August Running - Priorities, Data, Memories

The month comes down to my priorities, my training data, and my running memories. So let's review!
[ Posted my ET Full Moon 51K Race Report from August 18 today also HERE... ]

PRIORITIES

Our training gets prioritized in our overall lives, and you'll notice my priorities this month don't show the word training really.

• The first week of August: FAMILY (vacation during summer break)
• The second week of August: FAMILY and WORK (catchup from vacation, no one does your work for you when you are a small business owner and not there!, and the girls were still off from school for one more week before the new semester)
• The third week of August: RECOVERY (recovering from the pulverizing 32 miles of asphalt at the ET Full Moon 51K and then recovery from the plague I contracted on the Vegas Strip)
• The fourth week of August: RECOVERY (still awfully sick with the worst summer cold ever).

Note that the illness went on for 15 days and ended up needing a good course of steroids.

DATA

So now August is over. Hrmmmm, that's not how the month was supposed to look. There are several numbers I work hard not to focus on throughout the month while I'm in it, but I'm a mathematician. So how was the month by the numbers?

• 92 miles for the month. But when that's for 13 workouts total, that averages to 7 miles a workout. Even if you take out my big 32 mile race in August, that's still an average of 5 miles per workout. Happy about that. Ignoring the posts from everyone who put in 2-3 times that mileage in the month. That's their journey, not mine.
• I don't know my total vertical gain for the month, but I know it's up there. I think I may start tracking it in my training spreadsheet. For the type of races I want to target, as a flatlander training in Dallas, it's crucial confidence-building data. But I do know...  2100 ft gain August 4. 1200 ft gain August 18. 1080 ft gain August 26. 2450 ft gain August 30.
• Last week in August alone totalled out at 4500 ft vertical gain. One set of 18 hill repeats on my short steep hill that I lead North Texas Runners workouts on Monday. One 3 mile 15% Treadmill run. And the remainder is two flatter runs.

MEMORIES

And August by the running experiences, which is a huge part of what running means to me:

• I ran a 3.2 mile race up Vail Mountain - the Berry Picker 5K Trail Run. It was a blast and easily my slowest 5K ever with 2100 ft gain. But my kids saw me finish a race for the first time, and that was awesome.
• I ran through the desert through the middle of the night for 7 1/2 hours and saw the sunrise during the ET Full Moon 51K.
• I watched the North Texas Runners club continue to grow. I am so proud of all these runners and walkers who have adopted the club and many who are emerging as leaders in it too! We regularly have 60 runners at our Saturday runs now. They make all my work worthwhile!

And now... On to the Volcanic 50 race on Saturday. August numbers are logged, and there's no cramming for this test. The day will be what it will be (obviously, duh).