40 Day Running Streak: Lessons Learned…

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

I think it is safe to say when I started this journey on May 26, I wasn’t sure if I would make it through the entire 40 days, but here I am! With an easy (and early) mile this morning, I successfully completed a 40 day streak! It feels pretty good, and frankly, I don’t want to stop.

All that said, here are some lessons I’ve learned.

1) Don’t judge how the rest of your streak will go by the first week. The first week, I felt good!  I thought making it through 40 days would be a total cake walk.  Not so much…

2) Your body can do amazing things! During week 2 of my streak, I was sick. I’m not talking about feeling a little under the weather. I mean I had a nasty chest cough, crazy head congestion, and a fever. There were days I wasn’t sure if I could make the mile happen. But I did. Some of those miles were my slowest running miles ever, but I did them. And I was glad I did. (Note: If I was injured, or my fever had gone any higher, I probably wouldn’t have done these miles. Listen to your body!)

3) Your legs are going to get crazy tired. Especially by week 4, there were some days that my legs felt like I was pulling them through wet sand. Fortunately, I’m not quite in full training mode for my race this fall yet, so I didn’t have any speed work to throw into the mix during this 40 days. I just put in the miles.  On the days I had to run only a mile, I ran the mile.  On the days I was going farther, I added in a lot of walking towards the end of each run. But I managed to get in all of my scheduled workouts.

4) Pay attention to your schedule. Don’t miss a mile because you “couldn’t find time for it.” There are plenty of mornings during the last 40 days that I dragged myself out of bed 15 minutes early so I could get in my mile for the day. I’m working 7 to 5  during the summer, so that was challenging, but if I had other stuff going on in the evening, I made it work.  I didn’t want to let my streak die just because I hadn’t planned ahead!

5) Take care of yourself. Stay hydrated, eat well, get sleep. These things will go a long way when you need stamina to see you through.

6) It’s going to be awesome. I’m so excited about making it through this 40 day streak! Now, I’m looking forward to the next 60!

Have a great holiday weekend!