To end another personally accomplishing year as a runner, I wanted to finish out 2011 with a race or goal that would keep me motivated to run over the holidays. I considered a 5k here or a 10k there, maybe a New Year's Day event somewhere but really nothing caught my eye. Than I came across a challenge of sorts from Runner's World magazine via their twitter page. The challenge was to run at least one mile per day from Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Day - a holiday run streak that is. 39 days straight of running at least a mile, every day. While still considering the idea, my friend Tim - the beer runner in Wisconsin with Draft Magazine, a man known for his own run streak posed a twist on the challenge suggesting running at least a mile and drinking a beer every day. I've followed Tim's own run streak over the past 15 months or so that he started on his 29th birthday and has continued on past his 30th birthday. I've got a few years on Tim but I figured what the hay, I'll take on the challenge from both @runnersworld and @draftmag's @thebeerrunner and see where it takes me.
Having run 3 out of the past 5 days (including the beer mile on Saturday) before Thanksgiving, I went into the start of my streak plenty warmed up. My biggest concern was getting sick from running outside in the cold or inflaming one of my knees. My expectation is that I would be running on the treadmill a lot and most of my runs would be 1 to 1.5 miles per day. Generally, I take December and January off from running because of the holidays and that is when its cold, gets dark early here in NC. By February, I feel guilty and fat and start working to recover for the spring season.
Michelle, her parents and I were headed to the coast to visit my family for Thanksgiving Day so I had to get my run done early or it wasn't going to happen. I started the streak with a 4.3 mile run from home out and around my part of town. The runs came quickly over the coming days and I quickly learned ways to fit them in my schedule making adjustments on other things in my life to accommodate the need to run. On Day 4, I even made it out to North Raleigh to a new, flat section of greenway along the Neuse River for a fast 5.1 mile run. My pace was fairly close to my race pace from several 5 mile races I ran earlier in the year. I felt good that the streak was possible as I completed the first week. Over the first 7 days, I averaged 2.85 miles per day with every run outside. In addition tracking my mileage via GPS on RunKeeper and LogYourRun, I also reactivated my Daily Mile account and recorded my mileage there. Daily Mile is a social tool for sharing and motivating with other runner friends virtually while recording mileage and viewing your progress.
Moving into December, I maintained my schedule with relative ease. I had to run indoors on the treadmill once due to a cold snap one evening but overall, I was feeling good, logging my miles and enjoying tasty beers daily. Within two weeks of running daily, I had lost about 4-5 pounds and hadn't changed my diet at all. I was lighter than my summertime marathon training weight. On December 15, which was three weeks in, the weather in North Carolina was simply amazing. We had springlike temps in the low 70's so I couldn't resist the urge to run twice outside that day snagging two 3 mile runs before dark. Looking back, I never ran less than two miles a day from December 13 on. I was simply amazed how easy the run streak was going for me and how great I felt most days. Even on a day following a little too much partying, I quickly recovered knowing I had a run to get done.
Along with recording my miles, I was using twitter and to a lesser extent facebook, to interact with other holiday run streakers. At the suggestion of Runner's World and Tim, I tweeted my daily results with the hashtags #RWrunstreak and #BRrunstreak. I also followed others on their reports which was added motivation. The best thing was I didn't feel sniffly or come down with cold symptoms as the days wore on. In the past, running in the cool air has gotten me sick with lung infections (I was actually told by my Dr not to run in the cold) but as the December days counted down, I didn't have a problem. Another benefit to my daily runs is that I was motivated to go out weekly and run with the Big Boss Run Club at their winter location on Tuesday nights, starting and finishing at Bottle Revolution, a local bottle shop. Always a great group of enthusiastic runners and beer runners, it was nice to join them each Tuesday over the holidays.
As Christmas approached, I reviewed my results and set a few more goals to keep me pushing through the run streak finish line. I decided to try and make December my biggest mileage month of the year, to run at least 100 miles over my 39 day streak and to run at least 700 miles total for the year. Thanks to my LogYourRun log, I could easily calculate all of these. Christmas eve was a 5 miler, Christmas Day - a 2 miler, New Year's Eve - a 4.1 miler with the NC Roadrunner's Club, New Year's Day, a 3.3 miler and to make it 40 days, I ran January 2 to complete my 40 day run streak!
In the end, I met all my goals including making December my biggest mileage month of 2011 and making 2011 my biggest mileage year ever. I ran over 715 miles for the year without even training for a full marathon. I averaged 2.9 miles per day for the streak and probably tasted about that many beers per day as well. Best of all, I avoided holiday weight gain for the first time in many years and built a nice base for the running season as 2012 approaches.
In the end, I met all my goals including making December my biggest mileage month of 2011 and making 2011 my biggest mileage year ever. I ran over 715 miles for the year without even training for a full marathon. I averaged 2.9 miles per day for the streak and probably tasted about that many beers per day as well. Best of all, I avoided holiday weight gain for the first time in many years and built a nice base for the running season as 2012 approaches.
I enjoyed many a fine brew over the holidays of 2011 including a slew of them at our 2nd annual Holiday Bottle party. Thanks to my Untappd
account, I also shared my beers consumed with friends and checked out
what they were sipping along the way. Due to some fine friends and fine beer retailers, there was no shortage of fermented offerings in the fridge to celebrate each day's run.
With the run streak complete, I'm still running into January, just not everyday. I managed a 7.1 miler this past weekend and plan to register to run a half marathon in less than 6 weeks. Cheers and Carpe Viam!!