To create a new habit, one must repeat the habit they are trying to establish for many days in a row.  I wanted to stop using the snooze button a while back, so I challenged myself to not hit snooze one time for 30 days.  It worked.  I sprung out of bed the moment it sounded off at 4:30am for 30 straight mornings.  Waking up early has been easy since then.  I’ve done the same thing with book-reading goals or various habits that I wanted to add into my work-day.  I decided to run 30 days straight back in 2016….then something happened….

After doing it for 30 days, I challenged myself to hit 100 days.  After hitting 100 days, I pushed it to 200 days.  I kept trucking along and decided I might was well run every day in 2017.  Check.  Did that too.  All told, I hammered out 506 days in a row.  My little running party was spoiled when that drunk driver hit me back in 2018.  I logged 2012.66 miles over those 506 days.

What about rest days?  I took them every 7-10 days; my body let me know when it was time to take one.  But a rest day was not a “do nothing day”.  I still ran….usually just 1-2 miles at a slower pace.  What about exercises other than running?  I did that too.  I mixed in weights, body weight movements and a little DDP Yoga during streak.  To top it off, I logged 165 workouts at Orangetheory fitness..

Hey, it wasn’t always easy or convenient.  I barely fit in a run one evening at 11:45pm after a crazy day.  Then there was this other time that I had a 5am flight with a busy schedule ahead of me, so I woke up at 2:30am to cross it off the list. 

I found that a unique form of motivation is created when participating in a streak.  No one makes you do it.  It’s all your decision.  You can decide to do any streak you want to do.  A clean-eating streak.  A pay it forward streak.  A “spend 15 extra minutes reading” to your kid streak.  A make the bed in the morning streak.  Or, a fitness streak.  Here’s the deal though—it will be harder for you to stop the streak the farther you get.  You won’t want to start over. There were days I didn’t feel 100%.  There were days that I wasn’t in the mood.  There were days that I didn’t have time.  I would easily motivate myself by thinking, “I’ve gone 78 days, if I started over I will need 78 days to get back to where I am at”.  Or, “180 days”.  Or, “398 days”.  You get the point. The resilience I found in the streak helped me get through this injury.

I don’t know about you, but I love when I get to celebrate a small, personal win. Many extra wins were provided by the streak.  I ran 1467 miles in 2017, which is more than any other year (by over 200)…and it wasn’t just mileage that got better.  I was getting faster.  My average 1-mile pace dropped from 9 minutes, 56 seconds to 8 minutes, 23 seconds.  I broke my personal bests at a half marathon distance and 5k distance.  My BMI dropped below 12% and I was at the best fitness level of in my entire life….and then the car accident happened.

I have not been physically capable of starting a new streak until recently.  I’ve tried a few times since June, but my body needed rest.  My intense workout/recovery plan since the beginning of June has pushed me to the best fitness level of my life.  Time to start a new streak. 

I ran EVERY single day in November, although that was not my original plan.  As the month progressed, I found some motivation when I noticed my buddy Jason post to Strava that he ran 20 days in a row.  He’s at 44 now; I’m excited to see how far he will take this.  I scrolled backwards and I realized I was on a 16 day streak, the longest since the 506. 

I carried that plan into December, so I’m now sitting at day 40.  My new goal?  I’ll start by continuing my current streak until I hit 507 days.  507 will only be shortly celebrated…..on my way to 1,000 days.  Yes, lets shoot for a 1,000 days. 

My goal will have a few more stipulations to it than run every day for 1,000 days.  I want to push myself harder on my second streak  I want more of a well-rounded goal so I’ll run an average of 3.5 miles per day and spend 42 minutes per day engaged in non-running activities.  Those workouts will include DDP Yoga, rehab stretching/exercises, body weight movements, swimming and weight lifting.  I’ll run 3,500 miles while logging 700 hours in the gym.  I’ll obviously workout more than the average daily target to allow room for rest days.  I will also ensure that I take care of my body.  I fully intend to utilize cryotherapy multiple times per week and take advantage of other recovery modalities such as compression therapy and infrared sauna sessions.

As my fitness level increases, my injury pain decreases.  As my fitness level increases, my future goals (like qualifying for the Boston Marathon) become more of a reality.  This streak is just as much about feeling better as it is achieving my own personal goals.

That leaves me with just 960 more consecutive days….every dang day…until July 27, 2022.

What do you want to do?  Do it every day until you can’t do it.  Then do it again.

Lets’s go streaking.  #LETSGOSTREAKING

Go get it.