They say the key to success is consistency. That it’s better to slowly grind away at a goal rather than progressing in fits and starts. Personally, it’s much easier to keep up with something if I have a set schedule rather than one that is periodic or random. My strength training goal for the year has been abandoned for all intents and purposes at this point. I need to reimagine this as a daily activity to be truly successful, however I haven’t gotten to that point yet. Baby steps, I guess.
I’ve got three streaks going currently that I’m fairly proud:
- Run Streak – 4,376 days (almost 12 years) of at least 1 mile/day
- Run Streak – 57 months with at least one 20 miler
- Writing Streak – 52 weeks with at least 1 blog post
Daily Run Streak
While most people would probably view this as the most impressive of the three, I’m a little meh about it. Maybe because I’ve gotten jaded to it. The streak isn’t such a special thing as it’s just something I do. I eat every day, drink every day, breathe every day, and run at least a mile every day. No big deal.
I should probably throw quotes around the word run though as there are definitely days where I’m using the word very loosely. If my run crosses over to the next day, then I’ll count any mile I do as running even if the pace is absurdly slow and/or I end up walking most of the mile. There are also days immediately after a hundred where my running motion is so jacked up I really shouldn’t be calling what I’m doing running. But it’s my streak and I get to define it however I wish. I’m not signed up for any official run streak recognition and unlikely to go that route so I don’t feel any pressure to conform to generally accepted norms. There’s probably been a dozen or two days where the single miles I’ve counted wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) be counted by the vast majority of the population. And that’s fine. You do you because I’m more than fine doing me.
Monthly Long Run Streak
Now this is the streak that I’m becoming more and more proud of as I go along. Let’s take a look at my favorite chart:
October 2019 was the last month where I didn’t log at least one 20 mile run. I’ve been using this as my benchmark for a “long run” pretty much since I got into running. I think it took me a year or two to even realize I had this streak going. I was updating the above chart for a post and realized it had been a while since I had a month without one. So of course once I realized it was a thing, then it became a thing. Honestly, it’s actually been fairly easy to keep this streak going. I’m usually either ramping up for an ultra or running an ultra. There have only been a couple months over the past several years where I’ve had to “force” a twenty miler to keep this streak going. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, November is probably the only month where I might need to push to add one into my schedule. I’ve been toying with heading back to Devil Dog in December, but want to wait till after my MDT attempt in October before committing. I want 100% of my focus on that and not what comes after. Regardless, the next couple months should definitely have at least a twenty miler in them.
Blog Post Streak
This streak has been challenging at times and quite easy at others. My goal is always to put out quality content and not just any random string of consciousness. Not every post is going to resonate with everyone. Or probably even most people. Hopefully, the average quality is enough to keep people coming back. I keep thinking that if I write enough, that’ll eventually get good at it. I’m sure that’s the case, however I’ll need to log a lot more hours than I’m currently willing to spend for that to happen.
Similar to my running though, I write mostly because I enjoy the activity not necessarily because I’m good at it. My website gets a little bit of traffic, but even if no one bothered to stop by I’d still probably keep putting content up. The writing process helps me better understand my running. The how and the why of it. The more thought I give the subject, the better (in theory) I’ll get. I guess it’s all a work in progress.