Slowly but surely

So I keep increasing the miles as I work myself back up from the knee issue. Started running 3 miles, then 4, then last Sunday I did a 5 mile long run and I'm feeling pretty good so this week I will aim for 6 miles which is where I was right before I got sidetracked. The knee has bothered me a little (it is tendinitis after all) but it has been totally manageable. It seems I will be ready for my first 10K at the end of February after all.

Whether I'm ready for it or not is irrelevant at this point actually since I have officially signed up for the race already. It's gonna happen whether I 'm ready or not, though I'm working on being ready. I'm very excited and quite frankly, a bit scared too.

As of this writing, I have run 6 miles only once so the prospect of doubling my current race distance seems a bit daunting. Also, this 10K I signed up for is pretty huge - probably the biggest  race in Puerto Rico - and no one wants to look stupid in front of 15,000 runners. However, my 5 mile runs have become a lot less threatening since I first reached that milestone last summer. In fact - and I'm almost afraid to say this - it appears that I'm better at longer distances. If I could figure out how to start slower, it would be even better but I think that will come with time. Either that, or I will work myself up to run faster in the later parts of my runs.

This week, I will aim for two 5-milers followed by a 6 mile long run on the weekend. Assuming that it goes as planned and I keep feeling good, I"m considering the prospect of adding an extra running day. A low mile one (maybe 3 miles?) at that.

Long term, I want to keep working on mileage so that at the end of September, I can start the 16-week Beginner Marathon Training Plan from the book: Runner's World Big Book of Marathon and Half-Marathon Training by Bart Yasso, Jennifer Van Allen and Amby Burfoot with Pamela Nisevich. To start the plan, the authors recommend  for you to have at least a year of running under your belt and that you are regularly running 3 to 4 times a week which should be no problem by then.