I saw someone on Instagram run 100 miles in one year and it got me thinking...it would be pretty cool if I could do 365 miles in one year I told Micah and then completely forgot about it.
This is why I try to write things down because my brain forgets the things that have the potential to make life uncomfortable.
Fast forward to the end of November when I was telling Micah that I wanted to find a challenge I could do to help me post more on TikTok. It would be a fun way to start of the year and help me get more confident in just posting!
We talked about it for a bit and then he asked, "Are you still going to be running 365 miles next year too?"
My brain clicked into high gear and I started thinking about all the different themes and things I could do to get me excited about running.
I got about 10 minutes of excitement before the Doubt monster came out to play.
You know the one:
"But you hate running!"
"That would be really hard."
"What if you miss a day?"
"You won't last a week!"
"You aren't good enough to do this."
Quick backstory, when I first started my fitness journey I was doing Beachbody workouts religiously. I started with 21 Day Fix and then saw all the other programs that were for longer than 3 weeks, longer than 30 minutes, and with new trainers.
They were scary!
80 days of workouts for an hour? I don't think I can do that!
Shaun T? He's crazy...I don't think I can do that!
But guess what...I did. And I learned so much about what I can do and how much mental strength correlates to fitness!
So I pulled my ponytail a little tighter and realized, "I have to run 365 miles in 2023!"
It's scary, hard, and intimidating...but if I constantly preach that "You can do hard things!" I have to show it!
Doing hard things doesn't mean setting yourself up to fail!
But just because I can do hard things, doesn't mean I'm not going to plan for things to happen!
There's a lot that can happen in a year: getting sick, family emergencies, travel, work stress, etc.
So I want to make this challenge accessible for myself so that if I do miss a day - I haven't failed.
This challenge is about consistency, but I'm not punishing myself for having to take a moment to rest.
The Challenge:
I will be running 365 miles in one year.
While that means one mile a day, I am very aware of the importance of rest days so I will not be running any Sundays in 2023.
That means I had to find those extra miles somewhere else.
I decided that starting the third week of January, I would start running two miles on Wednesdays and then I found a couple of holidays to run an extra mile to replace those 52 Sundays.
I've also planned "Snow Weeks" where I have it in the schedule to run a little extra once a quarter to make up any miles I've missed.
That way there's less beating myself up if I miss a day and focusing instead on: listening to my body, positive self-talk, and progress over perfection.
Day 1 will be Monday, January 2nd!
I already know I'll be in Ohio in a hotel so I'll be running mile one on a treadmill.
I'd love to have others join me on this 365-mile challenge! (Title right now is Endur365 - subject to change)
You can run or walk it!
But the biggest rule is to always have one rest day! It could be on Sundays or another day, but always make sure you have a rest day during the week.
That's why I have those scheduled Snow Weeks!
I've made a tracker and a calendar to make it easy to track your progress - click here to get the goodies sent to you!
Remember:
Always take a rest day!
You can do hard things!
Progress over Perfection
This is an endurance challenge. It's going to be challenging - but we can do hard things!
Let's show ourselves what consistency can look like!
We got this!
Shaina Joyce
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