Run Streak Update: Two Years!

It’s official. Two years. That’s TWO YEARS into my run streak and, for now, I’m still going.

I’m not going to lie this year was harder than the first. I had some rough stretches and this past summer was a brutally hot one and made running difficult. In fact this year ended up being longer than I expected. It seems I can’t count. Every now and then I made a day or two mistakes in my streak count. As I approached two years I double checked my numbers to make sure I was on track, I wasn’t. I was almost two weeks off. I had to slog through an extra thirteen days of runs when I thought I should have been done.

I really had to change up my routes this year. Exploring new spots and taking different turns every now and them has kept running interesting for me. This was really important over the summer when it was a grind to get out and run. Travel has been important on these runs. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in several different cities over the last year. It’s made some of my stretches fun and exciting again. That’s not to say travel can’t be problematic. I had to do a one mile run in the Paris airport to keep the streak going.

I settled into a system this year. I gave myself short days where I only did my mile minimum run. I work long days on Tuesdays and Thursdays so they became my default short days. Long runs have been held to weekends with the other weekdays kept to two or three miles.

The numbers helped keep things interesting. As with beer I liked seeing numbers and statistic tic by. Big round numbers, even if I was off, were great to cross. In the coolers months I worked on speed some so watching my pace drift down was exciting to see.

Here are a few of the numbers I kept up with.

Mileage: I kept up the mileage numbers that I had in the year one, about 2.5 miles per run average. I slumped in the summer but in the cooler months I step it up to keep on par.

After two years I’ve covered about 1560 miles.

Time: I covered that mileage in about 10 days worth of running hours.

I’ve dropped my average pace this year from just under a 10 minute mile to under a 9:30 mile.

730 days of running in a row is a big number. I don’t know when I’ll stop but 750 is just around the corner. Maybe one day I’ll catch up to Andrew…