BOO! Well, booed. Do you say boo or booed after Halloween? Past tense? Random long run thoughts of the day from your average runner paul so let’s talk about something more concrete. With October over and the spooky season behind us, it was time to reflect upon some Halloween running. Let’s see how this month of running looked!

This month featured some highs and lows for a big increase in mileage, less in elevation, and weekly mileage trending in the direction that I had hoped for. Less sweating too which was probably the main highlight.

Week 1: 30.1 Miles Total

Hello 30 mile week! It was nice to return to this mileage since June. Back in June, I strung together three 30 mile weeks and then proceeded to be below that distance for a few months. The 4:30 a.m. workouts had come to a stop out because of laziness and I managed to get more up to the wanted distance for October. This week put me about 11 weeks out from my marathon attempt and I was starting to get in hour runs more consistently.

Additionally at the beginning of this month, I began weekly and sometimes twice a week lifting with my gym beast Jordan. I managed to curl 10 pound weights, struggle with a pull up, and not be able to lift my arms following our first gym day for at least three days. Hopefully that would improve too…

Week 2: 26.3 Miles Total

Technically another ultra marathon distance week by covering 0.1 miles more than a marathon. My 30 week streak ended after 1 week so I am not sure I could technically call it a streak. I got in one big elevation run at the start of this week by clearing 1,000+ feet in one go but it did feel rougher from the previous week. Later in the week I got in another 1,000 + feet of gain which made me feel good on the hills and there was a lot less pain involved.

I did have a highlight speed (to me) run this week where I ran negative splits from a 8 minute pace down to 7:16 to cover 6 miles. My marathon dream pace is around 8:30 per mile for the distance and I am hoping that the 7 minute pace tempo can feel good come November. Actually my dream pace would be 4:30 per mile like the pros but I love fried food too much for that pace. As for what will happen on marathon day, only future Paul knows that answer!

Week 3: 30 Miles Total

Back to the 30s! With the weather improving, my pace continued to speed up faster and faster. My long runs were hitting 1.5 hours which wasn’t too shabby. A bit below the training plan I was following but I wasn’t as far off as I had thought. The weather was in the low 80s during my lunch runs which felt phenomenal. I was still sweating buckets somehow, even when I ran a few times in the low 60s. Some of us are just natural born sweaters and nothing we can do about it.

Week 4: 34 Miles Total

Back to our streak! And this time, a streak lasting of two 30 mile weeks. Oooh, very exciting for me. This was my second highest running week this year since I cleared a 36 mile week in February. I had a couple 90 minute plus runs which I was happy about. My gym friend saw me on one of these runs and said I looked “In the zone.” When I asked for an honest opinion, he did agree with me that I looked “rough.” Progress either way!

Monthly Total: 132.1 Miles Total – Wow!

New monthly record! With a couple runs totaling 11.7 miles, I smashed the previous record by double digits. An exciting moment for your average runner and the most running in a month in over five years of data. My weight during this time remained the same. You win some, you lose some.

Overall, it was a pretty good month of running. My elevation gain was a bit less of around 7500 feet compared to 12,000+ the month before. I would need to continue elevation and mileage leading into a marathon. Grimfoot, another blogger here, gave some good advice that has helped my shin pain by targeting stretching a few times a week for my calves and ankles to relieve some of that pain. Between that and lifting, something has been working! Too bad the solution wasn’t eating more fried food because that would be number one in my books.

I hope you all had a great October and I would love to hear how the month went for you! With the end of the year coming up, any fun runs planned for winter time? Also, is the weather getting good on your end or chilly months ahead?