Another month is wrapping on up and we are two thirds of the way through 2025. It’s been another fast year indeed! Like many people, I feel that each year tends to fly by the older I get and 2025 is no different to that feeling. With August at the close, let’s see how this month turned out for our running data!

Week 1: 12 Miles Total

The cough and hackle adventure continued. Allergies or sickness? Maybe both. The beginning of August was the finish line of my yearly getting sick tradition. The school year had started in Texas and sure enough, I was battling the typical colds and such at the end of July into August. Working with kiddos sure is a fun time except for this part. I think I have quite a few years until retirement so it will continue for the foreseeable future. At least Mr. Paul is feeling back to normal now!

In the first week, I covered 12 miles over a course of a few runs. My endurance could not keep up past the 25-30 minute mark and each run felt pretty rough. I couldn’t quite get the lethargic feeling out of my chest so I focused on just continuing to get small runs in. I did conquer a local hill titled ‘Hill of Death’ which gains about 250 feet of elevation in a half mile. I wanted to continue attempting to get some elevation training in before I went for a local Mt. Everest attempt in the early winter. My hope is to try this run again in September when I have more time to see how my body fares on a big hill training day. Also, hopefully I am not sick when I try this!

Week 2: 16.3 Miles Total

Sunburns continue and sickness ends! It is the one time of the year I am grateful to be able to get back to more time outside because the lethargy was over. Woohoo to that! I choose to be smart upping my mileage back to the 20+ count since I did have some shin pain in July after three 30+ mile weeks. Surprisingly, my endurance returned rather quickly and forty minute runs weren’t feeling too shabby.

Janel and I did a few runs together on the Planet Fitness treadmills and I was just as sweaty inside as I was outside. No surprise that people don’t run next to my treadmill since it is a super soaker zone. I never use to be such a sweaty runner but now, my body pours it out. Perks of running in my 30s I figure! I did get one nasty sun burn and got to don the raccoon eye look since my face was burnt around my sunglasses. What can I say, I got cool style.

Week 3: 21.2 Miles Total

A Return to the 20s! It had been a month at this point since I returned to the 20 miles of week of running. My body continued to appreciate being healthy so I did what any grateful runner would do and fill it up with a few local IPAs from a cool brewery and lots of fried food. I’m pretty sure I gained about five pounds post sickness thinking since I was running more, I could eat more. Unfortunately my fork is faster than my metabolism.

I tried at this point to see how long I could hold my breath while running and fun fact, made it about 25 seconds and 232 feet (about 70 meters). I wanted to see if this led to benefits to running performance. I didn’t really see much of an impact about this personal experience but here is a fun blog post I made about it if you have any interest!

How Far Can Someone Run On One Breath? – And For How Long? A Personal Attempt

Week 4 – 25 Miles Total

Back to pre summer mileage! This was my first week since June that I felt pretty happy with my running. I got the chance to put in a 10 mile run, eat lots of pizza, and see some new running routes around the Austin area. On top of the increased distance, my shin pain never returned and that was a victory! I only ran one early morning this week and that 5 o’clock hour continued to be rough. It’s amazing how many excuses the brain can come up with when the alarm goes off. At the end of the day, it’s just you vs. sleep but sleep won the majority of mornings against your averagerunnerpaul.

This week didn’t see that much of elevation training. I was mostly happy to get back to hour runs and easy mileage around the neighborhood. I did get the chance to get some trail running in and I thought I came upon a snake at one point. After freezing and seeing my life flash before my eyes, a lizard came out of the grass I was starting at and went into another patch. I really need to not panic when I am running on the Greenbelt. It’s hard to not picture every sound belonging to a 100 foot size rattlesnake. I’m sure they exist in Texas

Monthly Total: 80 miles

With a few extra days to round out August, I hit a total of 80 miles for the month. Definitely less than expected from my June running but more than I expected with coming out of July with my bumps and sniffles.

I have to look at the silver lining of this month. No injuries and I did get the chance to bike a couple times a week. It’s been a good way to exercise and let the legs heal up. I also passed the 700 miles mark of running this year so it will be a close call shooting for the end of year 1,000 mile mark. This averages out to be around 20 miles per week which officially passes my 2021 mark. If I can average out 50 miles a month for the next four it will be the most miles ran in a handful of years so that is a goal to pass too!

Hope your month went well and I would love to hear any highlights you have to share! How is your total yearly mileage going? On track for what you want or hoping to finish the year differently?