Setting Out Streaking

[fitfool]

Thanks to cmmunchkin and chipleduff, I've decided to try streaking. Before you book flights to come visit and post videos to YouTube, I'm talking about something more G-rated. The United States Running Streak Association (www.runeveryday.com) has collected the names of compulsive runners who run every day. At least one mile. Every day. No excuses about "I stayed up late finishing a paper" or "I have an early meeting at work" or "But I have a sore throat!" I think cmmunchkin is on day 150 and chipleduff has hit 97 days of running in a row. An unbroken string of days where they each managed to squeeze at least one mile into their busy days. I had heard of this several years ago and while the idea appealed to me, I kind of shrugged it off as something people who were crazily dedicated to running did. But when I heard those two LiveJournal friends were streaking, it suddenly seemed a lot more possible. I mean...these are two Real People (or at least I assume so...they could be imaginary friends for all I know).

So yesterday, after noticing that even trying to wash and brush my hair was painful, I decided that I wouldn't try to go to the gym to lift weights. Instead, I ran Day 1. Later I learned it was National Running Day. I liked the coincidence. And today I got up insanely early to run day 2 of my fledgling streak. My 8am meeting was then postponed by 2 hours so really I could have slept in a little more but at least I got my run out of the way. I still find running a conscious effort. But I also still feel tremendous pride in myself after I finish.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I can't really run a mile at all :(

I look forward to future update posts! go you!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Would you like to get up to running a mile? When I first started, I could only run a block or two before I had to walk again. So my early runs were run a block, walk a block, run a block, walk a block. It's possible to build up to it. :)

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I tried couch-to-5k twice and got disabling shin splints or something both times before I really got any better at it (I ran a mile, continuously, once and only once). I've tried to run off and on since high school, and never got that progress other people talk about, it always stayed really hard no matter what I did. I have concluded that I am just not made to run, which is a shame, but meh,I work out to make my life better overall, and this wasn't it. I walk a lot, I do jogging or running intervals to punch it up, and I've stopped trying to run continuously.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Oh ouch. I used to get bad shin splints in high school, even just running a single lap. I finally figured out to run much slower and stretch stretch stretch while I built up enough running muscles to handle the stresses of running. That worked for me but might not for you. Still, it sounds like you get your cardio in with other exercises instead.

In other news, did you know Oasis has a $10 all-you-can-eat buffet on weekenights? Yummy!

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

is Oasis the place on Medford's Main Street at the corner of Harvard Ave? I had a good meal there once, even though I don't eat mammals/birds, although the meat smells very good. If you ever think of going and want company, let me know, I'm like two blocks away.

[openmindedmale.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, that walk-run method is supposedly better for running everything long-distance up to and including marathons. Or see this: (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/health/02well.html?em)

If I ever decided to start running, I'd use that method.. that, and perhaps use one of those really thin shoes I've talked about.

I've always been more of a sprinter than distance runner, when I've felt like running at all.

"Streaking", heh! ;)

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

I had definitely needed to do that walk-run method when I started running. And when doing training for a marathon, doing 20-mile long runs, I would also allow myself to walk while I drank water and munched on sugar (2-3 minute break after every 5 miles). However, a lot of the reason I run is to prove to myself that I can. And so running continuously is something I'm going to aim for as long as my joints hold up.

What are the really thin shoes you've talked about?

[openmindedmale.livejournal.com]

What are the really thin shoes you've talked about

Here's a couple articles to check out about that:
http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1170253/The-painful-truth-trainers-Are-expensive-running-shoes-waste-money.html

[evelynne.livejournal.com]

Hah, this is almost a year after you posted it, but I wanted to say thanks for this link. I'd been reading about the Pose method and Chi running and trying to run without a heel strike, but I never understood it until I took the suggestion in "Painful Truth #3" in that article to kick off my shoes and run down the driveway. I GET IT NOW.

So now I've been looking at the Vibram Five Fingers and Vivo Barefoot for running shoes instead of something padded. I'm very patient (i.e. lazy) about making athletic progress, so I'm OK with taking longer to train my muscles. We'll see. :)

[openmindedmale.livejournal.com]

You're welcome :)

There's some blogs and such about it too, now... lots of good stuff to read if you want to :)

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

And thanks for the link to that article. I had heard of Galloway before but I hadn't thought of it again in a long while. I'll be following their blog about various training strategies.

[alchemi.livejournal.com]

Real people can be insane too. Sometimes even in a good way.

Congratulations on joining their ranks!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

good point. It's nice to let the craziness out a bit.

[webmd.livejournal.com]

I respect that a lot. Not sure I could stick with it, but I appreciate the idea of making yourself run at least a mile a day.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of keeping a streak going. We'll see how it goes. I like that it's an attainable goal. And then even if the rest of the day sucks, at least I'll have gotten another mile in.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[smileyali.livejournal.com]

How do they manage it. I keep stalling myself with one excuse and another and haven't yet got out of the front door with trainers on!

[cmmunchkin.livejournal.com]

Ha! The first week was the hardest. After that, I kept reminding myself that if I skipped a day, I'd have to start over... and that definitely didn't seem appealing. Now that I'm in the 100's, I definitely am scared to miss a day.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Hello! I think the hardest part is getting started. I've done 8 days now and I haven't run today's mile yet. But I'm a little antsy and thinking I really need to run that mile because I don't want to reset the counter to zero!

[cmmunchkin.livejournal.com]

Go you! I'm definitely relatively real. 20-something overweight school teacher who started running in October of 2007 having to run a minute, walk a minute. I ran through June of 2008 and quit until I started my streak in January of this year... so by no means am I a rock star runner. Sometimes it's 13 minute miles, but a mile is a mile. For me it really works, because if I don't have to run *every* day, then it is extremely easy for me to legitimize skipping days.

A couple of times early in the streak, I was dragging myself to the treadmill at 11:30 PM to run my mile. Now, I always get up before work to run it. I'm so exhausted by the time I get off work that I have no desire to run. I have to do my run in the morning.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Thanks again for getting me to try this. I don't know how long the streak will last but I'm glad to be trying.

[happinesstogo]

I think I'm going to try this. I completed the "Couch-to-5K" a few weeks ago, so now I'm at the point where going out to run 30 minutes three times a week is kind of boring. If I shake it up a little to run at least a mile every day, that might be a nice challenge. I did my first day today, running just over a mile and then walking for a while afterwards. Thanks for posting about this!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Oh that's great! I agree...I like that it's versatile enough to fit into any other running training program since the basic rule is to run at least a mile a day. So if I run a longer distance, that's just bonus. I'm still working my way back up to a 5K distance. I've gotten as far as 2.5 miles. I think I could do longer if I carved out enough time and ran slowly enough :)

[cookie-chef.livejournal.com]

I think this is wonderful. How is it going? Are you continuing to run daily?