31 Days, 70 Miles

Yesterday I completed my first ever Run Streak. For those of you who are wondering, a run streak is a running challenge where you commit to run every day for a specified length of time. A typical run streak is a month; however, there are some really hardcore streakers out there who do year-long streaks. January is a popular month for streaks (resolutions and all), but I chose February (partly to take some of the pressure of New Year's resolutions off, partly because it's a short month). The rules for my streak were simple, run at least one mile a day everyday in February. During the last week of my streak my dear hubby observed that I was "cheating" by choosing February and should add 2 days to my streak for an even 31 days (in his words, "a true full month"). So I streaked from 2/1-3/2.

I had a few friends streak in January and I was so inspired and impressed with their results (and stamina)! I was hoping to work on my pace during my streak and had hopes of bringing my 1 mile time down to 9:30. That didn't happen. However, I smashed my previous "miles in a month" record (53) by running 70 miles in 31 days. That was HUGE for me.

I really enjoyed the Run Streak challenge and it certainly motivated me to get a run in on days I'd otherwise have skipped. I will certainly do one again and maybe that one will focus on pace.

Since I'm pretty competitive (at least against myself), I've committed to another challenge for the month of March.  March is "Sugar Busters" month; no sweets or candy for the month of March. I generally eat a pretty healthy diet (I'm vegan, so that tends to weed out a lot of the junk naturally); however, sugar has always been my downfall and there is plenty of vegan junk food. Did you know Oreo's are vegan!? So I will focus on cutting back the sugars this month.

My running goals for March are: run 4 days/week, complete 2 long runs (10 & 11 miles), and build strength (via lifting, hill workouts, and yoga).