As you know, we're getting to the time of year where we can't help looking back to see where we are in our running life. Did we achieve our goal race times for the year? Have we stayed healthy, and not missed days due to injury or time constraints? What is our annual mileage looking like with a month left?
During this morning's nice 11.07 mile run (which, of course, I logged as 11 miles) I started to think about that little bit extra on the right side of the decimal point. I've been building up fractional mileage all year long which I've never logged. That's just how we are. If our standard course is not exactly to the 1/4 mile, we have no choice but to round down. We can't round up, because we would never think to log a run longer than we actually ran. The simple truth is, the totals just round better to the quarter of a mile when you add up your mileage at the end of the week. So down, we round. Ever since June, when I started running my 5.32 mile weekday run, I've been logging it as 5 1/4. That has left .07 miles each time I've run this route which has sadly gone unrecognized.
All my other neighborhood courses I've run during the year have similar attributes. My 10 mile route was actually 10.13 miles. My 8 mile route measured in at almost 8.2 miles, but I could never call it 8 1/4. ( It actually started out as a 7.8 mile route, but I needed it to be at least 8 miles, so I added an extra little out and back, and it ended up being 8.2, or a very nice 8). My 7 1/2 mile route was probably closer to 7.53. The only route right on the money was a 5 mile route which was right on 5 miles.
So today, on my run, I started thinking about all those fractional miles. Almost every day, another deposit has been made in the mileage bank. Are these the "Junk" miles of mythical lore? I decided that it might be interesting to tally up the complied totals for the year. When it comes to annual total mileage, every tenth of a mile counts. Here's what I came up with:
| 7 1/2 mile routes 8 @ 7.53 .03 X 8= .24 "Junk" miles |
| 8 mile routes- 5 @ 8.2 each .20 X 5= 1.00 "junk" mile |
| 10 mile routes 6 @ 10.13 .13 X 6= .78 "junk" mile |
| 5 1/4 mile route 32 @ 5.32 .07 X 32= 2.24 "junk" miles |
| 18 mile run ( an 8 plus a 10) 1 @ 18.33 .33 X 1 = .33 "junk" miles |
| 20 mile run (2 10 mile loops) 1 @ 20.26 .26 X 1= .26 "junk" miles |
| ______________ |
| TOTAL 4.86 total junk miles |
Do I round it down to 4.75? Of course I do. Still, it's 4.75 miles I wouldn't have had any other way. Now, I know I can sleep late on Christmas Day. And when I wake up, and go to my stocking, hung from the chimney with care, I'll find an extra 4.75 miles to apply to my log any where I need it. It's my Christmas bonus.
How much is yours?
[../../../../top/bottom.htm] Tuesday, May 20, 2008 04:33 PM