Friday Five: What I Love (& Hate) About My Run Streak

Hello! Welcome to my first Friday Five of 2016. I'm linking up with Courtney, Mar, and Cynthia for week three's topic Favorites. I thought I'd talk about my run streak. (I hope I'm not a broken record!)

I started on November 2 with the #chasethebird challenge (my recap) and continued through the holidays with the Runner's World Run Streak. I didn't plan to keep going... it kind of happened. I think I'll stop after my next half marathon (February 14) unless I get sick or injured.

This morning was day 75.

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LOVE: No more riding the struggle bus ♥
Wowee it is no longer a struggle to get out and run. Even on days when the "feels like" temp is down to 4 I know I have to run so I go out there and get it done. It's only a mile, but sometimes I'm having such a good time I keep going.

Hate: I have to wash my hair all the freaking time
I have really thick, wavy hair and I like to wash it about 1-3 times a week and do a nice blow dry about once a week (which I can get 3 days out of). Ha! That was before the streak. I don't think my hair has looked good for... about 75 days.

LOVE: I'm faster ♥
My streak has kept me honest. I rarely miss workouts on my training plan and I don't drop miles the way I used to. As a result, I'm running longer midweek and treating my mile streak days as mini speed work. My best mile time is down from 8:11 to 7:36 and my 5K went from 26:31 to 25:00. I don't know how it's affected my long distance times yet. We'll see...

Hate: I run out of workout clothes very quickly
I thought I had a ton of long sleeve shirts from races and that four pairs of running leggings was enough. Ha! Not when you're a lazy laundress like me. I also need at least 3 more sports bras. And yeah, truth bomb: I re-wear stuff if it's not gross.

LOVE: I feel great ♥
There have been a few days I absolutely have not wanted to run (mainly weather-related), but I've gone out. [Side note: I do not have a treadmill, nor do I have access to one, so I've invested in a lot of hi-vis gear and pulled out my cold weather accessories.] I always feel better after a run. Even if it's "only" a mile. Even if it's a crappy run like this morning's where I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. When I get home I feel accomplished and proud. As a direct result, I've been less stressed and much happier over the past 75 days.

Have you ever participated in a run streak?
(By the way, my longest "streak" before this was 3 days.) Thanks for joining me. Don't forget to visit the hosts!

Friday Five: #chasethebird

My #chasethebird images on Instagram

Happy Friday! Instead of shopping 'til I drop, I'm linking up with Mar, Courtney, and Cynthia for the Friday Five linkup. Today's theme is Gratitude and I thought I'd use it as a chance to talk about the wonderful #chasethebird challenge. 

What is #chasethebird? 
From Oiselle: "From November 1st - 26th, we challenge you to do (at least) 15 minutes of something everyday... just move! Then share what you did each day with #chasethebird."

What I did
I used #chasethebird as a run streak. 26 days of running didn't sound too terrible and my current training cycle for the Naples Half began on November 2, so it seemed like a perfect fit. (Remember, Oiselle only asked for 15 minutes of activity. It was my choice to run everyday.)

But won't a streak cause injury?! 
I admit, I wondered if running everyday would take its toll. About halfway through I had a little pain in my knee that I thought may be related to the streak, but after ice and stretching it worked itself out. Maintaining the streak at the beginning of my training cycle (low miles) was a great idea. On my rest days, I ran between 1 and 1.75 miles, depending on my route. I'm no Haruki Murakami, so six miles a day probably wouldn't work for me.  

Unintended consequences (all positive)
First and foremost, I've become a morning runner! Until now, I ran after work. With early sunsets I found myself making excuses not to run last year. This year I used the time change to my advantage and woke up early. It's fantastic to be finished with my run before 9am.

Running is now a part of my daily routine and I'm going to try to keep my streak alive until the end of the month. I knew I needed to run everyday, so I made time for it. On especially lazy days, I knew I could run at least a mile.

Oddly enough, #chasethebird helped my photo skills. I can't say I'm a great photographer or that I take especially compelling photos, but because I'm usually looping my small neighborhood I had to get creative with the daily photos. There are only so many pictures of feet one feed can handle!

Finally, during my streak I ran my fastest mile and built my speed. My comfortable running pace is 20-30 seconds faster than one month ago. At the end of my 26 days I PR'd my 5 mile Turkey Trot. In the middle of said race I ran a 5k PR! (and I know I can run a 5k even faster because I had plenty of energy left for the last two miles). I don't know if the streak is the root cause, but I think running every day helped me conquer my general laziness in regards to training.

So, this year (in addition to family, friends, health, and happiness) I'm thankful for #chasethebird and my online running buddies. And my legs. Thanks, legs.

Have you participated in a streak or daily challenge? (Running or otherwise)