366 consecutive days. Why did I do this? The first part of that answer is just to see if I could. The second part gets a bit more complicated. After this afternoon's 3.5 mile trail run, I wrote down some thoughts on the experience.

At the close of 2019, the world was a much different place. I looked ahead to 2020 and saw another year of touring and performing and working on my music career. I knew that I would be turning 31 and wanted to challenge my mortality in some way physically. Driving to gigs and loading musical equipment in and out were not giving me enough physical activity to keep my body healthy and happy. I looked at my running app of choice and saw that my cumulative mileage from 2009-2019 was around 500 miles. That sounded like a nice round number to beat within a year. I figured that if I just ran an average of 1.4 miles per day, that would be the quickest way to surpass the goal of 500 miles.

Running every day just happened to be the easiest way to achieve my goal.

Running at sunset along a roadside trail

At first it seemed like a chore. I could just run the 0.7 mile loop twice around our block, but that meant that I could have easily quit early and stopped at home if I didn't feel like continuing. To force myself to hit my goal mileage, I would run along a trail for at least 0.7 miles. That way I needed to run the balance of the daily mileage if I wanted to get home. Each day that I ran that trail, I would go beyond where I had stopped on the previous day. Eventually I started exploring other roads, neighborhoods, paths, and county & state park trails.

January was rough. If I ran in the morning, it was cold and dark. If I ran in the evening, it was cold and dark. I experimented with alternating between the two in order to give my body 36 hours to rest one day and 12 hours to rest the next. I ended up mainly running in evenings, except for mornings when I couldn't sleep and would run 5 or 6 miles at 5 or 6 am.

Looking back at the data, somehow February was my highest monthly distance (62.66 miles). This strikes me as unusual since it was the shortest month, but I think I just didn't want to fall behind on my goals and I was pushing my limits to see what felt comfortable.

At some point in March, I would say that running became a habit. It came naturally. My day was not complete without it. There were several gigs before the shutdowns started where we got home at 1 or 2 in the morning, and I had to run after loading all of our gear back into the house.

I have run through every nearby neighborhood. One unexpected benefit of running daily is that I got to see the gradual progression of changes in the trees and gardens and wildlife and moon phases and weather and decorations and fences and home owners that I wouldn't have otherwise noticed. This actually might have been my favorite part of this whole experiment. Traveling at running speed provides a lot more time to notice and appreciate the small things that would otherwise be missed.

In early April, I would see foxes and deer and shooting stars and even one skunk while out on nighttime runs. The traffic around that time was the lowest I had ever seen, since most people were staying home. It was odd to see traffic start to slowly pick back up amidst the pandemic as people started getting used to the new way of doing things.

I expected the summer to be the easiest part of the year. Surprisingly, it was pretty miserable. Every day was so hot and humid, even at midnight. I noticed my average pace and distance go down. August was my lowest monthly distance (35.84 miles) as well as my lowest weekly distance (6.39 miles). It was hot.

In the fall I would see the local deer and foxes almost every night. The autumn has always been my favorite part of the year, and seeing all of the animals and the foliage changing dramatically from day to day was beautiful and rewarding.

On November 15th, 320 days into the year, I ran an afternoon 5k and passed my goal of 500 miles. Running was no longer a chore, just a habit. My body didn't mind it. I could have stopped there with 46 days left in the year. That just didn't feel right though, since I could easily keep on going and run through the remainder of the year.

In mid-December, it snowed and accumulated for the first time in what felt like years. Those were a few cold and slippery and uncomfortable days, but I kept running. I was to the point where I did not mind it. Holidays, gig days, birthdays, off days, I just got out my shoes and ran.

When Erin read through this, we were both surprised by the average daily run time of just 15 minutes. It's crazy what sort of immense goals can be accomplished in such little time per day.

Today I still wouldn't call myself a runner. I was never stressed about my pace or clothing or shoes or fancy watches (my smart watch failed in July and I never cared to replace it). I just wanted to see if this was possible. My average pace and stress levels and resting heart rate and weight have all decreased throughout the year. I am more aware of what my body is telling me through tiny aches and pains and soreness that I feel in my feet and ankles and shins and knees and hips and back and neck. I have less back pain and more overall balance and awareness.

There is a difference between being hurt and being sore, and I would base how strenuous each run was on how I felt each day. Listening to my body and how it connected with the ground, as well as analyzing how every single footstep felt all taught me a lot about myself. I surpassed all of my starting goals: 5k in under 27 minutes, 2 miles in under 16 minutes, & 500 miles in the year.

What's next? I definitely need new running shoes. And a few days of rest. Hopefully 2021 will bring more good habits as well as some kind of return to normalcy.

Thanks for reading this.

-Michael

For the nerds - my final stats and amateur data analysis for 2020:

Total Distance: 564.51 miles (≈ 1/11 of the earth's circumference)
Total Elevation Gain: 38031 ft = 7.2 miles (≈ 1.3x the height of Mt. Everest)
Total Time: 93 hours (3.88 days)
Total Calories Burned: 90,653 (671.5 twinkies)
Average Time / Day: 15.25 minutes
Average Distance / Day: 1.54 miles (2.5 km)
Average Time / Week: 1 hour 46 minutes
Average Distance / Week: 10.76 miles (17.3 km)
Max Distance / Week: 20.51 miles (Week ending February 11th)
Min Distance / Week: 6.39 miles
Average Time / Month: 7 hours 45 minutes
Average Distance / Month: 47 miles (75.6 km)
Max Distance / Month: 62.66 miles (February)
Min Distance / Month: 35.84 miles (August)
35 runs with distance > 3 miles
Only 5 runs with distance > 4 miles (4 were in March)

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I ran every day this year.