Thoughts on a 100 Day Runstreak

I've heard it time and time again:  rest days are important.  You can't run every day because your body needs to recover.  Running every day is a recipe for injury.  Respect the rest day.

But then I read about the runstreakers - the men and women who run every single day, rain or shine, sometimes for years.  Sometimes for decades.  I read a few articles with mild interest but didn't think much more about it.  While there are plenty of article extolling the virtues of the rest day, I reasoned that running just a mile each day probably isn't going to be harmful to someone who isn't injury prone and who is used to running distances.  But it wasn't something I had considered for myself.  I like my rest days.

Then on June 1, 2015, my Crossfit box posted a message with its workout of the day challenging us all to run one mile each day for a full week.  Since running is my thing, I considered doing a run streak of my own: something more than a week, but less than forever.  So I challenged myself to run every day in the month of June.  The rules:  one mile.  It can be slow.  It can be outside or on a treadmill.  But it has to be at least a mile.  I declared my intention on Strava, thereby making it officially official so I couldn't back out.

It wasn't easy.  My first half marathon of the year was in mid-June and I was worried about not taking a few days off of running beforehand.  That fear was unfounded, and I PRd my race.  Then I got a bad cough and chest cold and wondered how anyone could run through feeling sick.  I lamented about it on Facebook and some runstreak friends told me to get out there and do my mile.  I did, and strangely enough, I felt better.  Before I knew it, June was done and I had ran all 30 days.

Then July ticked by and then August.  I ran at least a mile each day, usually more.  And I became a stronger runner.  Sure, there were days when my calves just felt tired.  Never painful, never injured, but tired.  Those would have been cause for a rest day in my pre-streak times, but the runstreak version of myself just ran an easy mile on those days.  There were days that weather and scheduling made a run difficult, but with some finagling I always managed to find ten minutes to eke out a mile, even if it was a treadmill mile.  Most days, I felt good.  I put up decent mileage each week, and even in the heat of summer my "easy" pace got quicker.  Whereas last year I struggled to put up a single ten minute mile, this year 9:30 became a comfortable pace for a reasonable number of miles.

Robot Capris from InkNBurn.  I seriously love them.

I never intended to have my run streak last 100 days.  It lasted through races, through speedwork, through tough Crossfit days where two-a-day workouts were the only way for me to get my run in.  It lasted through illness and bad weather.   And now, on Day 100 - a milestone far greater than I ever intended to see - I don't see a reason to stop.

Ah yes, a self-indulgent photo montage.  I'm celebrating, okay?  

I find that I have less excuses not to run.  Before my run streak, a little ache or a bit of laziness led me to declare a rest day when rest probably wasn't needed.  Now I just go do it because it is what I do.  No excuses, no laziness, no looking for a reason not to run:  I just go do it.

I can't imagine I'll be a lifetime runstreaker - bronchitis or something awful in my respiratory system usually gets the best of me at some point and I'm not sure I'll be able to run through that.  But until then I'll keep on going, grateful for each day.  Maybe on to 200.