How To Run Every Day For 4 Months
By: Ryan Fan
Tags: Ideas, Lifestyle, Sports, Fitness, Philosophy

How To Run Every Day For 4 Months

Running every day has tremendous benefits for mental health.

Photo by Flo Karr on Unsplash

From June to October of 2018, I ran every day. As an experienced runner, I was training for my senior cross country season and a marathon and wanted to make a substantive difference in my fitness. It ended up working well. I ran a 34:08 hilly 10k, as well as a 2:40 marathon, qualifying for the Boston Marathon. If I ran other races during the time period, perhaps it would have also worked well. I peaked at 90 miles a week at one point, but I spent a couple of weeks consistently running 80 or more miles.

But at the time, it was challenging — I was working a lot and studying for the MCAT, the Medical School Admissions Test, both tasks that occupied a significant amount of time. To be clear, running is a luxury. It is a privilege. Not everyone has the ability to run due to disability, injury, or accidents. The fact that I do have the luxury and privilege is something I don’t take for granted.

Emily Abbate of GQ ran every day for two months and claimed it changed her life for the better. She even learned to love running and went from dreading it to loving it. Every day, she would wake up and run two miles while at a summer camp, and now, she’s finished seven marathons and shorter races as well. Now, she is a certified running coach.

For her, running every day for that portion of her life required four steps. She had to make running a non-option, control the controllable, have a SMART goal, and be easy on herself.

To me, running every day is an important part of my lifestyle when I do it. I notice a remarkable change in my mental health when I run, evidenced by how running can lead to reduced anxiety and greater calm feelings. And because I have always run long distances, the effects are more pronounced.

I’m currently trying to run every day for a long time again — preferably longer than four months. I no longer take running as seriously as I did when I was 21, and I did not count anything less than 5 miles as an actual run. Now, some days I run for 30 minutes, and yes — I count it now. I have gone two weeks strong running every day, and feel significantly more accomplished, relaxed, and in shape. I don’t have any races for the near future planned because of COVID-19, but I hope to stay in shape and keep it as my routine.

I plan to keep running every day, barring injury, for the foreseeable future. I may take a couple of days off after my next marathon so I can recover, but running centers me more than I was willing to acknowledge before. If everything goes wrong on a given day, at least I would be able to run. When I feel in a rut, I think that not only to give myself a sense of accomplishment but also to maintain a sense of consistency in other parts of my life.

Here’s how I was able to run every day for four months:

Make running a non-negotiable priority.

It wasn’t a question of if I would run every day at the time. It was a question of when. I ran every day because I was training and needed to get in the best shape possible. It was an important part of my life, and I had to run, or else I would feel a sense of shame that washed over me.

Of course, it’s not the same non-negotiable priority it was for me in the summer of 2018 anymore. I run every day not to race better, but because running makes me feel better for everything else I have to do. Since I have run for a bit more than two weeks, it means going for a run even when I don’t feel like it, or taking a nap before I go on a run.

Running is still a priority, but it’s not the same priority; it was that summer. I try not to take days off because I’m the type of person who thrives on rhythm and consistency — especially when it comes to running. Taking a day off running actually makes me feel worse when I run the day after, so I’m not saying you shouldn’t take any days off, but rather you should do whatever works for you. I won’t go as far as to say that running every day has changed my life, but it has improved incrementally.

Like me, you are probably busy in some way. Having to navigate work and running simultaneously is difficult. There are many days after a long day of work where I don’t feel like running. Some days, I plan on waking up early, at around 6:30 a.m. to run. If there’s no one holding me accountable or a person who wants to run as well, I tend to reset my alarm and say, “I’ll do this later.”

But the key is to make it not an option but a necessity. I don’t want to run every day, but I have to run every day — that’s the mindset you have to have, because, as we all know, there are a lot more serious obligations in life than running, and catapulting it as a priority is the only way to run every day.

Have go-to routes.

In psychology, according to John Tierney at the New York Times, decision fatigue refers to the decreasing quality of decisions after someone has made too many decisions. It’s why even though we have a lot of clothes, we might rotate the same clothes, or why we make poor shopping choices — stores tend to put candy and snacks very close to the register to take advantage of decision fatigue.

So, the route you go running will also be subject to heavy decision fatigue. When I ran every day for four months, there were a total of three — that’s right, three routes we would take on a given day. If we wanted to be particularly adventurous or go somewhere else, we would, but that only happened once a week.

We had one park we went to for short runs, a boardwalk route we went to for medium runs, and a route through Midtown, Atlanta for longer runs. Often, we made loops of the same park or the same field. It wouldn’t be complicated. We knew exactly where we would go and what to expect. It lessened the cognitive burden on a given day that we would only have a couple of go-to routes.

Now, on day 21 of running every day, I am lucky I have a park about a quarter-mile from my apartment that has a 2.1 mile, hilly loop I can do over and over. If I want to do a faster mile, I have a one-mile loop around a lake. About a mile south of where I live is the harbor in Baltimore, where I can go on longer runs and more ambitious runs.

If I want to leave the city, there are a couple of places outside we can go — but remember that exploration, especially when you have no idea where you’re going, can be very unpredictable. I guess that’s the appeal, but my friend and I did a couple runs at Patapsco State Park that ended up being longer. Each run, we got lost and went significantly longer than we intended, often in the 95-degree heat.

Having only a couple of go-to routes for your run might be boring, but sometimes boring is better, especially if you’re trying to squeeze in a run at an opportune time, like right before work.

Have accountability partners.

