This month I finished my year of "running" every single day. I wasn't keeping very good records at the very beginning, but I picked a day (19 Jul 2017) after which I was sure of my streak, and then ran all the way until and including that day plus one (20 Jul 2018) to make sure it was definitely a full year. Then the next day I specifically didn't run, in order to make sure I wouldn't trap myself into continuing the streak longer. You gotta be careful.
I mentioned these before, but since I'm declaring victory, I will repeat the rules/caveats: Most days I went outside and put the feet to the pavement. But, especially during bad weather, I often did treadmill runs or the elliptical machine. I'm pretty sure all of the outdoor runs were at least a mile, but the median trip was likely 5k. I routinely pushed myself when I was running. My mantra was "do something hard." In January and February my herniated disc started acting up really bad. I did physical therapy for 6 weeks and considered surgery. I tried running when I could, but I had to switch to the exercise bike on many days. I didn't skip any days. I ran on every calendar date in the local (to me) timezone. The episode had to start before midnight. Due to several trips I think there may have been no single time zone where I ran on every date. I didn't cross any time zone boundaries while running so we don't have to consider any of those corner cases, but I did run in three countries in a single trip. :)
Some observations: It was hardest to keep this up when traveling. I love going for a few long runs when I'm not home, since it's a great way to explore and helps with jet lag. But doing it every day is logistically hard, mostly because it produces so much disgusting sweaty laundry. The very hardest times to run were when I was injured (neck), or for the few days after a marathon, or when I was in California during their wildfires last year (Air Quality Index "hazardous"). On the other hand: Not that I think running every day is the idealschedule or even good for you, but, I didn't really see any obvious physical issues from doing it every day with no breaks. I lost 10 pounds right away (first month), but then plateaued there for the rest of the year. I wasn't really being careful about what I ate, so I was probably just compensating for the extra activity with more food and beer. It works well for me to have some kind of rule ("run every day"), more so than trying to just "run a lot." There were lots of days where I knew I would have just played video games or gone straight out after work if not for my project. (I found this to be true when I became strictly pescetarian: Giving meat up completely was actually easier than simply trying hard to reduce my meat consumption.) On the other hand, I don't think I could sustain it indefinitely. I'm currently thinking of ways I might have more sustainable rules.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
"Ran" every day for a year
I was not disciplined about always recording metadata about the activities. I usually wore my GPS watch when I went outside, but not always when I was on the treadmill (what's the point?) so I unfortunately don't have any good "grand total" numbers. Just the running activities where I had my watch totaled 1250 miles. I did take first place on all of the segments (on Garmin; Strava is a lot more competitive) that I ran regularly, like the famously steep Negley Hill.
I actually finished up while visiting Hawaii for a wedding and vacation. One of the very last trips I did was on the North shore of Oahu, where I ran to some of the places where the show LOST was filmed. After that, I think I lightly broke my toe trying to learn how to do a headstand, and then messed up my hip hiking (?) (or something?). I've been doing a little bit of running since, but it is nice to be able to take a break while I'm injured so that I don't make it worse.
Not much else has happened, especially due to travel. I enjoyed Blocks That Matter and Yoku's Island Express, which I played this month. As usual I've got a few projects in the works; I'm almost ready to do another Learnfun/Playfun video as soon as a I finish two pieces that I know how to do, but that will take some concentration. | 