28 Days Later… And A New Blog Announcement!

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Well, my 28 days of running came to an end yesterday!

At 5pm Sunday evening, I had a great 30-minute run. This was my twenty-eighth consecutive day of running at least 20 minutes.

Over the past four weeks, I’ve clocked up 679 minutes, or 11 hours, 19 minutes, of running.

On week one, I did seven days of 20 minutes. This rose to 22 minutes on week two, then 25 on week three, and finally 30 minutes this week.

According to the route I run on Google maps (plotted against duration), I’m averaging about 7:20 a mile, but that seems like madness to me, and is way too fast. I feel like I’m running a reasonable speed, and have some experience in knowing how that feels, but I’m going to conservatively estimate I’m averaging eight-minute miles.

This means I’ve logged just under 85 miles these past four weeks (or 136.79 km for my European readers).

And I never stopped once.

As I’ve reported previously, I’ve leaned up considerably over these weeks. I’m starting to look - and feel - like an athlete.

About two weeks into this venture, something inside me clicked. Something changed. I started to remember how good it felt to be a runner. How much I enjoyed it. How much I needed it. Even battling up against 30mph winds filled me with a spirit that not only led to me never quitting, but also kept me coming back for more.

I’ve got the thirst. And totally in a good way.

So, twenty-days, all done. All dusted. So that’s it… right?

No.

I am a runner. Present tense.

Finishing all those tough runs - and there have been several, including a nightmare on Saturday where, exhausted and severely sleep-deprived (thanks to a few extra shifts at work) I was slowed to a near-crawl in a really severe gale - has instilled in me a new level of confidence and self-belief that will serve me well in the future.

This was just the beginning; this was just a taster. Two weeks in, I knew I’d easily finish the 28 days, and so I started to plan ahead. I mean, I knew that there was no way once day 28 was done that I wouldn’t run on day 29. Or day 30. Or day 31.

And so I started thinking: when would I stop, then? At 50 days? No. One hundred? Why stop there?

So I set myself a goal.

Could I run every single day for one full year?

Could I log 365 consecutive days of running?

I spent some time researching the pros and cons of this on the Interweb. Other amateurs and newbies claim have done this before me, but the information out there is a bit scarce. Nobody seems to have logged it in any real detail.

I like a challenge. I like the idea of finding out where running every single day will lead me, and I mean that both literally and figuratively.

Can I run for 365 days in a row?

Find out at my new blog:

I hope to see you there. It’s going to be some journey. Let’s start at day 29…

I am Sheamus - Very Personal Development