I set a goal last year of running every day for a year. I reached that goal on Sept 9, 2009, and then needed a new one. I looked around for awhile and finally decided to try and complete 2009, running every calendar day.
I did that today, finishing my 478th day in a row, and completing at least a mile run every day of 2009!
Next up, getting to 500 days.
After skiing I took it easy. Plus I was hungry. The right ankle was slightly sore, so I didn’t push things too hard.
14:00
1.39mi
A nice run today. I was talking with my wife earlier about running and how I was going slower. I had gone up to 6.6 last week and felt pretty winded after a few minutes. She asked if I was trying to go faster, and if I’d want to run a race. I said no and yes, so we might do one soon.
However that had me thinking today and 6.4mph, which is usually where I peak, is slow. I used to start there in my 20s and go to 7.0 or 7.5 and cruise along. Finishing a 5k in under 24min was a given, and while I’m slowed, I don’t think I’m that slower.
Today I tried to go faster, coming up quicker on this pace:
0:00 – 4mph to start
1:00 – 5.6mph
2:00 – 6.2mph
4:00 – 6.5mph
7:00 – 7.0mph
14:00 – 6.5mph
18:00 – 4.0mph
It actually felt OK, and I wasn’t overly winded. My right ankle is slightly sore now, but just a little. Maybe I can still do a 24:00 5K.
20:00min
2.11mi
When I hit one year I downloaded the membership application from the US Running Streak Association and filled it out on my laptop. It asked for a total of miles run, and I didn’t have a good total since I had tracked things all over the place. So I started to compile things, but got distracted with machine issues.
When I sent off my laptop recently, it struck me that I might need to do a new application. Fortunately I found it synced up on my desktop and finished filling it out and compiled my mileage. It was over 500 miles for the year, which was cool.
Today I finally got a stamp and mailed it off. I’m not expecting to get on the active streak list until Feb since it’s so late in the year, but look for me there.
The Active streaks – I should be 220 when I go up, with my streak starting on 9/10/2008.
There are also retired streaks, where I hope not to be for some time.
A nice run, a little longer than normal, but not too long after the 3mi yesterday. I know that pushing too hard can catch up to me after a week or so.
18:00min
1.89mi
My second Christmas Day run in a row! The kids were playing, things were relaxed, and I was hungry, having only eaten a little. I wanted to enjoy Christmas Day after this with a beer or two, so I went for a nice run to earn it.
Everything felt great, but I moved up to 6.6mph as part of a pyramid and it was tough. 2-3 minutes there was enough, and I worked my way back down again, through 6.4, 6.2, and then 5.6 to close out.
22:00min
2.24mi
Christmas Eve, my second one running. A nice one, again short in time, but a little faster than the rest of this week.
16:00min
1.64mi
Late at night, a 9:40pm run after a long day. Everything felt fine, but a minimal run since I’ll probably run in the morning before we go skiing.
14:00min
1.28mi
Most of the year I’ve been running outside or in the basement with my shirt off. I’ve found that sweating in cool weather tends to get my nipples sore, so I usually remove my shirt before I get on the treadmill, or outside if it’s nice enough.
However feeling sick the last week, and chilly weather, have had me keeping them on in the basement for treadmill runs. Too cold to run without a shirt.
Adapting to my environment and listening to the body.
A full blown cold caught me this morning, so I plugged away slowly at a run, but didn’t press it.
16:00min
1.48mi
I wasn’t feeling good today, but I decided to plow along, getting through a decent run on the weekend when I didn’t really have much else going on.
18:00
1.77mi
with the laptop dead and iTunes not syncing on the desktop, I’m back to manual syncing. I assume I’ll have this working at some point, but I don’t want to lose data if the nano dies.
450 days is a nice number, and I’m caught up, hoping to finish out the year strong.
The iPod still won’t sync, so I’m capturing the data here. A nice run, despite a sore knee when I woke up. I started out slow, 5.5mph, and after 8 minutes felt OK, so I took it to 6.2. Finished OK, with only a slight ache in the knee.
