My Christmas Run Streak

My Christmas Run streak - a slightly late post

50 km Christmas weekly total

So over the Christmas break I had a go at a (mini) run streak.

I have mixed opinions of runstreaks as I still feel like a relative newbie runner, and I think it’s a no go area for new runners because of the risk of injury.  However last year I read a great article in RW about someone that did one for a month, and the results were very positive.  Pre-Christmas, I was really struggling with running motivation and confidence (seems to be a recurring theme for me) so thought this might be a good experiment.  I decided that I would do a longer run (my normal run) one day followed by a short 3-5km the next day.  I also decided that if I experienced any aches or pains from overdoing it I would not continue the experiment. Below are my reasons for the attempt and my findings:

Consistency

In the RW interview she said it was really good for discipline, she got out there every day rain, snow or shine, and now she felt she had no excuse if the weather was a bit naff. I’m very good at giving in to the lure of a nice warm house (especially in winter).  Christmas week the weather was exceptionally lovely, albeit exceptionally cold but each day I got out there, I discovered (although I should already know this) it’s the putting the foot out the door that’s always the hardest, within 10 minutes I was no longer cold, everything was fine. In fact I actually really enjoyed having the excuse to run every day.  Normally I’m very strict with my only run every other day routine, that the days that I don’t run I sometimes really feel like running then feel deprived when I don’t.  In future if I feel like running I will.

Confidence

I really suffer with confidence in running, and get really nervous before a run, it’s so dumb.  Partly it’s because I run every other day, and my thinking is ‘what if today is a bad run day, then I’ll feel like crap, and have wasted a run day and have to wait another two days for another opportunity’  there was none of that with running everyday.  Everyday was an opportunity for a good run.  In fact I didn’t have one ‘bad run’  - except the day I got lost in the fog, and got really stressed and annoyed with myself for my complete loss of sense of direction.

It did build my confidence and I started to stress less pre-run.

Mind games

Linked with confidence, I decided to think positively on every single run in an attempt to battle the mental side of running, pre runs I psyched myself up with positive thoughts and intentions for the run.  And kept the positive thoughts and words  going though my mind during the run, it must have worked. I was fine and no bad runs!

Fitness

This is a massive one, because I had signed up to a new year 10km, and prior to Christmas, partying had over taken running, and I really wasn’t feeling ready for a 10km.  I do a lot of hiking, and I remember once I did a 3 day long hilly hike (I hate hills with a passion, running or walking), by day two the hills had started to get easier, and by day three were much easier, just in three days!  So I thought maybe just maybe I could improve my fitness in just one week. Turns out I did, running certainly got easier and easier and the only problem I had with my new year’s day 10k was the result of too much Prosecco the night before.

The other thing I noticed, was that I experienced less pain running every day. Normally my shins ache the first 20-30 mins of any run, however I didn’t experience any of that during my run streak, and (as I have experienced on odd occasions) when I run of consecutive days my runs the second day are actually much better!

Conclusions

I definitely enjoyed my mini runstreak, and would have no problem continuing if time permitted. Whilst I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone (risk of injury and all that) I guess we all know our own bodies and our own capacities.  And the experiment definitely increased my confidence and  motivation and put me back in the ‘Zone’ and giving me back a ‘Can do’ mind set.  Perfect timing as marathon training starts soon. 

January Update

Because of the practicalities of a busy life, I'm not afraid to run on consecutive days anymore (as a result of the above) and weirdly my running seems to be vastly improved from one day to the next if I run on consecutive days.  I've also loved going out when I feel like going out rather than thinking, I want to go run but I can't because I ran yesterday.

All in all, a successful experiment (but I still dont' recommend it :))