It’s a day to celebrate! Awhile back I felt a nudge to make a small commitment to something that was out of my normal routine. I needed something that my body and mind weren’t used to going through the motions with but also something that wasn’t going to disrupt my life and be too much. After a moment of deliberation, I committed to running each day through the end of December with a one mile minimum. In some amazing dealing of the deck it just so happened to be a perfect 40-day commitment, which has no real meaning except that it wasn’t some odd number like 37 or something. So, 40 days of running.
The first few days were easy breezy. I felt refreshed and invigorated—an atypical experience at the beginning of something new. There were a couple amazing runs where I was real motivated and a couple not so amazing runs where I just got it done. Then there were a few days from 7-20 that before the run it felt like it was never going to end—lol at me for feeling like that for a 7-13 minute baseline commitment. Being smack dab in the middle of something tends to be like that sometimes. After that it was a mixture of leaning into some fun longer runs, intervals and damage control. Overall, a great experience.
I learned and re-learned a few things.
First of all, committing to something just big enough to be a priority can have major mental and emotional benefits. I am going to call this a catalyst habit. Obviously my goal here was not to turn into an elite runner. There were days in this period where the run felt like it was a bit of a nuisance, but served as the thing that refocused me going into the evening hours without taxing my body physically. It kept me locked into my nutrition and intensely aware of the my other commitments.
Second, this was mental training for me. Typically when I go into things I am all in, for better or worse. My younger self might have committed to a 5K, 10K, half marathon or heaven for bid a fricken marathon training plan and I would have done it on top of my other athletic pursuits leading me down a real fast-track path to burnout. In a way, this was me acknowledging to myself that I love where I’m at but not happy with some areas in my life and wanted to use this as an opportunity to improve. I am going to mark this as a practice of learning to moderately layer in more responsibilities without biting off more than I can chew.
Third, I set myself up for success. The cool thing about choosing a mile minimum was I knew I could physically do it, and that turned out to be really important. Having that small win everyday engrained confidence in action and trust in myself. This is always important, but immensely more so when other pursuits in life inherently present failure and mistakes. The practice of locking in wins through choice disciplines is a game changer.
Those three notes talk about the benefit of the minimum. But I was also able to use this 40-day period to increase my aerobic capacity and feel like I can tango when long runs, intervals or sprints show up in training.
Lastly, it’s fun to watch this continuation of what I called as an athlete my “extra edge” carry on in life after wrestling. I realized in a conversation with a friend this week that one season in college I would swim a half mile or more and then sauna 2-3 times a week. Another year I would run before 6am weights. Another I would wrestle a live match after practice and then another I would hit a bike match. Those were more in the vein of a competitors extra edge, but I think the principle remains pretty intact. Find something that will give you a mental edge over your opponent and be disciplined with it.
Am I going to keep running into the new year? That’s a hard no. I made progress mentally, emotional and physically which was predominantly the goal. I am, however, making another small commitment I might share later.
Cheers to progress, and life through sport.
// GLK
Bonus Notes
On day 2 I decided this spring and summer I will get more into trail running. The scenery in and around River Falls and the Kinnickinnic are gorgeous and deserve more exploration. Plus, those hidden hills really jack up my heart rate.
On day 13—December 4th—I hurt my back. I am going to theorize that it was a combination of overtraining and not properly warming up for the METCON, but my lower back decided it had enough of my nonsense and just stopped working. No going back from that one—the damage is done and I am moving onto the healing process as quickly as possible. Chiropractor says it’s a compressed disc in my lower back and there’s not much I can do outside of rest.
Somewhere around the 10-15 day mark I fell in love with running again. It’s always been that skill for me that once I’m in it, I’m in it and then it feels weird not to do. Like squats. I love squats.
On day 18 I felt a little taste of training for my senior season of college wrestling. That summer I would do mile repeats when I was in California for my internship and loved it. I had been thrown into obsession after a 7th place finish at nationals my junior year.
On day 39 I cried like two tears—not joking. I was so emotionally overwhelmed from the day, and my shoulders were sore to the touch from training that it wasn’t something I could stop from happening. Felt great 30 seconds later.
PROGRESS: forward or onward movement toward a destination.
