It’s the Fourth of July, a day to celebrate our independence and enjoy cookouts and fireworks. But for those of us participating in the Runner’s World Run Streak, the day took on another meaning: The last day of the streak.
The #RWRunStreak ran from Memorial Day to the Fourth of July, and I decided on a whim to participate.
I ended up doing a decent amount of speed work, and as I got closer to the end, my runs generally got shorter. I only did a 10-miler once, and that was for a race on Day 6 of the streak. I’m looking forward to doing some more long runs now that the streak has ended and I can enjoy some rest time after those distances.
I put together my tweets from each day of the run streak in this Storify (click here; unfortunately I cannot embed it).
The streak definitely encouraged me to run on some days when I otherwise wouldn’t have. During a storm, I was going to run laps inside my house but when my GPSes weren’t working, I went outside to repeat a loop I’d looked up on MapMyRun. That was the only day I didn’t wear a watch or use an app, and I later ran the course and it didn’t work out quite at the distance I thought it was, but I logged a mile — I’m sincerely hoping between the inside and outside running it was at least a mile. My Fitbit logged 12 active minutes and I believe I was going at faster than a 12-minute pace, so that gives me some security.
While some days I tried to go fast, I didn’t put pressure on myself for plenty of the runs, stopping to take pictures for the #RunChatHunt running scavenger hunt. Even when I hadn’t gone fast, I could feel my legs getting sore.
I tried to end the streak today with a two-miler under 16 minutes, but I ended up running it in 16:49. Maybe with some rest days, I’ll be able to break that 16-minute barrier this summer. (I’ve done it before, just not in a long time.)
Here are the final streak numbers:
Miles Run: 106.62
Average Per Day: 2.96 (decreased)
Longest Run: 10 miles (same)
Shortest Run: 1 mile
Races: Three, Baltimore 10 Miler, I Thought They Said RUM Free 5K Fun Run and the Beer Mile. I also ran the Five on 25 Fun Run & Prediction Challenge.
As I noted last time, I’m actually four days ahead of the streak because I’d already run those days. So, as of today, I’ve run 40 days in a row.
Here are my recaps from 1/3 of the way through and 2/3 of the way through.
I’m also planning to run tomorrow, for the Eastern Shore Running Club group run, but I will take a rest day Wednesday.
I think I’ll miss the #RWRunStreak a little bit; it was fun. But I’m ready to incorporate some rest days into my running.
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She Runs by the Seashore 