Back to Back Century Months

 I completed my planned interval session this evening, some max effort 400m intervals along with the warm up and cool down it gave me a little over 8km.  I have now hit 109 miles for the month of November with five days still remaining and with a further four runs planned the total could go as high as 130 miles.  

I have now run a century of miles in 35 different months, but managing to string together a series of consecutive 100 mile months has proven more problematic.  There have only been three really significant chunks of training where I achieved this.

March 2014 - July 2014 - 5 months and a total of 553 miles, averaging 110 miles a month.

November 2014 - May 2015 - 7 months and a total of 944 miles, averaging almost 135 miles a month.

October 2016 - March 2017 - 6 months and a total of 846 miles, averaging 141 miles a month.

It is that last block of training that I will look to take inspiration from, and hope to better over the next six months plus.  Although the overall mileage might look something similar once I am done, the make up of the runs should be very different.  

That 2016-17 block contained 35 commutes, these were my 7.5 mile commutes home from Southend, a really time efficient way to get the miles in.  Work and family commitments now mean I have to be a little more creative with where I fit my sessions in and hour long run commutes are a luxury I don't have.

What I do have is the structure and intensity of Runna.  It is still early days but the number of quality sessions with a real focus to them is far in excess of any previous block of training.  I have managed to get the miles in through consistency, rarely falling below my four run minimum.  I have also done it without a true long run.  My 15km - 20km long runs would have been medium-long runs in days past.  I am hoping that as we hit 2026 the true long-runs will return as the marathon approaches.

It is all building nicely, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.   I've now got a base to build from, and as long as I remain free of injury I can continue to gradually increase the mileage.   In addition to my core four runs a week I am trying to make a short easy lunchtime run a regular fifth run of the week.

Included in that 2016-17 block were two of my PB's which still remain today.  My 10 mile PB of 1:10:39 run at the Test Track 10 in February 2017 and my 20 Mile PB from the Essex 20 in March 2017 of 2:36:24.  I'd love to better that 20 mile time in 2026 and will have the chance to try in March at the Essex 20.  The 10 mile attempt will have to wait a good bit longer, the next race at that distance is currently the Great South Run in October next year.  I could potentially be on a run of 12 consecutive 100 mile months by then and that level of graft surely deserves a new PB.

I'll try to keep myself in the present and just focus on each session as it comes, but it's nice to have some longer term goals as well.  We can add a PB target at the London Marathon to the wish list.