50 Day Running Streak

-

 Today marked 50 consecutive days of running. Doing 50 days of anything is rather remarkable, but 50 days of running feels like a real feat of consistency. Last year I ran had 57 day streak, but this time around I went faster and further than before. I could likely go on with more days, but I am going to start a marathon training cycle and it only is sensible to think about some of the bigger goals associated with that and rest up a day or two rather than waste my legs. 

Frankly, running daily turned out to be easier than you might expect. There weren't questions about "if" I would run a given day although there were instances where I questioned "when" I would run. For the most part it became routine. I just plugged it into the start of my day before I took too much time to think about it. 

Some days I gave myself a mileage goal, but for the most part, I would run by time. For instance, I have 40 minutes to run or today I'll have an hour. A few instances I went a few miles further than I otherwise would have because I didn't attend to the time, but for the most part I settled into a pace and held steady. 

I tried to stay relaxed. Easy effort it is called. A few times I felt myself get moving faster than 'easy effort' and recognized the difference almost immediately without looking at my watch for guidance. I took all the beeps and vibrations off my watch so I could concentrate a little more on simply running than how far I went or how far I might still have to go. 

There will certainly be lots of lessons gathered from a running experience like this, and it certainly nothing bonkers like others may have done, but it does provide a tangible and personal picture I can come back to when I need an example of diligence either for myself or to encourage others. 



Popular posts from this blog

There are no shortcuts in running

-
Image
There are no short cuts in running. I can only make a measured amount of progress everyday. The only way to get better is in increments. There are apps for helping make progress, but there's no magic button to go from being able to run a 5k to a marathon. The process itself is straight forward and not necessarily hard to understand, but applying the process takes focus and stamina.  Once these are achieved, it's possible for the process to become at least a little easier because there is clarity about how things get done. The internal dialogue  moves from " if I run today" to " when I run today". This mental status is what endurance is built from.  And endurance builds upon itself. When I finished my first marathon, one of the most enlighten moments came when my brain thought "if you can do that, what else is possible?!" My body changed from a physical processes, but I realized my mindset changed just as much. This empowering mindset not only work...
Read more

Rest is part of the work

-
Image
I made a small change to my usual routine today. It is a rest day so instead of putting on my fitness watch, I put on my "just tell the time" watch. This doesn't seem like much, but throughout the day it reminded me this is a rest day and I should take it seriously. I know it will alter the every day metrics being recorded by the fitness watch, but that's ok. Does everything need to measured all the time? Apparently not because I have no idea what my "body battery" reading is this evening. I just know I feel sorta tired and should go to bed soon. I'm not sure my stress level, but I suspect it was a little elevated getting the kids off to bed. I didn't count my steps wheeling around the grocery store getting charcuterie materials for an exhibition opening tomorrow, but if I needed to guess, that would have been the highest concentration of steps in the day.  The deeper I go into the training cycle the more I will value the weekly rest day on Wednesday...
Read more