It’s been two months since my last check-in, but I’m happy to report that the end of my 500 mile journey is near. I’ve only added about 90 miles in the last two months, but that’s still averaging over 10 per week. I’ve had a hard go of it lately. The weather here in the Northeast is getting colder and dreary. For a few weeks it was pitch black every morning, making it hard to run. Also, trying to run after work wasn’t easy either. Now that the clocks have changed, I do have some good light in the AM, but  I’ve still found it to be challenging to keep myself motivated.Well, the good news is that I’m less than 15 miles away from my goal. It seems a little surreal. Sure, 500 miles isn’t much for some, but for a now 37 year old non-runner, this will be a huge accomplishment.

What to do next?

With the end in sight, I guess the next question is What to do next? I found that trying to run several times a week dominated my “workout” schedule. Knowing that I needed to get to 500 miles made it nearly impossible to choose any other lengthy exercise or activity over running. I still want to run. I do enjoy it. However, I need to spend more time doing total body fitness instead.

I’ve gotten into the habit of doing pushups every morning before I shower (I’m hovering around 40 now). Unfortunately my 100 pushup challenged failed miserably, but reading several other posts, I realized that it was probably not possible anyway (well, at least with the program I was following). I would like to get to a consistent 50 pushups, I don’t feel like that is out of the question. I would like to expand these exercises (I’ve been sprinkling in some bicep curls, crunches and pull ups) and do more standard full-body workouts.

One thing I’ll definitely NOT be doing is setting another 500 mile goal for the year. Not because it is impossible, but simply because it was impractical for me. I might do mini goals, like run 50 miles in a month, or exercise 4 times a week for the next 8 weeks. I don’t know. I’ve got some time to think about.

Good news is that in 14.14 miles, I can cross this achievement off my list.

Happy Running!

~ Lucas