Real David H.

“As I look ahead to the second half of 2010, I am ready to capitalize on what I’ve already done.”

Those are my words at the end of June. So far, so good. When July got under way, I just kind of gave myself a “whatever” approach to the month. What happened was one of the best months of running for the year.

Here are the top running highlights:

• A PR in the mile (minus whatever I did in high school).
• A good effort in the heat in a 5-miler.
• Passing my mileage from 2009.
• And to cap things off today, I ran 5.1 miles to get my July running miles past 100 miles for the year — 100.3 to be exact. That’s the second triple-digit month this year (April was the other month).
• For some of my non-running highlights from July, check out my post from yesterday, “The right direction.”

In a year in which so many things are going right, July just sets the tone for the last half of this year. As I look ahead to August, I plan to run later tomorrow to get to 30 miles for the week, my first 30-mile week since … well, I don’t really know (Sunday edit: I’m very tired today, so that 30-mile week is going to wait). I plan to continue to increase my mileage and my long runs as the Richmond Marathon gets closer. With the marathon 15 weeks from today, my non-plan plan will continue. I’m just going with what feels right, while loosely following some guidelines I’ve set for myself. From a mileage standpoint, I’d like to be between 110 and 120 miles.

In two weeks I am running the Lynchburg Half Marathon for the third time, but it will be more like a first-time event since the course has been completely altered from the last time I did the race. I’m not setting any goals for that since I want it to be more or less a long run a little faster than I’m used to. It’s a great opportunity to run with a large group and speed myself up a bit for a longer distance.

Other than that, I just want to continue this great 2010. So here’s to another months of great running!