Running Streak

If you at all pay attention to any of the stuff over on the side bar, you'll see that I have a little widget for dailymile, an online training log.  Every once in a while, you will see an update where I write down how far I ran, how long it took, and how I felt about it.  It's a neat tool and a good substitute for a written log, which I have had at home the last few years. 

Also you can occasionally get some good feedback from others about training questions, techniques, gear, etc. 

Anyway, if you've been watching it you may notice a tag that I've been adding to my posts: #Runstreak (I put in the hash because it's also posting to Twitter).  Another runner on Twitter and dailymile, aptly titled The Beer Runner, made a request recently on those social media outlets: start a running streak.  He's currently on a streak where he runs every day and tries a different beer every day, and I think he just passed 250 days in a row.  The challenge was to start something and maintain it, with the incentive that if at least 30 people ran 5 days in a row, he'd do a beer mile (still waiting for that to happen...).

That was almost(?) a month ago.  After having gone through my shin splints and the requisite therapy and rest associated with that, I decided to take on the challenge and do at least one short run per day.  I'm currently 24 days into the streak, with no signs of slowing down.  Despite often having to make time for the run, I've managed to find a time, even going so far as to running in the middle of the night to find a Walmart before they stopped selling beer at 1:00 am (true story).  While my shin feels sore sometimes, it's actually doing pretty well, and I'm feeling confident that continued short runs can help me better control (and lose) weight and have a good aerobic base for any training I decide to do later in the year.

Having started and continued to do this, I got to thinking about how the streak is analogous to other areas of my life.  Making the commitment to run every day should transfer to my commitment to my research, reading papers, learning new techniques, etc.  If I have the wherewithal to put forth that effort on a daily basis, shouldn't I be able to do that with everything else? 

The answer, of course, is that it's still kind of difficult.

Running has become such an integral part of my existence that I can't imagine going without it.  Research doesn't fall into that category, but I feel like it's getting there.  Perhaps making myself a good example of being consistent and working hard in one part of my life will translate me into getting inspired in other areas.  Sometimes I get super excited about research, and other times I get extremely frustrated... a more consistent approach to research may be better! 

Hopefully my running streak will translate into better research!