It all started with daily disciplines.

To streak or not to streak

Before the beginning of 2022, I had decided that I was going to do a run streak with my wife, and actually got a jump start in late 2021. The requirement was to run at least one mile per day, every day, all year long. I had never taken on anything like this before, mostly because I never even thought about it. A few people in the run crew had been streaking for various amounts of time, and it seemed like a fun challenge to take on. I knew it would be especially challenging, because I would be racing a few times this year and the following days would be brutal to force myself to run.

The real kick-off was the Winter Warrior Challenge at the beginning of January. I elected to run a minimum of 3 miles per day OUTSIDE for the entire month. It was going to be a major challenge, but it was just what I needed to establish the daily discipline and make sure I didn’t make any excuses because of the weather. All 31 days I hit 3 miles or more, and created some major momentum leading into the rest of the year. There were some very brisk days, but that wasn’t enough to keep me inside!

One thing that we found to be incredibly helpful was the “free” No Days Off calendar that Tracksmith sent out with each purchase starting in January. It laid out the entire year and we taped it to the wall in our hallway to be able to tally off every day. They created a new calendar for 2023, so if you are interested then buy something from them while supplies last!

Why run alone when you can run with friends?

The most enjoyable runs this year (out of the 353 total I managed) were ones that I was with at least one other person. Prior to getting really focused on specific times and workouts for racing, trail running was the most enjoyable experience, and having a solid crew to join me was always preferred. I had a few go-to reliable partners, but all in all there were a number of great companions. We didn’t make any excuses about the weather, and never ended up regretting an outing on the trails, regardless of how cold it was.

Books are pretty good too

I’ve always enjoyed reading, and have worked audiobooks and podcasts into my runs far in favor of music. I found that listening to music for 45 minutes or more started to get boring, in particular when running every day. Since 2017 I’ve been tracking every book that I read each year, and write in the inside cover my start and end dates. I started doing this because I had inhaled probably over 100 books in my 20s and never logged them anywhere, and could not remember when I last read particular books. Since I started logging, I’ve averaged around 10-12 books per year, but this year I jumped up to 21 (audiobooks included). I strongly believe that the daily commitment to running created that outcome in my reading. Plus now, I’ve become incredibly smaht.

Racing is fun, especially when you switch things up

There were a number of firsts this year when it came to racing. My first Boston Marathon, Philly Marathon, and two trail races. The timing of Boston and the two trail races was a bit consolidated, with a trail half the following weekend after the marathon, and the 7 Sisters race two weeks after that. Additionally, I competed in my first ever one mile race with the Heartbreakers for their annual mob mile. I was happy with how they all went, and the variety of terrains and distances definitely kept things fun and interesting. The variety also helped me race at different speeds, try out other strategies and get race day experience in – all beneficial!

Get back to it after the bumps

My run streak felt unbreakable, and I cruised past 100 days, then 200 days, then 250 days until… wham.. Covid got me (again). I had previously tested positive for Covid in May, but was asymptomatic and ran right through it. The afternoon of September 10th had me feeling progressively more horrible, with chills, body aches, etc. I went home after an event I was staffing at work, and essentially didn’t get upright again for three full days. My streak was trashed, and I was pissed. It took a full seven days before I wasn’t feeling lightheaded and tired after a short period of time, but I decided that I needed to get back onto the horse and restart the streak. I was definitely upset, but decided that I wanted to pick it right back up again, and I’m glad I did. In early December I was again taken out for three days with the flu, but got back to it once again.

Celebrating the accomplishments and setting new goals

I was thrilled to see how much my training had paid off, with multiple PR’s in the half marathon and marathon during 2022. At first I thought it would take a few years to get my marathon time down near Boston Qualifying standards but I realized that I might have a shot at Philly in November. Despite being on track for about 23 of the 26 miles, I couldn’t finish as strong as I wanted to. Even though I was unhappy with how it finished, I still decided to get another medal display, in particular because I improved my marathon time by almost 35 minutes, and it felt worthy of celebrating. I have previously bought the same displays for my three major medals, and plan to do the same after each finish of the final three. I also picked up an incredible Iverson poster when we were in Philly, primarily because he was my favorite athlete as a young buck.

For new goals, I’m set on qualifying for Boston in one of my 2023 races, and have already punched my ticket for Providence in May. Now I’m just praying I stay healthy.

Finishing the year out strong

For the third year in a row, I’ve run a half marathon + from my work to the Boston Marathon finish line. It started with two others, ballooned to 17 people in 2021 and today(!) we had 15 people join along. The weather was pretty amazing, but better than that was the feeling of finishing out the year strong and keeping the momentum up into the new year. Next up is Winter Warrior 2023!

Strava creates some pretty solid stats

If you aren’t already tracking your exercise somewhere, might I recommend a platform like Strava. You can join for free, or otherwise pay a small fee to get more insights into your training. At the end of each month they show you some simple consolidated stats, but otherwise you can dive deep into the details of any activity you log into the site. The most involved summary they provide is the “Year in Review” at the end of each year, that shows a number of statistics that are fun to look through. Below is an example of one of the pages you can see, and it shows a snapshot of my improvements in 2022 compared to 2021.

Thank you for tuning in to my first blog post and kudos to you if you got this far! Hopefully this was helpful, interesting, entertaining, or remotely worthwhile – if it wasn’t, then I’ll do better next time. Happy New Year and on to 2023!!