With just one day left until I’ve achieved my goal of running every day in April, I thought I would find myself desperately searching for the next challenge to motivate myself. Instead, the path ahead feels like an obvious one – to continue with exactly what I have been doing this month.
When it comes to challenges and goals, I’ve found its best not to force them. The challenges which I’m most likely to follow are the ones which excite me. If I just created a challenge for the sake of it, the odds of me giving my all and sticking with it is vastly reduced. So, until either the situation changes or something comes along which really excites me, I’ll just see how long I can maintain this daily run streak for.
Previously I’d always been sceptical of run streaks. Surely you’d progress faster if you gave yourself at least one day off each week for recovery? And indeed, that might be the case. However, I’m struggling to think of a month when I’ve made as much progress since the first few months after I started running regularly in Summer 2014. I’ve smashed my record monthly mileage, and really felt the benefit of that during last Friday’s run. It was the first time for a long time that I felt fit enough to truly enjoy a relatively long run without having to worry about aches and pain before, during or after the run. Often it feels like if I want to build endurance I have to sacrifice speed, but in fact the opposite is true at the moment. I’ve knocked huge chunks of time off my 5k and 12k efforts, and it seems like every interval session delivers segment PB’s on Strava too.
As pleasing as it has been to see and feel this progress, I think I would be continuing with the run streak even without seeing any progress. Right now, the lifestyle benefits it is delivering is more important. I’ve been working from home for more than a month now, and recently watched a guide about working from home. In the guide, one of the key pieces of advice was about making the transition from work to home, or ‘switching off’. Normally that would be my commute home, but without that option, I’ve needed a different activity to help make that transition, and running has been perfect.
When you’ve spent a day starring at a screen, the last thing you want is more screen time, so it is an ideal time to get outside, enjoy some fresh air and some natural light. I can mull over anything from the day which may have been troubling me (I often find that I do my best thinking when I’m running), and normally by the time I get home from my run, I’m ready to not think about work again until my next shift. All of this has helped me find a new routine which is working for me, so as long as I stay injury free, I have every intention of continuing the run streak until the restrictions in the UK are eased at the earliest.