There goes October

Well, there goes the month of October. Not exactly my highest mileage month ever, but at least I feel like I’m heading in the right direction. I ended up with 113 running miles, numerous bike miles and a few thousand yards of swimming. Oh, I should probably mention the multiple physical therapy sessions with Glenda at Bon Secours In Motion at Redmill, Virginia Beach too.

Frustratingly, the piriformis issue is still hanging around. Rest doesn’t seem to help the situation, so for the moment, I’m running through minor discomfort and GRID-rolling, lacrosse-balling and stretching often. I know, not the smartest thing to do, right?

October did herald my return to the race scene. Early in the month I hoofed my way through the inaugural Peroni Crawlin’ Crab 1/2 Marathon where I managed to snag an age group victory. One week later I took on the 2012 Moe’s Challenge, where I wolfed down a Joey Jr in the middle of a 5K and walked away with free burritos for a year. So much fun! This past weekend I dressed up as Batman and “raced” the Blue Moon Wicked 10K. It wasn’t my fastest 10K ever, but again, tons of fun and another age group victory.

Now, after 4 pretty mediocre weeks of mileage, I find myself faced with the Richmond Marathon in less than 10 days time, then the Cayman Islands Marathon just 3 weeks later. I won’t even mention the Seashore Nature Trail 50K in mid-December….

10/1 — 10/7: 15.3 miles
10/8 — 10/14: 10.5 miles
10/15 — 10/21: 26.5 miles
10/22 — 10/28: 37.8 miles

At this stage in the game, Richmond will be nothing more than an extended training run. I’ve only run more than 10 miles once in the last 7 weeks, so yeah, I definitely need the miles. My main hope, however, is to come away from Richmond injury free so I can build slightly before Cayman and then finish off December strongly. Longer-term, my main goal is still the Rocky Raccoon 100 in February, so with that in mind, keeping the angry piriformis at bay is key.

Hope everyone has a great November. I’m certainly keen to put September and October behind me and finish off 2012 with a couple of satisfying months.