, not single track...yet). Run short, run long, run fast segments.. or not.  Intervals every couple weeks aimed at getting faster really help as long as not pushed too hard.  My best shoes now are Brooks PureFlow. I have 725 miles on a pair and they still feel great and not much wear.  In this training cycle (training for a Marathon on May 20th) the single thing that solidified endurance was running 10 miles per day for 5 days straight.  Not too long to affact recovery but long enough to train endurance. Negative split long runs are critical.  In past training, I remember bonking at mile 17 of a 20 mile training run.  In subsequent marathons, I'd bonk at mile 17.  You get what you train for!

Whatever the contributing factors, 600 days of running really builds endurance!