Six months of running Every Day! Boom.

I've run (or ellipticalled in the case of a couple early days in October) for at least one mile every day for six months!  Congratulations to me.  When I started this project, I just wanted to make it to the end of 2012.  Early 2013 was not a good time for me so I just kept right on running because it was the only way to protect any part of my mental health.

I got the idea from these people, and initially didn't care that they didn't count elliptical miles or 'walking laps' or a running workout in the track.  If I ever ask these guys to recognize a streak of mine, I'll count 1/1/13 as the start date because for sure by then I was running at least a mile of each track workout and no longer doing the elliptical.

Some thoughts on running every day:

• I run in dirty clothes more than I ever thought possible.  It's only a mile.
• I'm really seeing the value of short running workouts, followed by some kind of 'finisher' for a short, hard workout.
• These one and two mile runs definitely did something for my speed.  I mean, speed.
• It really forced me to run everywhere I vacationed this year.  Running showed me parts of those places I wouldn't have seen otherwise.
• I ran more days per week, but not more miles per week.
• One mile runs are great 'easy day' workouts.
• It is very important to my mental health, especially in December and January when said mental health was a bit unstable.
• Totally gave me the chance to try out more pairs of shoes, and throw more shoes into my running rotation.

I celebrated the achievement by doing a brutal treadmill workout that actually wasn't so brutal. My face was beet red by the time I was done. Sadly the workout was not recorded for posterity because my Nike sensor finally died. Off to the apple store for number three. (I only keep buying them because I haven't found a better way to track indoor runs and treadmill runs.)