November Progress

November is almost over. I started my off-season training at the beginning of the month. My goal was to hit the gym 3x a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and start putting 'humpty dumpty' back together again.

Week 1 - I made it to the gym at 5am every planned workout day. Started with a simple 2 miles each day on the treadmill. I wanted to ease my way back into running. Running only a couple miles allowed me to work on my form and breathing. I stretched and did some weight lifting to help complete each workout. Total miles - 6

Week 2 - I increased each run by 1 mile, giving me a total of 3 miles each day. I still took time to get a good stretch in after the run and hit the weights afterwards. My lungs were protesting a bit with a small asthma attack at the end of each run. Total miles - 9

Week 3 - I kept my miles at 3 each day. I didn't want to increase the miles just yet. The 3 miles were just challenging enough for my lungs and breathing, but no asthma attacks. I made sure to stretch and hit the weights before calling it a day. Total miles - 9

Week 4 - The training wheels were coming off. I bumped my daily mileage to 4. The first day was a little tough. I had to remind myself that I could do 4 miles without stopping. The remaining workout days went a lot better. I was able to break up the 4 miles into segments in my mind to help get me through. Total miles - 12

I'm hoping to continue this trend into December. Daily miles will be increased, as will the weekly total miles. I know this was the blueprint I used for my half-marathon in May where I ran a personal best. Maybe I'll get lucky and get another personal best in my half-marathon in April.