Last year I was struggling to maintain fitness for triathlon, I wasn’t balancing the 3 sports & life well. So I decided to just focus on running to hopefully be good at one rather than failing at 3.
I used the motivation vehicle of trying to maintain a run streak to focus myself and gather momentum. Setting out with the intention of just getting a consistent month under my belt that would set me up for some late season races that had a strong run focus. I didn’t expect I would still be on the run streak over 6 months later and it would be such a rewarding process.
1st couple of months
The first month was probably the hardest for 3 reasons
1) You have no established daily routine so its all new as you have to establish your running windows in your week.
2) Your legs are not used to the daily hit of mechanical stress so it is the month where the most niggles show themselves.
3) And finally, you haven’t really got much to lose, if you drop the streak after a week or so, there is far less invested to fail on.
All my running in this first period was easy; no massive overload on one day which would build too much fatigue in the system. I set the minimum RUN TIME of 30min, which worked out around 6km on an easy day. It may not be my recommendation to everybody to set the minimum at 30min, but it worked for me.
When the first niggles come (and they will come!) you have to change things up to stop them setting in for the long haul. For me I had a few achilles nibbles, which I addressed by getting on the treadmill, setting it at a 10% gradient and keeping it steady. This took the load from the achilles and moved it onto the hamstrings and glutes. Enough relief to let the achilles get back in the game, which kept the train on the rails and the streak alive.
After a month or so the training snowball is at full speed rolling down the mountain and you start to feel unstoppable. Running just becomes part of the day like brushing your teeth. I had obstacles, but the momentum pushed me straight through them. There were a few evenings when it was raining cats and dogs outside. Had I not been on the run streak I would have just written it off, pushed it to another day and snuggled up on the sofa. But the thought of dropping the streak now as it was past 30 days forced me out the door and after 5 minutes, once you’ve warmed up the weather is never as bad as it looks.
By October I was 75 days into the run streak and I had a major event which could prove a big hurdle. LCW Mallorca, a 3 day triathlon event in which you complete an Ironman over 3 days (swim the first, bike the 2nd and marathon on the 3rd). I had two worries. Running after a 100mile smashfest on the bike and running the day after a marathon. I was also interested to see how my legs would handle the marathon after a 75 day build of running every day.
The event went really well. I won overall and did all the damage on the marathon. I had to overcome a 7min 30sec deficit (I probably should have done some more swim and bike training!) by running a 2:33 marathon and never felt so good. The last 5km were the fastest and my legs just felt so strong and robust.
Since the race my work capacity has increased and my legs have become so tolerant to load that I can hit them with hard track sessions, long runs or hill reps and the legs just eat it up and are good to go the next day. The benefits are more than physical. The mental health and the sense of accomplishment that has come with keeping the run streak alive has been a small light that has kept me on track through some dark times.
I have now after day 200 of the run streak found myself in the best run shape of my life. I ran a 4min PB at Cambridge Half Marathon going 1:07:57. What surprised me more was the next day I wasn't hobbling down the stairs like previous years. My legs have toughened up so much they have become DOM proof! Next Test London Marathon (If its not cancelled).