It might seem a little early, but I’ve decided to put on my winter weight and let myself go before the leaves are even off the trees. I’ve been training consistently for the past year and it’s time I finally took an extended break. I’ll still get out every day for a mile or so to keep my run streak going, but my goal is to run less than 20 miles per week for a month.

Running totals with 200+ mile months highlighted in green.

Looking back over my training log, I was a little surprised to see how few sub-20 mile weeks I had done. Leading up to Olde 96er, I had only gone under this number 3 times or the weeks immediately after a 100 mile effort. So basically only a couple days off before getting right back at it. This has contributed to me running almost 300 more miles year to date than I have before. I haven’t had a month below 170 in over a year and that used to be a peak mileage month for me.

Despite all those miles, I feel pretty good. Much better actually than I have the last two falls. I could totally start cranking out easy 30-40 mile weeks without any issues. I think.

This is more a preventative measure than anything else. Your body needs recovery time during training blocks and I think it also needs extended recovery time each year. I’ve been a little reactive on this in the past. Now is the perfect time for me to get it in as I have another 100 miler scheduled for mid-January. Taking a step (or two) back here in fitness should allow me to jump forward when I decide to ramp my training back up again.

Or at least that’s the theory.