30-Days of Running

When making a sport challenge, it’s important to give a time limit that is not too short and not too long. Ten minutes is good. It should be in the morning or in the evening. I choose morning because I have time to myself. Then you need to tick the days off and keep count, this motivates to keep going.

I don’t know why I wanted to run for 30 days, seemed like a hard task and I’ve wanted to try it for sometime. Here it goes.

Day 1: 1.6k: 15 min-29

Day 2: 2.5k: 20 min-30

Day 3: 3.3k: 25 min-31

Day 4: wrestling-1

Day 5: 9k: 30 min-2

Two Week Check-In

Second week was toughest because you start to not want to run, and look for an excuse. But as long as you say “ten minutes”, you go and do it. Thing is, after running over 44k (a full marathon) in two weeks, I feel good enough to keep running and I run faster. One thing that I do now is break things up: if I’m short on time, I do a fast mile. If I have more time, I do 2-3 miles slowly.

Day 6: 1.6k: 10 min-3

Day 7: 1.6k, 10 min-4

Day 8: 2k, 15 min-5

Day 9: 2.7k, 20 min-6

Day 10 2.5 k 15 min y-7

Day 11 1.6 k 10 min f-8

Day 12 2.5k 15 min-9

Day 13 8.9k- 50 min -10

39.6k-4.5hr-

New goal half marathon by end.

Day 14-2.3k-15min-11

Day 15-2.5k-20 min-12

Day 16-1.5k-8min-13

Day 17-3k-18min-14

Day 18-NA

Week 3:

I definitely run faster and longer without getting winded. Now running has become a habit and I feel bad when I don’t do it. Like yesterday, I had an early meeting, a project I was working on late at night and a flight to Prague. But I did run in the morning, in the snow, in a new town! Something I would have never done before and it was a beautiful 20 minutes of my day 🙂

Day 19-2k-15 min-16- In Prague in the Snow!

Day 20-2k-15 min-18

Day 21–NA-19

Day 22-5k-20-Rome

Day 23-5k-30m-21st

Day 24-2k-15min-22

Day 25-6k-50 min -23

Day 26-4k-30 min-24

Week 4:

For the past few days I have been running in Rome. It is pretty surreal to cover a few kilometers in a half hour. To run through the Colosseum, along the river Tiber, past the synagogue, churches, graffiti and all that is Rome. It has been raining a little, and I have to be careful on cobble stone streets, but it is so rewarding. We all have 20 minutes, even on vacation. To have run on vacation was what I thought going to be the toughest thing, but was also one of the most rewarding things about this challenge.

Day 27-na-

Day 28-1.6k- 7min-26

Day 29-2.2k-15 min-27

Day 30

The End

So that’s, it 30 days has come and gone. Last night I went to wrestling, fought a brutal opponent for 10 minutes and was not winded at all. In one month I ran a total of 70km, took my 1m time from ten to 7 minutes, experienced running in three cities, showed that I can continue to run and work out during a vacation. I don’t think this has made any profound change. I think these 30 day challenges show that I can make a concerted effort for thirty days, but a more profound and permanent change only comes if you continue those efforts, make them not just a habit, but a mentality. So that is what I will focus on in the next thirty days, how to develop a mentality. How? I’m not sure, maybe I’ll go for a run and think about it ;).

A little post script. I went for a 12k run in about an hour. Not too shabby for 1 month’s work.

Update:
I ran a sub 6 minute mile!!! I decided to write a little post with tips on how to run better. You can find it here: 30-Days of Running Update and Tips!