RUNtember Challenge

 

After my 5K back in August, I started thinking I wanted to start running more. I spent the week between the 5K and the beginning of September thinking how I can accomplish that. I came up with the RUNtember Challenge for myself. 

RUNtember is a month of running (at least) one mile every single day. Simple as that. 

To make sure I stuck with this, I made a story on Instagram announcing my challenge AND to keep me accountable. I knew if I hold myself accountable to someone, anyone, I would complete this challenge.

The beginning of the month was easy to get my runs in, in the morning. It was light out pretty early and it was pretty warm out still. As the month wore on, it started getting lighter out later and it was starting to get colder. THEN the news about Eliza Fletcher being kidnapped and subsequently murdered spread throughout the news outlets and that spooked me. I started thinking about my outdoor runs and I started thinking more seriously about joining a gym. 

Towards the end of the month, I started 'gym-shopping' and I landed at Retro Fitness. Their early hours, and distance from my house made it an easy decision. I had no idea what to expect going to the gym at 5:15 AM. Was I going to be the only one there?! HECK NO! I was shocked to see how many other people were there! I really enjoyed seeing the same people there everyday. 

Running on the treadmill took a few days to get used to. When I run outside, my pace was all over the place. On a treadmill, it was more even which I was not used to at all. I had to figure out what speed I was comfortable running at. After a few times, I fell into a nice rhythm to run at. It wasn't super challenging but it also wasn't super easy. A 10:54 pace seemed to fit me really well. 

As the month was coming to an end, I upped the distance I was running to 2 miles. I felt that was a good transition after running a mile for 23 out of the 30 days. I ran two miles for 6 days and I had the one day of a 4 mile (3 treadmill miles). I was really happy with how my running has progressed. It seemed that I had found my pace and found joy in running. 

Towards the end of the month, I started thinking about doing another 5K. There is a Santa 5K in Asbury Park and a Jingle Bell run in Downtown Toms River. I want to spend the next two months, steadily increasing my miles and getting more comfortable at my pace too. I would like to get some more outdoor runs in, to get used to running in colder weather. Am I looking to place in these 5K's heck no! My biggest goal is to have fun, dress up and enjoy running (AND eating all the pasta afterwards!)

I knew that running every single day was not something sustainable that I could continue past a month. I also knew I should be incorporating strength training into my workout too. I am hoping now that I have a gym membership, it will be easier to do that. 

My stats for the month ended up being as follows:

I am really proud of these miles. Those almost 7 hours that I spent running brought me an unexpected joy and helped me create health habits.

Since I like to keep track the old fashion way, using pen and paper, I kept a calendar of my month running.  Every week I averaged the pace and totaled the miles ran. At the end of the month I did a final average pace and a grand total of miles.  While my Nike Run App gave me the same data, it was nice to see it laid out in one place in front of me. 

Something that I found out that I love while I run is podcasts. When I was starting the Couch to 5K program, I was having a really hard time finding music that I could run to without running too fast or not running quick enough ( in my mind).  One day I decided to pick a podcast that I had saved a while ago. I had no expectations if this would be beneficial or not but after my first run listening to a podcast, I was hooked. THIS was exactly what I needed. There was no tempo to keep up with and I got to learn/think about something- it was getting two birds with one stone.SCORE! I have listened to dozens of podcasts of the past few months and I get so excited now when I find a new podcast. My trick for choosing podcasts is, picking a podcast that is approximately the same amount of time I plan to run for. That way, when the podcast is done, I'm done! 

I am looking forward to running more and seeing what else comes out of this crazy adventure.  

Looking for more exercise content, check out my other exercise posts:

Couch to 5K 2017 | How I stay Healthy | Couch to 5K 2022 | Lacey 5K Recap | SUP dude | My Fitness Journey | Namaste Not In Bed  |

[[Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. - Elle Woods]]