Last May I had entered into the Still I Run run streak and at the start, I was so keen and super excited to do my mile every day. After a week or so of this, I was exhausted!! Like truly tired and exhausted. I am a triathlete and runner. I was also training for a marathon at the time, so I was genuinely surprised by this.
How could one little mile, every day make me so tired? It took me another week to realize why. Before the May Run Streak, I was never an everyday runner. My job is a physical job by nature. I’m a physiotherapist / physical therapist and I usually do between 8000 – 12000 steps per shift. On top of that, I’m a regular runner, going out two to three times a week. On the other days I go to the gym, cycle, and swim! I also make sure to have a rest day, which is very important for me and my mental health. I always have at least one day a week off exercise.
The pressure I was putting on myself to run my mile every day was so much that I was starting to get anxious about it. I was getting anxious about the one thing that was supposed to reduce anxiety!! Some of my miles were getting logged well into the night when it was dark. I had to make my partner come with me for safety, and that was stressing me out as well. Something needed to change if I was going to make it to the end of the month. And as a Still I Run Ambassador, if I couldn’t finish the Run Streak month I would have felt terrible!
A New Kind of Streak
So… I sat myself down and brainstormed some ways I could reduce the pressure I was putting on myself to run every day. I reevaluated my goals from why I wanted to do the streak, and I decided to turn it into a MOVE streak. From that moment on I LOVED my move streak. I ran some of my miles, I walked some of my miles, I mountain biked some of my miles, and I even swam some of them!
So this May, for the Still I Run 2019 Run Streak, I’m actually going to once again do a move streak, and if actually running every day is too much for you too, join me in my move streak! Some days I’m going to run for sure. On other days though, I’m going to walk, bike, swim, skip, or maybe even throw a few cartwheels in there. The point is, I’m still going to move a mile every day in May. So choose what movement is going to work for you, try not to let it spin you out (which is what happened to me last year), and together we can get moving this May for mental health awareness!!
