Over the years, I’ve met several runners who run every day. They have a minimum distance that they run every day, with no exceptions. Some are challenging themselves to do this for a year. Others have been doing it for decades.
I’ve never been
one to run every day. I’m more than willing
to take rest day, when it suits my purposes.
I’m more apt to pay attention to my weekly or monthly mileage, and I’ve sometimes
had long streaks of consecutive weeks or months that I’ve consistently hit a
minimum mileage goal.
In 2019 and 2020,
I had a good mileage base. Then a knee
injury forced me to take an extended break from running. I pivoted to race-walking until I could run
again.
I recovered from
the knee injury, but then I started having lower back issues. At one point, I was trying to recover from
sciatica, a high hamstring injury, and an RSV infection, all at the same
time. I just couldn’t do much training.
I eventually
recovered from those things, but it took a long time to rebuild my mileage
base. I’ve learned from experience that
you have to build gradually.
By July of 2023, I
had built my weekly mileage to a minimum of 50 miles a week. At some point, I realized, I had run more
consecutive 50-miles weeks than ever before.
Now, I was motivated to keep that streak going.
The most difficult
weeks were ones when I was traveling to other countries and didn’t have much
time for daily runs. I usually train at
an easy pace, and a lot of my training runs are 10 or 11 miles. It’s easy to find time for that when I’m at
home. It’s much tougher when I have a
full sightseeing itinerary. There have
been weeks when I ran 50 miles in the first three days, because I didn’t know
if I would find time later in the week.
Until recently, I
had enjoyed more than two years of good health.
I didn’t have any injuries or illnesses, and I wasn’t having any lower
back issues. Last week was my 102nd
consecutive 50-mile week.
This week wasn’t
looking so good. At the beginning of the
week, even standing for more than a few minutes was uncomfortable. I struggled to stand up straight. When I tried to run, I not only had pain in
my lower back, but also in my right leg.
I didn’t run at
all Sunday or Monday. By Tuesday, I was noticing
some improvement, so I tried a short run.
I only ran a mile. On the plus
side, I ran the whole way. When I tried
to run last Saturday, I struggled to keep going for a mile, and I had to walk
at least half of it.
I was feeling a
little better on Wednesday, so I decided to see if I could run farther. I altered my gait to soften my impact as much
as possible. I went at a slow pace, I
shortened my stride, and I tried to stay as close to the ground as possible. With these adjustments, I managed to run
seven miles. I still had discomfort in
my lower back, but I wasn’t making it worse.
Physically, that
run was uncomfortable, but emotionally, it felt fantastic. It was the first time in a week that I managed
to run for more than a mile.
That run made me
think of Karen Queally. Karen is a
cancer survivor. She’s also someone who
runs every day.
Fifteen years ago,
I attended a reunion of the 50 States Marathon Club. Karen was the guest speaker. She told us about her running streak, and how
she kept running every day while undergoing cancer treatment. She had at least two major surgeries, and
each time, she still got out and ran the next day.
Karen explained that
her daily runs were important for her emotional well-being. It was something she could control when she
couldn’t control anything else. I could relate
to that.
I’ve never faced
anything as serious as cancer, but my lower back issues made me feel like I was
losing control. My run on Wednesday felt
so great, because I felt like I was regaining control over an important part of
my life.
Earlier in the
week, I had all but given up on my mileage streak. After my run on Wednesday, I wondered if it
was still possible to run 50 miles this week.
I only had three days left, and I still needed 42 miles. That’s an average of 14 miles a day.
I knew how my back
felt during a seven-mile run. I didn’t
know how it would feel if I ran 14 miles.
I wasn’t optimistic that I could do it three days in a row. Then I wondered if I could get there by breaking
it up into two runs per day.
Thursday morning,
I ran seven miles. As I was finishing my
run, I felt like I could go a few miles farther, but I stopped while I still had
some gas in the tank. Later in the day,
I went back out and ran another seven miles.
My afternoon run didn’t feel any more difficult than my morning run.
I did the same thing
on Friday, but I had a schedule constraint.
I had plans in the evening, so I had to get an earlier start on my
afternoon run. The heat index was
104. I drank as much as I could, and I
monitored my heart rate. That run was
more tiring, but I got through it.
This morning, I
had a different schedule constraint. It
had been three days since I last did my strength training. I have a set of leg and core exercises that I
do three times a week. I had already put
off this workout by a day, and I didn’t want to put it off for another day.
I ran seven miles
in the morning. After lunch, I did my
strength training workout, which takes about an hour. Ordinarily, I would’ve waited a few hours
before running again, but I didn’t feel like I had that luxury. There were thunderstorms in the forecast for
later in the day, and I wanted to get done running before they arrived.
I started my
afternoon run almost immediately after my strength training workout. I expected to have heavy legs, but I didn’t. I felt great.
OK, I still had some minor soreness in my lower back, but it was the
best I felt all week. That may have been
psychological. I was excited, because I
knew this run would get me to 50 miles for the week.
I kept my streak
going. This was my 103rd consecutive
50-mile week. Next week should be
easier, because I won’t be getting off to a slow start. Then my streak will be two full years, and I
can start on a third year.
In the grand scheme
of things, this streak might not seem that important. If I didn’t run 50 miles this week, I could
still get back on track next week.
Having one low mileage week wouldn’t have a long-term effect on my
fitness. What I would lose is my
motivation.
Every time I keep
this streak going, it gives me more motivation to get past whatever hurdles I
might face some other week.
I don’t generally
get that excited about my day-to-day training runs. I get much more excited about races, and I
need to do the training to be ready for the races. I need to find ways to keep myself motivated,
so I’ll stay consistent. A mileage
streak is one way to do that.
