Streaking ... Is it Worth it?

This past Thursday I faced a dilemma.  I had some free time on a planned recovery day.  Quite honestly, I was bored.  And when guys get bored, they generally do something stupid.  So I considered whether or not streaking was for me. ………….

Surely, I have your gotten your attention.  In fact, I’ve been streaking before.  This past summer for example, I went 61 days in a row.  I even went twice on 14 of those days!  If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m not talking about running around naked.

Streaking as it pertains to training is actually consecutive days running.  In my opinion, a streak does not count until it reaches at least 30 days.  I am positive that 61 days was my longest streak.  It was broken by a day of fishing for northern pike at Bass Lake with my brother Todd.  This Thursday, I was feeling tired, my knee was a little tender, and I was thinking about racing well next Saturday.  I could take full recovery or put in some junk miles for the sake of putting together a running streak.

I chose the recovery.  I am a firm believer that one needs to listen to their body when it comes to training and my body was telling me a day off would be nice.  Honestly, there is no way I am fully recovered yet from the 50-mile race.  Yet, something as arbitrary as the number of days in a row one goes for a run is an achievement for some people.  In fact, there is a website devoted to tracking runners’ steaks.  One must attain a full year of consecutive runs to join the list and I think the leader has 20-30 straight years of running every day.  I am much more interested in the result at the end of the training.

Now that I have established streaking is not a big deal to me, I am a little concerned for myself.  My training plan for running the Boston Marathon calls upon me to run for 127 consecutive days.  I would have to double my longest streak in order to fulfill the obligations of the training plan.  I would rather stand on the starting line feeling fresh and confident than worn out or injured so I will take a day off if needed.  Yet, I did enough two-a-days this summer and fall that I still have 12 leftover if I fill in the missed days over the past six months, so maybe I can make the giant leap in streaking.

In the end, it’s a journey and an experiment that I am excited to take.

Here is my training for the past few days.

Sunday was my first real long run since my 50-mile race.  It was a windy day, so I made a conscious effort to run directly North and South so that the 25 mph West winds would have less impact.  I did two out-and-backs of 10-miles with a refueling stop in the middle.  Since my Boston training plan calls upon my longest runs to also be ran at my fastest pace, I decided this run would be my fastest of the previous week.  Within hours, I realized I had overdone it considering the lack of recovery I have had.  Total: 20 miles – 2:11:13 (6:33 pace)

Sunday night was the cross country banquet and the varsity seniors invited me to run with them on Monday.  We just did a short run to and from Ada Hayden Heritage Park.  It was nice to get to visit with Martha, Kelsey, and Courtney again after not running together for more than a week.  I did 2 more miles afterward to fulfill my goal of the day.  Total: 6 miles – 45:59 (7:40 pace)

Tuesday was another easy run day, but I also wanted to run some strides, so throughout the run I did about 10 accelerations lasting 15-20 seconds each.  The run started innocently enough and I was running relaxed, but apparently the strides took something out of me because the last mile or two felt like I was plodding through quicksand just to hold 7:20 pace.  It rained throughout on this run and switched over to snow overnight.  I felt a little defeated on what was supposed to be an easy run.  Total: 7 miles – 49:16 (7:02 pace)

Wednesday I did a track workout.  I was happy to see the sun out and the snow had melted away.  I planned a workout of 3xmile repeats with roughly five minutes of jog recovery between each mile.  I ran the first two in 5:11 and 5:13, but really felt mentally defeated during the second one.  By the time the third mile started, I had mentally checked out and I ran a half-mile in 2:36 instead.  Total: 6 miles – 37:30 – (6:15 pace)

Thursday, then, I decided it was time for a day off.  Sunday, I had overdone it.  Tuesday, I felt sluggish by the end and I didn’t completely finish on Wednesday.  The writing was on the wall and I read it clearly.  Unfortunately, not running was more painful than if I had just ran.  My wife can attest to that.  I am a different person when I miss my workout.  A simple 4-5 mile run wouldn’t have hurt me, but I know Friday’s run would have been another lackluster performance if I had ran.

So, streak if you must, but for me I will continue using sound judgment so I can perform at my best when I want to.