Running every day for 100 days in a row

My story of how I tricked myself to run every day without noticing

Hey Folks 👋🏽

Probably if I were to read the headline of this post 4 months ago, I would go “Wow, that’s so cool! I could never do this!” and that’s why this story is about how to do an impossible without even noticing it’s happening.

This is my story about running for 100 days every day and still counting, no matter the weather and circumstances. So how it all begun? Let me tell you!

The genesis

It all began with a bang! Yeah, that’s right, it was a Big Bang inside of my head. Something just broke. It was right after the Christmas - New Years time, where a lot of food was involved combined with no activity whatsoever. The conditions for those two to thrive were perfect. It was this time of the year where you have full social approval of acting like a beast at the table and at the same time like a sloth in every other aspect of your life.

After this period I felt guilty as hell about my holiday eating habits and the fact that I was completely transforming into a full-on couch potato. It also highlighted my other unhealthy habits that hatched over time with working remotely and being stuck at home due to the pandemic. I just wanted to change something, and try to ride the motivational wave of New Year’s resolutions. So the challenge was brought alive.
My girlfriend Ola and I set a goal to do any type of workout at all for every day of January.

That’s when I decided that running will be my thing, with absolutely no idea how to begin and where it will take me. And oh boy! It sounded extremely exciting and really overwhelming. It was like my brain suddenly started uncontrollably giving birth to hundreds of what-ifs, excuses and doubts but at the same time I felt inspired and excited to start this challenge, it sounded so cool!

Goal

My motivation was pretty simple - I wanted to move more and I also wouldn’t mind losing some weight while doing it. I wanted to become a more active person as it struck me how sedentary my life became. My bottom at that time was basically glued to the chair and I felt that I’m forgetting that outside even exists.

That’s how my mindset looked like, at least when I was getting on this unknown train to the running world.

I knew that the goal for my runs needed to be easy or at least to seem that way. So I decided to get out there and run for at least 10 minutes every day. I set the bar really low as I wanted this plan to be as doable as possible. This was an approach that really made my mind more at ease and my heart at peace.

Beginnings are hard

So it began, just like that. I just put my running shoes on, so many layers that I lost track of them and I went for my first run in 2021. Surprisingly the hardest part was not running itself, but just putting on my running clothes and moving my ass outside my front door. I wasn’t focusing on distance, pace or any other metric. I just wanted to try to be in the moment and focus on putting one foot in front of another. When my feet started moving it wasn’t so bad, and dare I say - it was starting to be fun!

Of course, there were some hurdles to overcome. It wasn’t always easy to choose to get out of the warm bed and put myself in the freezing cold or to wake up early on a Sunday morning. But the moment I stepped outside I felt inspired to run and I was proud of myself for showing up.

The feelings of empowerment with a feeling of accomplishment right after the finished run have been truly amazing. It kept me motivated and I started looking forward to the next days and next runs!

I quickly realised that the best strategy to fully immerse in the experience and enjoy the process is to not think about all the different things that need to happen in the future, but just think about the current day. Suddenly it was less intimidating and overwhelming when I thought “Ok, just need to go for a run today.” instead of thinking how far I needed to go.
It was one of the two things that kept me going, the first being the incredible support that I received from my girlfriend.

While days were passing I started falling in love with my new routine.

One more time

Suddenly the whole month finished surprisingly quickly. It was like a miracle to me, like “I just did it? I just run 30 days in a row?”. At this point, I realised that I perceived running more like this thing that I just do as part of my daily routine and not some hellishly demanding and exhausting thing that I’m forced to pursue.

I was so hyped after finishing the January challenge that I could easily set the goal to do this for the whole year! That idea could have been a disaster, as it could become too overwhelming very quickly. I surprisingly stuck to my reason and decided to focus on running every day of February.

And days were passing once again. Big changes were happening in the background as someday I realised that I’m not counting days anymore!  That was a moment when I started to really enjoy this beautiful journey without overanalysing it.
Suddenly another month passed by, and I set the same goal once again, to run every day of the following month. I was hooked and I wanted more!

And just like this, last week I made it to the 100th day of running every day! It sounds so unrealistic like it’s somebody’s else story, but it’s true, I DID IT!
I’m extremely proud of myself for reaching this milestone and so hyped about the future. I’m really grateful that running became part of my life and hopefully, it will stay that way.

My Insights

The most incredible result of this challenge is that I’ve changed as a person in comparison to myself from 4 months ago. It's mind-boggling to think how quickly you can change yourself by just repeating seemingly not very impactful action every day. Now I think of myself as a runner and I absolutely love it! 

I embraced the idea that how I perceive myself can change so it’s not something engraved that is stuck with me for the rest of my life. I can decide what my identity is. First by forcing myself to do the action that later transforms into being a new part of my life.

An additional benefit is that my curiosity was sparked about all those various aspects like the science behind running, zone 2 training, running data, nutrition, recovery techniques and so much more! Probably I will share some of my findings with you as well.

This journey showed me how my brain likes to label things as impossible, just to avoid potential failure or being bothered to even try them at all. Just don’t overwhelm yourself with the initial goal and focus on the process one day at a time, step by step.

I’m currently on the 109th day of my running streak, and I’m absolutely loving it. My current goal is to run every day of April ;) 
It all begins with this first step.

Thank you for reading
and see you soon