18:00
1.71mi
Here they are for now. My laptop died and I haven’t tried to sync elsewhere. We’ll see if this works.
12/2 16’ 1.6mi
12/1 16’ 1.44mi
11/30 16’ 1.65mi
11/29 14:45 1.41mi
11/27 14:53 1.39mi
11/26 13:24 1.39mi
11/25 16’ 1.54mi
11/24 16‘ 1.45mi
11/23 14’ 1.41mi
I was thinking about goals recently after talking with someone that was looking to get back into shape. They had set a goal to exercise every day in December, which I think it pretty good. However it got me thinking about running, especially with some struggles lately to run.
I had thought about setting 500 days, and that’s not bad, but it didn’t have the excitement of a year. 1,000 days sounds better, but that’s a long way away, and I’m not sure I’ll make it that far. I continued to mull it over and came up with this one:
That sounds cool. And I’m most of the way there, having run every day in the first 11 months of the year. I’m close, and it will server until I get to 500 days, but I think that will be another cool accomplishment to add to this streak.
After karate last night, the knee was really sore today. I limped around, and even limped through the first few minutes of the run. It number up and I made it through a short one.
16:00
1.44mi
I’m not sure why I watched Julia and Julie on a recent airplane trip, but I did. It’s not really the kind of movie I usually watch, but I found myself enjoying it.
What does this have to do with running? The story is of a lady whose life is a bit of a mess. She’s not happy with her job and is looking for something to give her life meaning. She enjoys cooking and Julia Child is a bit of an idol for her.
So she decides to work her way through The Joy of Cooking, the famous cookbook of Julia Child. It has about 540-some recipes in it. Her husband says she needs some type of deadline as motivation, and suggests a year. She’s a little flabbergasted, but she agrees and decides to blog about it.
As you might guess, it’s a struggle, but she perseveres, documenting her journey through cooking something every day. And along the way she discovers what I did:
It’s the act of doing something every day that gives you meaning. It sustains you, and it’s a huge accomplishment. It provides a lot of mental satisfaction and energy.
Julie goes on to a cooking show and some success (it’s based on a true story), and while my running isn’t likely to give me any material success, it’s an accomplishment that I will treasure forever.
An early morning run, this time before skiing. Again on the streets of Copper Mountain, where it was cold and the sunny weather, while pleasant, didn’t dampen the 15F temp.
14:45
1.41mi
A full day of skiing, another beer, and then a run at the health club. Kendall wanted to swim, so we headed over there. I had no headphones, the wrong shoes (mocs instead of tennies), and Kendall wanting me in the pool, so a quick one.
12:00min
1.18mi
Another outside run, this time in the streets of Copper Mountain Village after skiing. (and eating)
14:53
1.39mi
Thanksgiving. After skiing all day and then a Wendy’s Thanksgiving dinner (not turkey), I needed to run. No treadmill in the hotel so I headed out for a cold run around the streets of Frisco. It was very cold.
13:24
1.39mi
Kind of a cool milestone, 440 days.
I was a little rushed to fit this one in, but it felt great. A breeze to run through 1.3 miles.
The best thing about this running streak was that I've learned to listen to my body. I've learned to really pay attention to how I feel, and then adjust my activity as a result. I don't stop running, but I do alter things based on the way that I feel.
I didn't have a hard day skiing, but being up on the slopes and moving all day still had me tired. This was a bit of a struggle to get through this one.
I wasn't at all rushed today, a bunch of downtime between morning and evening events. So I decided to run a little longer, getting a nice long run before the evening.
I ran late today, fitting a quick one in after snowboarding and before kid stuff. I was surprised that I wasn't that tired trying to get this one done after a day of snowboarding.
I went early to karate and then pounded out a run before around the pavement. It was cold, and I had to work around the snow and ice on the sidewalks, so I went a little slower than usual. It felt good to be outside, and not be rushed to get it done.
