We’re now we’ll into July and I’ve been pushing myself quite a bit. Today was the first full day of my vacation and I started out strong with a 6.3 mile run along the beach. That puts me at 282 miles (56% of my 500 mile goal) and has finally put me back on track.

My simple math was 500 miles / 52 weeks = ~10 miles per week. Pretty simple, right? So I figured, hey, 10 miles a week isn’t so bad. Except that I live in the Northeast, and I don’t want to run on the treadmill. I started off strong, but hit a few roadblocks in February and March when the roads were covered in ice and snow (a lot of snow). So unfortunately I started to fall behind, quickly. RunKeeper does a great job of keeping track of your progress and helping you visualize your goals. As you can see from chart below, I had a serious dip in March and into April. There is nothing more demoralizing than falling way behind on a big goal.

Well, I stayed positive and doubled down. After today’s run, I’m proud to say that I’m back on track, now averaging 9.73 miles per week. That puts me “slightly” ahead of schedule. My goal for the next two weeks (which I’m thankfully on vacation for), is to try and run 20 miles each week. That will give me some more padding. Once I get back, hopefully I can keep up my 15 mile per week pace that I’ve been doing for the last few weeks.

So there you have it. 500 miles may not seem like a lot to some of you, but it is a big goal for me. It’s all about keeping with it and not losing motivation.

Happy Running!

~ Lucas