I was lucky when I was in college — I had people I would run with every day, who kept me accountable, and I kept them accountable in return. I lived with several other runners who would keep me accountable as well.

Running solo is difficult. It’s hard to push yourself, and it can be tough to pace yourself. Of course, there are times when you have no other option than running solo, but now, while I’m on the “run every day” journey again, I have three or four friends I run with about 40% of the time. What makes it difficult for me to gather with my running club is, well, COVID.

But having those people push me really makes the difference, and when I run alone, sometimes my pacing is very erratic — accountability partners make sure I’m not going too fast or too slow. These are people who would constantly check up on my training, and vice versa. They’re also people I have conversations with the entire run because talking makes running go by a lot faster.

Of course, the person you should be the most accountable for is yourself. I run these days not to compete, but because the pros outweigh the cons. Sure, running gives me a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and developing cancer or, but I sleep better, I’m in a better mood, and I find I can focus better. I am incredibly busy, but running is a break from my day job, side hustle, and graduate school. It is time I’m giving myself to work on myself instead of every project I have on my checklist.

I feel more accomplished having the consistency of a productive habit, as well. According to Eric Holtzclaw, a company strategist, consistency is often the difference between failure and success. It allows for measurement and accountability. At the end of the day, the only person that’s stopping you from running every day, if that’s something you want to do is yourself.

Take care of your body.

This is a lot coming from me, someone who doesn’t stretch that often and, in 2018, didn’t do the best job taking care of myself. But rest days are important, and if you run every day, rest might mean a shorter run than you usually have, and a run where you intentionally go very easy.

If you get injured, your body is more important than any streak or sense of accomplishment. If you don’t want to give yourself cold turkey rest, then do some other form of exercise, like going on the bike or elliptical. Make sure you’re sleeping and recovering.

For example, I just went on a 12 and a half-mile run with a friend, where I rolled my ankle really hard, especially my bad ankle. I couldn’t run for a bit, so I just walked for a couple of minutes, so we went the rest of the day slowly. To recover, I wrapped my ankle and put some IcyHot on it and kept it elevated. When my ankle is sensitive, I have to watch my footing and avoid trails with too many roots.

To run every day, at the end of the day, is a privilege and a luxury. When I was injured with a torn labrum in my hip in my sophomore year, all I wanted to do was to be able to run again. I struggled to sleep. I struggled to fit in. I struggled with my identity. Now I know when to step back from running instead of being the center of my life.

Taking care of your body, and taking a step back simply makes running more fun. When you need to, stop. I have errands to run today that I won’t do because I need to keep my ankle elevated. Fortunately, rolling my ankle wasn’t the first time it happened, so I know the drill for recovery, but I’ll be keeping my movement limited until I go on a short, 4 or 5 mile run tomorrow.

Start small.

The first week, or the first two weeks you start running, try not to do anything crazy. Rushing back into running and running really long runs and hard workouts isn’t the best way to get in shape — it’s a good way to get injured.

Set a minimum for yourself. My minimum is 30 minutes for it to count, and the first week I started running again, every run was a 30 to 40-minute run, with nothing too excessive or crazy. As your body acclimates itself to running again, you can increase your mileage and intensify your training, but gradually.

The whole point of running every day is to increase gradually. If your goal is more fitness, which mine was in 2018, my first week was about 25 miles, followed by a 35-mile week, followed by more miles each week. Your fitness will naturally come as you run consistently.

For example, when I started back running again after a disastrous attempt to run the Boston Marathon, I wasn’t running fast at all. I tried to do one fast mile around the park and couldn’t break 6:30, a far cry from my glory days when I ran 15:36 in the 5k and 33:03 in the 10k. However, the next week, I went on a run on a trail with two of my friends from college, and we decided to really ramp up the last mile. I would lead the way and finish it in 5:47, at the very end of an 8-mile run.

Naturally, the more consistently run, the more you will improve. Doing a little or moderate running every day is much better than putting in an incredible volume of running once a week.

Set a final goal.

Of course, my plan in 2018 wasn’t running every day for four months. That was a byproduct of a larger goal — to get in the best shape possible for the fall cross country season and be a difference-maker on the scoreboard. It then transitioned to running my best marathon, and running every day was just what worked for me because I’m heavily reliant on rhythm and consistency. If I were to take a day off, I would feel absolutely horrible when I come back, no matter how good of shape I’m in.

This time around, the goal is to run every day for a year, barring any terrible injury like a stress fracture. I’m 21 days strong, and all I really want to do is run every day. The other benefits are just byproducts, like my improved mood, mental health, and focus. I wouldn’t mind the benefits of incredibly improved fitness and be able to get back into marathon running shape.

So set a final goal, and stick to it. A lot of things will pop up. Many life events might stop you from running , but there will always be many excuses not to run. For me, it took me a long time to reframe running and realize the pros of running will always outweigh the cons. If it’s serious enough of a goal, the hardest part is the beginning and building the habit for the first couple weeks — after that, it becomes a routine, rather than a burden.

Conclusion

I run every day now because the pros outweigh the cons. I know, no matter how tired I am when I wake up or however much I don’t feel like running on a given day, that running every day will give me a sense of accomplishment, improve my focus, calm me down, and improve my mental health.

To run every day, I made running a non-negotiable priority, had go-to routes, had accountability partners, started small, took care of my body, and had a final goal. The decision to run every day is entirely up to you. It’s not for everyone, and it’s important to remember that running, at the end of the day, is a privilege, not a necessity, to most.

But if you decide to run every day, this is how you do it.