What I did to my knees in June (day, miles, time):



If you don't feel like doing the math, that's 63 miles. After running three times a week in May, I stepped it up to four times a week in June. I think that's the magic number for improvement. There was just one exception despite a weekend trip to North Carolina and a six-day respite on the Emerald Isle (which is indeed a very green place). The exception came the week I got back from all that travel -- I got weak one afternoon and opted to stay in the beer garden with bratwurst rather than run.

Although I added a run a week, my training plan only added one mile a week. But I still seem to have run 13 miles more in June than May. I'm guessing this is a calendar issue, not a math issue since Excel does all the calculations. I'm trying to listen to the advice of others about running. Everyone says to add no more than 10%, or about a mile, a week. So I'm not.

I've also begun doing intervals (the blue days -- yellow are distance). There's a good article here from the New York Times on why intervals are important -- and suck.

My goal is to keep increasing the weekly mileage and then fold in a training plan for a half marathon beginning in August. I won't have the miles to match the plan I want so I figure I'll just gradually merge the two. And then finish the season in November with a half -- either here, in Hamburg, or, for shits and giggles, in Mönchen Gladbach, the city nearest to the village where I spent a year as an exchange student.

Now I'm off to do four miles in this summer heat. Below is what my knees went through in May.