I spent a whole week recently at a business conference in Seattle. It was colder than I expected a few days and I was busier than expected other days. As a result I ended up running early in the morning every day and on the treadmill on the top floor of the Sheraton downtown. Not a bad view, but at 6:00am, not much to see.
I thought the treadmills up there were nice, but they must be harder than mine at home, which has impact adjustment. By the time Thur hit, day 4 running, my right knee was throbbing a bit as I walked around. I felt it walking up stairs, and actually started to take elevators where I could for that reason.
When I got home, I decided to take it easy, and spent 3-4 days running less, and slower, on the treadmill here. I also added the cho-pat strap. That has seemed to help, but I'll keep an eye on it.
I felt better after a good night's sleep, and ran a touch longer, but didn't stress anything. I'm still trying to make sure the legs are healing nicely, especially after a few hard days at karate last week.
All day at scouts, chores outside, and my chest tight from something. Tonight's run was a struggle.
Felt good, but with a karate test, I took it easy. Surprised when I looked down and was 13 minutes in.
Pounding one out before karate. I tried to take it easy, but I was beat in karate, so I bet I went too fast. Felt fine while running.
Sore legs from the conference still, trying to take it easy. The left ankle and right knee throbbed a little before warming up.
The knee is still sore, and for some reason, the left ankle is also sore. That one is strange, but I get the knee from being at the conference for a week. So I'll be taking it easy for a week to try and let it heal.
A struggle to run tonight. I woke up in Seattle, couldn't run, flew home, went to the hospital, and then finally ran late at night. A struggle to get it done.
Up again early, knocking out the run before leaving the hotel. Another easy one, trying to let the knee heal.
Felt much better this morning, woke up at 6, and had a nice run on the treadmill again on the top of the Sheraton.
I was tired. My legs were tired. I struggled up to the roof of the Sheraton in Seattle, the health club, stretched for 5 minutes while I waited for a treadmill to open up and tried to take up. It was 6:20 in the morning, and after a long day traveling and hosting a party the night before, I was beat.
I got a treadmill, walked for a couple minutes, and then started to run at 6.2mph. A minute later I was ready to call it a day and maybe run later.
It was the first time I've really felt like stopping mentally. I wasn't that tired, and so I forced myself to keep going. It ended up being a good run and I felt invigorated, but this one was tough.
When I was a week away from a solid year of running, my ten year old asked me what my next goal was. He wanted to know if I had something else to shoot for after completing 365 days of running?
I told him I wasn’t sure, but I wanted to aim for 400 days. I had an event that I needed to travel to, and I’d be there for day 400. That was a good goal for me. I had also heard about someone else shooting for 1000 days, but I didn’t want to aim that high.
Now I’m past day 400, aiming for day 500, but it’s not a big goal. Right now running tends to be a day-to-day thing, just seeing if I can do it every day.
I don’t know if that’s sustainable, especially when I start to have busy days. I think that a goal of some sort, trying to get to some level of accomplishment is what really keeps you moving forward.
So I’m searching for a new goal, and in the meantime, I’ve found that this blog, my Nike + and mapmyrun.com trackers help me to keep pushing forward by looking back at what I’ve done.
Up early, getting in a run before leaving for the airport. I had a hard time sleeping, so the run woke me up. Cruised easy through this short one.
I thought we had karate, but they changed the classes for Halloween. So I'm glad I ran, but not glad I didn't go further. Everything felt fine, an easy run.
After spending a few hours out working on the snow, I came in, a quick bite to eat, and running with wet socks. Not my favorite way to run.
We're definitely snowed in for today. It's been snowing all day, and windy, and so I just jogged along, watching Star Trek on the treadmill. Everything felt great, and it was a good run today.
Snow coming down all day, the kids out of school, I had the feeling no karate would be taking place. So I went a little longer than otherwise, cruising easily through the jog. My neck hurt a little, but not too bad.
I have three tracking tools for running:
Of these, I think this blog, and mapmyrun.com are the authorities of what I’ve done. I still need to get a few runs marked at mapmyrun, but for the most part that tracks what I’ve done. Especially since the Nike+ has proven unreliable at times.
