With the end of June on the calendar, that is half a year of running for all of us in the books! Let’s see how it turned out on. Fingers crossed that the number of times I ran was more than the number of times I got sunburnt. In Austin, you don’t get much of a choice on the latter.

For the first week of running, I cleared just over 22 miles which was short of the 30 mile per week goal I had set back in April and also in May. It definitely felt like I had the chance to get up to that mileage but I guess a night or two at the brewery and late night dining (fried food at a pub) led to missing an early morning run or two. As much fun as a two or three beers are, it didn’t lead to a pepped up morning performance.

On week 2, I prioritized running first and committed to the 30 mile running week. I may have still enjoyed indulging on what I call as bad guy food – spicy tacos and fried deliciousness – but I kicked off Monday morning with a 7 mile run. This put me in a good position for the weekly mileage and it got the ball rolling for 4-5 mile runs the rest of the week. By Saturday, I hit 30 miles on the dot! Not even one extra 0.1 miles occurred and it was my 3rd 30 mile week this year. Woohoo to progress!

Week 3 carried the same week 2 energy and I managed to top 30 miles for the week once again. Highlights included finding a Greenbelt trail and not getting attacked by any snakes on any trail runs. My mileage ended at 31.2 and this was my first time doing back to back 30+ miles per week in 2025. No wonder my marathon and ultra attempts over the past few years have been a rough process. Not many people are trying that distance based off an average of 20 miles a week of running or less so I get the recommendation to do more mileage…

As for week 4, my 30 mile streak continued! Now this hasn’t been something I have done in well over 5 years and probably not since 2018! In 2018, I had much more free time for running during grad school and less commitments with work.

For someone who loves to talk and read about running as well as considering myself a long distance runner, I guess I didn’t do as many big weeks as I had thought. Janel’s reaction, “Good job, I thought you were doing this already?” Progress either way! My total mileage for the week was 31.3.

Overall June Monthly Total: 120!

With a couple days extra in June, my total mileage was 120! This was my highest month in who knows how long! (I think a summer month in 2018). After double checking, it was my highest mileage of running since then and in November of 2024 was the last time I topped 115 miles for the month. Pretty exciting!

Although it was the highest monthly mileage of the year, I still have weighed about 5-10 lbs less at other points over the past 8 years. Goes to show that it is really hard to outrun the fork, especially when that fork loves fried food. Insert any fried food sponsor here and I would gladly say yes (Pluckers??).

Nerdy Data time!

On the half year data side, I broke 500 miles and hit 547.9 miles for the year. My total elevation gain has been around 27,000 feet but decreasing each month since moving to a flatter area. For the total miles broken down to further data, that puts me at 21 miles per week average for the year. My progress has been up and down since 2020 (last data recorded that year) and the other averages are listed below here after hitting the halfway mark:

• 2020: 520.1 miles ran (20 miles per week)
• 2021: 363 miles ran (14 miles per week)
• 2022-2023: No data, lost it somewhere but I would guess similar to 2021. My time was focused in grad school part 2 so may have been a little less even.
• 2024: 290.6 miles ran (11.2 miles per week).

I did pick up the distance the second half of 2024 so let’s see if the motivation continues similarily for the second half of 2025.

Here is to chasing 35 miles a week of running and no injuries for the month of July! Maybe I will finally hit a monthly amount that outruns the love of fried food that I have. I was able to outrun the fork one time in my life which was in college but during that time, I still grew taller and not just wider.

I hope you had a great month of June and have been happy with your yearly progress so far! How has it been for you? If not what you expected, I bet you can make the second half great! Or if in doubt, settling down for some fried food is always good too.

Average Runner Paul