I Ran 30 Days in a Row! | April Challenge

Why?

I love running, but I had gotten off track over the winter. I gained a bit of weight and didn’t feel like myself anymore, and I didn’t feel good about myself. I wanted to do something kind of crazy – a real challenge.

The Plan

Run every day for the month of April. I didn’t want to be too strict with tons of rules; I wanted it to be a simple challenge. Run every single day for a minimum of 15 minutes. I figured that no matter what I could fit a short 15 minute run in. And if I missed a day, I had to make it up by running twice in one day.

The Progress

It was actually a lot easier than I expected! My legs did get tired and sore, but it was manageable. Some of the early morning runs really sucked, but I listened to my body and I didn’t push myself too hard. It became a part of my routine, and I honestly felt amazing! I never missed a day.

Results?

I am so shocked I managed to stick to my goal of running every day for a month! I feel very accomplished. I don’t think my body has changed much, and it wasn’t exactly my goal to lose weight. It was more about the mental challenge of getting out every day for a run. However, I did eat out frequently this month and ate a ton of junk food. I’m sure if I was eating healthier I would have seen better results! Regardless, I feel so much better about myself and feel like a much stronger runner now!

Over the course of 30 days in April I ran 80.10kms with an average pace of 7”17/km. So you can see I did a lot of short and slow runs. Many of the runs were just me stiffly shuffling my feet along. But I’m excited to see what kind of progress I can make going forward! I definitely did better than I would have without this challenge!

What I’ve Learned

1. I have to do way more laundry… so many dirty socks and sweaty t-shirts!
2. The importance of stretching and rolling. Running everyday really emphasizes how sore and tight my muscles become. I had to stay on top of it by being diligent with stretching immediately after I ran, and rolling my feet with this spiky physio ball I have.
3. Buying a reflective/light-up ankle band was such a good idea. During the first few weeks of April it was still so dark when I had to do my early morning runs, and I wanted to make sure I could be seen.
4. That I probably should have gotten into better shape before tackling a challenge like this. My body definitely wasn’t used to it. But, I made sure to take it slow and easy and did lots of shorter runs. And my body quickly adapted to running every day!
5. The best thing I learned from running every day is that I love doing it and it’s the perfect way to start the day off! Now midway into May, I am genuinely happy to get out there and run all the time.

I decided going forward to cut back to perhaps 5 days a week to give myself rest days. On May 1^st it felt so weird to not be running! I decided that for May my goal would be to write every day for at least 30 minutes. I can write about whatever I want; this goal is about building the habit of writing every day just like I did with running every day.