I’ve had sensors break, and I’ve forgotten my iPod, so I can’t count on Nike +, at least not until I can manually enter runs in there. I do like the service, and I like the tracking on the device, but it needs to improve.
I sync my data over from Nike+ to mapmyrun.com every week or so. That reduces the amount of time I spend entering data. However I like this blog since I can note when things feel good or bad, and I have a separate service that lets me track things. It doesn’t total up distances or times, but it helps to keep me focused on paying attention to my progress.
I’d recommend any of these services, just be aware of the Nike + limitations if you use them.
With snow outside, and a cold day, I took the opportunity to have a nice, steady run on the treadmill. Went 2 miles, and then lifted. A good exercise day.
Another day, another run. Up early, my eyes hurt, after getting back from Scouts, I just jogged it out.
The body felt beat up today. Not much happening tonight, but I still took it easy. The pace was steady, and I even increased speed, but I didn't strain at all. Guess I'm getting in better shape.
I did a karate class this morning, and then tried to run before heading home. I went along my short karate route, and it was a struggle. The ankle was slightly sore, but more it was just a struggle to find the energy to run. Glad I had some coffee and a bar before the class.
I slipped a treadmill run in. It's nice outside, but the neck is sore, so I didn't want to strain anything.
Nike+ has been improving their service, including adding some things like the ability to delete runs, etc. One thing I noticed recently is that I could include my profile on my own web site, so here it is:
After a pounding outside in the cold in Denver, I flew to Austin, was up until midnight, then up at 6:45am CST for another pouding run on sidewalks. I was at a hotel without a treadmill, and didn't have much choice with a busy workday.
My knee was a little sore, as was the ankle, but I took it slow. It had rained the night before, was warm, and very, very humid, so it felt good and after 10 minutes, the legs loosened up and felt OK.
A rushed run in the am before karate. I went a little longer, around an extra block. I hadn't eaten, but the run felt good.
A nice, steady, long run. We had talked about going to the high school track to run with the karate group, but it was so cold I decided not to go this week.
I ate a big lunch, had karate class before it, and wasn't feeling up for running, but we're going over to a friend's tonight and I needed to get it done.
A quick one before karate, out in the rain and snow mix. It felt good, and I had a quick one. A mile in under 9 minutes.
My neck hurt today, so I took it easy. I alternately struggled to run and felt good as I got through it, but I cut it short to not push too hard.
I went slow, but a little longer today. Things are sore, but I felt OK, so I kept going after thinking I might stop at 14:00.
A short one, but a little faster, and it felt good. My knee is a little sore from tiling the bathroom, but overall it doesn't feel that bad when I run. Glad I did it early, though.
A nice, easy jog around Parker before karate. It was cold outside, so I had on a sweatshirt and hat with shorts. Not too windy, but a brisk fall day. My ankles were slighly sore, so I just had a slow, steady pace around a few blocks.
I didn't run at lunch, and waited too long this afternoon. I had to hurry one before picking up the kids. However everything felt fine at the hurried pace, no pain, no soreness.
What happens? My wife asked me recently how I'd feel when I stop running? I wasn't sure how to answer it. I'd like to say "no big deal" especially as I've gone a full year, but it's hard to answer. I love running, and I think I'd just start again, but will it mean the same thing? Not sure.
She said I could be crushed, or ignore it, but she thought I'd probably feel bad, but shake if off quickly.
I know it will end someday, so I can't worry about it. When I hit about 200 days, I started to worry that if I didn't make a year, I'd be disappointed, but that didn't happen, so I don't think it will be a huge deal if I stop someday.
A nice run on the treadmill. My knees were slightly sore when I got up, and it was windy, so I didn't go outside. I'll probably regret this a little in the winter, but for now I was happy to be inside.
Another day I almost forgot. Did things with the kids during the day and then we had plans to go out. I remembered just in time to go down and knock out a short one.
