Saturday, August 6, 2011

Reflecting on a 100 Day Running Streak

100 days ago I never thought I could run every single day. I have been running regularly for a over a decade at varying intensities, but running every single day no matter what?! When I started this experiment, I figured I would just try to make it two weeks. When I hit two weeks, I started to get cautiously excited and one month was the next goal. Once you do that it's hard to quit! The next hurdle came at the two month mark with our move across two states. It was just me and the three kids and two days of driving. But I managed to fit one mile in each day to keep the streak technically alive. After that I knew I would make it to 100 days and I even got out the calendar to count them so I knew which day to look forward to as the summer continued.

So what have I learned? Running every single day will not help me lose any weight. I am disappointed about this. I actually weigh more today than I did right after I gave birth six months ago. I always thought that if I could run every day, or even most days, my weight would take care of itself. Apparently this is not the case for me. I blame my thyroid. I know I have more energy and am healthier than if I didn't run, so I won't quit, but it still bums me out more than just a little. I also learned that I will not get injured. I have always been an injury prone runner- even when religiously sticking to the appropriate training plan- so this was a very big concern.  But I am happy to report that I am 100% fine at 100 days!

Of course these aren't major strenous runs. When you run every day you don't feel the need to push yourself like when you only go a few times per week. My usual daily run is an easy three miles with a walk break or two after the halfway point if I feel like it. I rarely take a timer. Sometimes I will go further, but sometimes when I'm tired or busy I just go two miles and call it good. It's somehow a lot less pressure on yourself when you run everyday. Maybe I will set some goals and push myself to run further and faster in the next 100 days...

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