January Monthly Mileage Check In

Happy Monthly Mileage check in! I started the first month of the year with 257 miles! January was about building a solid base for me. And not just a solid base of mileage, but also a solid training mindset and a solid base of healthier habits to support and improve my training.

The base of healthier habits are varied, but the focus has been to supplement training runs with more cross training activities when the opportunity presents itself. If I’m staring at my screen with writer’s block at work I hit the pull up bar for a quick set. If I’m watching a show with the kids I throw in a few sets of crunches by the couch to break up the inactivity. When I finish a paragraph I do a quick set of burpees before I give it a final read through and move on. These are all just small cross training activity opportunities I have not taken advantage of regularly in the past.

Another focal point of healthier habits for me is sleep. In the past, I have mostly sacrificed getting a quality night of sleep due to late nights snacking and binge watching. What starts as just watching one episode turns into a three hour binge watching session and only five hours of sleep leaving me feeling groggy and depleted the following day. And if there was any alcohol involved (which I’ve pretty much discontinued altogether at this point), multiply the depleted feeling by about 10 or so. The best way for me to avoid extended binge watching sessions and ensure a good night’s sleep is to not start them.

I am focusing on consistency and volume for my training again this year as I did last year. It seemed to work really well for me last year; I never felt completely burned out or like I needed to take time off from training, I experienced no serious injuries or persistent, nagging pains, and I enjoyed and looked forward to my training runs. On top of all of that, I would say that the results were pretty good as well with two backyard race performances of over 60 hours. With 257 miles (an average of 8.3 miles per day) to start the first month of the year, I am starting with a base volume of about where I was in April last year (8.37 miles per day average) going into Capital Backyard Ultra. This is very promising for me and gives me hope that this year will be even better than last!

Scott Snell

2 February 2023