100 days

I was going to post either a geeky statistical breakdown or something sappy and inspirational, but I'm already on day 102 and haven't gotten there yet, so here it is.  100 days of streaking, 603 miles, Woo Hoo!  Congrats to Ean on her 100 days yesterday and Mindy on hers come Monday.  Oh yeah, this is all Ean's fault.  Thanks!

The Ultimate Question

Today was day 42 of my streak.  Naturally I assumed when I went out for my run this afternoon I would return knowing the the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.  Well, not the answer, everybody knows that, what I hoped to learn was what was the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.  Things went well.  It was a lovely afternoon today, clear, calm, and about 4°F when I headed out with a co-worker, a fellow streaker.  We headed out for the "Feather Ridge 2.5" mile route, decided to veer off on the "pi" route, a 3.14 mile route, and then again took another turn to run the "Bernice 4" route (now known as the "6 X 9" route).  Running a bit faster than normal in the chill air the small talk slowly gave way to a wonderful transcendence I didn't want to end.  Unfortunately time didn't permit another detour and we returned to the plant site and back to our normal plane of existence. We were stronger, a little colder, and wiser.  I'd tell you what we discovered, what the question is, but then you would have no reason to start you own streak, would you?  

Long Live The Streak

Habit?

So it takes 21 days to create a habit? Yesterday was day 21 of streaking for me. Streaking would be a new habit I suppose, but running is not a new habit. I don't yet feel I've taken on anything new, more just re-dedicated myself to running the way I want to. I look forward to the remaining 47 days of the year (and beyond?) to see if my perspective on this might change.

Streaking

  I'm streaking.  A little earlier I went for a run for the 18th straight day. I have never thought of streaking before, I always thought it was not for me.  The spark of doing so just happened at the perfect moment, and here I am.  One could make a convincing argument that I am incapable of saying No to things suggested by my crazy running friends (it's true, but at least it's reciprocal), but this goes beyond that.  I'm not doing this as a stunt, or just because I can, but because it is what I need to do.

  Two weeks ago on a social run with the Fort Collins Trail Runners there was a buzz regarding a running streak planned by Ean.  During the run that night I thought about it, at first I had no intention of joining her, but as I continued to run and think I realized it was exactly the thing I needed to snap me out of the running funk I was in.  After that run I read Ean's post about it, read about Ashley's recent streaking, and thought about some things Pete has said about why he streaks.   It didn't take long and I was all in.  I knew this was the way back to the running they way I wanted to.  It's funny how things can click together so quickly, in a couple hours or less I went from not even thinking about a streak to being fully committed.

  I've typically cut back on mileage in August and September, I just get tired of running in the heat.  This year the mileage cutbacks and some weight I've put on left me losing fitness faster than normal.  That led to slower paces out running, slower times up Towers, and that all led to me feeling sorry for myself.  Throw in some kinks in the my normal running schedule and before I knew it I was as slow as I can remember being in a long time and not running much at all.  It's not that running wasn't fun, but thinking about running wasn't fun, and I blew off more than one Sunday run so as not to have to face the facts on how much I had lost.  It's a downward spiral I tell you.  I needed to get my running Mojo back.

  So I decided to start a running streak.  I started the next day, Friday.  Or maybe the Tuesday before, as I'd already run 3 days in a row.  I've been counting the extra 3 days because I'm not (always) a purist.  I wanted to keep things simple and accessible, not set the bar too high.  I was afraid I'd end up saying "fuck it" someday, and then throw away a 30 day streak and end up back on that downward spiral.  The single parameter of my streak is simple, run at least 1 mile every day.  I plan on an average of  at least 4.1 miles a day as that is where I need to be to hit my 2011 total mileage goal but that is really secondary.  I also plan on taking Pete's advice and am not making the streak about training.  I'll celebrate a 65/68 day streak by running the Resolution Run 5K on the evening of December 31st, hopefully with some fellow streakers, and sometime between now and then contemplate what 2012 will bring.

  As I said up top, I'm sitting at 18 days.  I've definitely found some of the same things Pete mentioned, mostly that it takes some planning and discipline to get a run in every day.  I have run at night a couple times because I just didn't make time during the day but have yet to really put it off.  This has been a good thing though, and I find I focus more on everything, not just running.  I've also got a few recruits at work on the streaking bandwagon.  After mentioning it to a couple of my running buddies at work they got on board too and the word spread around.  As of Wednesday this week there were 7 or 8 who had some sort of streak going.  I don't know if they will all keep going until the New Year, but it's still kind of cool to see them get excited about running.

  Long live the streak!

When life gives you lemons

Or 

Sometimes it's nice to find the lucky horseshoe up your own butt

So this afternoon I was kicking myself for not getting my streak run in earlier in the day.  (Yeah I said streak run -- my long, rambling, and potentially profound post on this hasn't been published yet -- because it's not done)  Anyway, I didn't run before work even though I knew it was unlikely I'd find time during work with a long staff meeting this morning.  I knew this was going to push the run off until after Sandis' soccer practice unless I convinced Stella to go along, which was unlikely with a cold front coming in.  I realized this meant I was going to be running right about when the rain was forecast to start -- should have looked closer at the weather forecast for today .  I figured this would be a lesson in the planning that goes into a successful running streak.


And then it started snowing.  The run I thought was going to be in the rain turned into a fun run in the snow.  Big fat beautiful snowflakes.  Lemons -> Lemonade.  Awesome.  I'll let you know in a few weeks if I learned that lesson.  I like to think so but ...


Streaking, this was day 5 of purposeful streaking, 8th day in a row going for a run.  Someday I'll get that other post done but for now I'll just thank my friend Ean for the inspiration.