30 runs in 30 days - who's with us? (Page 181)

Originally posted by TRIMAN413

Congrats Brad!! I had to end my streak towards the end of the year at 205. My Plantar Fasciitis was just getting to bad. I was down to 1-1/2 miles a day just to keep the streak going and was not getting better. So I had some time off.

I am back at it again. just hit 19 days and I am working on building my miles back up slowly. I have a half marathon in March that I am preparing for and hope my PF does flare back up.

Great job and keep Streaking!!!

Originally posted by MSU_Brad Sorry to hear your streak came to an end. Good luck with the restart! Yesterday was 3 miles of speed work for #3488.

Originally posted by MSU_Brad

Sorry to hear your streak came to an end. Good luck with the restart!

Yesterday was 3 miles of speed work for #3488.

Originally posted by jmhpsu93

Sounds like the hammy is getting better.  Nice!

Originally posted by TRIMAN413

Great job Brad!! Keep it up!! Sounds like an incredible trip. Glad you were able to keep the streak going.

I have fallen off my streak again. Starting to think that my body is just not built for streak running. This time I was sidelined with what I think was a stress fracture. I took 5 weeks off with no running at all. That was a lot harder than I though. Really was missing running during that time. I am slowly getting back at it but taking it really easy to make sure I didn't come back too soon.

Originally posted by alltom1

I can't imagine how many times over the last ten years something was getting in the way of keeping the streak going but you went running anyway. How many sore throats/lousy weather days/jet lags/etc./etc..? Mentally tough!

This milestone is a great inspiration for the rest of us..congratulations.

Originally posted by MSU_Brad


Thanks!

The funny thing is that it just became second nature. There were definitely a few times in there where I wished I didn't have to run on a given day, but not necessarily on the types of days you listed.

Sore throats / being sick - sure, those suck, but I would take them real easy and use them as a distraction, in a way. I can remember early on in the streak feeling so crappy once (I think it was the flu) that I would run for a quarter mile and then sit down for a few minutes, and repeat. I probably really wanted to quit that day, but most of the rest, not really. I figured that even if I was going slow, it is not much more than 20 minutes out of the day.

Jet lag / travel stuff - I would nearly obsess about upcoming trips, especially big ones (French Polynesia, Africa), to the point where I would have it all planned out and would know how it was going to go long before the trip arrived. Sure, I might be tired on arrival, but I would look at is a bit of recovery / adaptation after traveling.

Lousy weather - Sometimes I would enjoy the challenge of running in the weather, or trying to beat the storm. Outside that, I had memberships to a few different gyms over the last 10 years, so generally weather wasn't an issue since I could just go run on a treadmill. I even paid extra for one membership for a while because it gave me keycard access to enter the building at anytime, rather than just regular gym hours. The last few years, we had a treadmill in the house. The closest I came to snapping the streak due to weather was early on. There was a bad snowstorm which accumulated a lot of snow in a short period, and roads became dangerous to travel. This was in the period where I was generally running after work. I ended up having to work a bit late, and by the time I tried to pull in to the YMCA, they had already closed for the worker's safety. My secondary gym also closed right as I pulled up to the building. So at about 8:00PM, in driving snow, I went out and ran 2 miles along sidewalks on the nearby major road. I was running through a couple feet of snow. I think that was easily my slowest run of the entire streak so far by some time. Very very hard work just to keep moving forward, but it was worth a good story!

The day after my only marathon was one where I really wanted to quit. I had such bad plantar fascitis during the second half of the marathon (side story - the first half was a PR for me at the time, and then it took me over an hour longer to do the last 13.1 miles than it did the first due to how painful it was). It was about all I could do to get out the door and trudge out a couple miles.

Mostly, the days you want to quit are just something mental, like man, wouldn't it be nice to get up and watch college gameday and then sit on the couch watching football from noon until midnight? Or a terrible day at work and a happy hour with your friends sounds great...moving to morning runs eliminated those post work concerns for the most part.

Either way, sorry for writing a novel here. It was actually kind of fun to start reminiscing about the good days and bad days!

Originally posted by mrheathen

#2922 - Eight years and one day. I don't have any momentous running achievements during the streak. Indeed, Runkeeper says I've done a paltry 5675 miles in that time. That said, starting a new streak helped pull me out of the worst year and has sustained me through mostly great but occasionally terrible times. Thank to those who were here before and those of you still around.

Originally posted by TRIMAN413

Well I am at it again. LOL!! I just hit a 31 day running streak. Have no idea how far I will go. Will still love to hit the 1 year mark at least. Who knows though.
Brad I see your still at it. Congrats on breaking the top 50 on the registry. I hope you keep going!!
Not sure if Mrheathen is still at it or not.
This thread is pretty much dead but I thought I would let people know I am still watching their streaks and hoping to continue mine as well.

Chris

Originally posted by MSU_Brad


Welcome back to the lunacy of a streak! Hopefully you stay healthy this time!

I am still going, but damn, I came incredibly close to the streak being over at the end of November. Back in the summer, at a visit to the dentist, they found a mass in the roof of my mouth. The dentist referred me to an oral surgeon, who did a biopsy in October (and convinced me to have my wisdom teeth out at the time). The scary part came a week later. I was in an airport about to fly back home from a work trip and received a call from the oral surgeon, who told me his initial diagnosis was a low grade cancer, and referred me to a different oral surgeon who handles that specific type of thing. I can tell you that I had an appointment set up with him before I even boarded the plane. Luckily, a week later on the morning of my appointment, the initial surgeon called back and said that after a second opinion from a lab, it wasn't cancerous and was instead a benign tumor. I still needed to have it removed, though, as it could turn cancerous if left to grow.

I ended up having surgery on November 30 to have the mass removed. I got in my 2 miles at about 4:30AM that morning, figuring I wouldn't be able to do so after the surgery. Of course while prepping for the surgery, the doctor told me I wouldn't be able to exercise for at least 2 weeks. My wife looked at me and saw the concern on my face. I was upset, but was trying to accept it.

I wasn't in much pain after the surgery, so I was just sitting around the next day. The stress was growing on me all day long about losing the streak. It was probably stupid, but I finally convinced my wife that I could run at a very slow pace. She actually came down to our treadmill to watch me to make sure I did so. I ran 1 mile ultra slow, keeping my heart rate way down, and stopped a few times along the way when it would start to rise. The concern was that the elevated HR could cause bleeding from the surgical site or bust open the stitches. I admit that it was probably a dumb choice, but at the same time, I knew that my HR at such a slow pace would be lower than what many non-athletes would have just moving around.

So for the next two weeks, I repeated the same: 1 mile at a very slow pace, stopping if my HR got up around 120. I know that doesn't meet the parameters of this post (2 miles), but it does for the Running Streak Association. I had my follow up on December 14, all looked good, so I went back to getting in 2 miles per day (or more) and not worrying about my HR.

So, here I am today. I have been picking up the miles and intensity since the start of the year as I ramp up for a Half Ironman in May (IM Gulf Coast 70.3).

Yesterday was a very hard 4 mile run and a pretty long bike, so today was an easy 2 miles this morning for day #3834.

Originally posted by MSU_Brad

Thanks guys. I was definitely very fortunate.

I hadn't looked at the Running Streak page for a while. I see I am #500 worldwide and #461 in the US. Insane.

Now off to hit the treadmill for #3839.