Show HN: Ten years of running every day, visualized
nodaysoff.runToday marks ten years, 3653 consecutive days, of running at least one mile every day under the USRSA rules [1]. To celebrate, I built an interactive dashboard that turns a decade of GPX files into charts you can explore.
Running has truly changed my life: I've made lifelong friends, explored beautiful places, and more importantly invested into my own health and fitness, which I'm starting to see the positive benefits as I get older.
The stack is pretty simple: a NextJS app, with a Postgres database to keep all my running data, and all the stats are pre-computed and cached in Redis, so I effectively only hit the database once a day when a new run is ingested. On the fronted, I toyed with the idea of using D3 or pre-existing data viz libraries, but ended up rolling my own using SVGs directly, it gave me more control on the visualizations.
I used the Strava bulk export to pre-populate the database, and I'm using their webhook API to do incremental updates. I have to tap into OpenWeatherMap and OpenCageDate to enrich the running data a little bit.
Happy to answer anything about the stack, data pipeline, or how I stayed motivated for 10 years!
[1] https://www.runeveryday.com Run Streak Association rules: ≥ 1 mile per day
A year ago, I started running a mile five days a week, and have slowly moved up distance and pace. I'm doing weight and resistance training as well and cut out most sugar and carbs, going high protein.
The result has been transformational. Resting heart rate is at 60, blood pressure down, my clothes don't fit me anymore, and best of all, I feel better and can concentrate more.
I wish I knew this in my teens. It's like a cheat code.
The cheat code isn't knowing it'll make you feel better. The cheat code is convincing yourself to suffer through it.
If it's suffering, you're pushing too hard. I think that's the challenging thing for beginners to understand. At worst you should be bored, most days. You don't really need to push into uncomfortable territory until you've got some regular volume and want to improve race performance.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but for me there certainly was (is) a mental hurdle to get over. When I first seriously started exercising I think it probably took 6 or so months of 3-4x per week before I began looking forward to it. Even after years of training, I still will battle with myself a bit before heading to my muay thai gym or heading out for a run.
Every day it gets a bit easier. But that's the key. You have to do it every day.
- weird monkey from Bojack Horseman, paraphrased through my memory
I loved that scene too, but something I wish I knew before I started my running/fitness journey is that, every day it does NOT get easier.
You are going to have bad days.
I remember running 3 miles and feeling great, and then trying the same run a few days later and feeling like crap - gassed myself half a mile in and either couldn't finish or finished at half the pace. I would get frustrated, wonder if I was even making progress, etc. In reality your progress is going to look like a stock price. Some up days, some down days, some very up and some VERY down days (or weeks or months) but over time the line WILL go up and to the right. I once apologized to my fitness instructor that I half-assed his workout that day. He just shrugged and said, "Eh, not every day's Christmas." I think about that a lot now. But yes, going out for a shitty run still counts as a run, and you have to frame your mind around how big of a success that was. You make the most progress on the days you have to fight the hardest and the days you break some speed or distance PR, the gains are minimal at best and destructive at worst.
Happy running everybody.
It's a classic "annoyingly-misleading wise-sounding statement", because there's an interpretation - which I think is the intended one - which _is_ correct; "every day [that you do it] it gets easier [than it would have been, ceteris paribus, if you hadn't done it that day]". So, on that down day where you get what feels like a bad result, you still got a better result ("it was easier") than if you _hadn't_ have trained the day before. Your environmental factors were pulling you down, but your accumulated training counteracted that. Your bad days are better than they would otherwise have been.
But that's not as snappy for a cartoon monkey to say.
> every day it does NOT get easier.
This was important for me to realize too when I started my journey, both strength training and cycling.
For cycling in particular I like to use the anecdote "It never gets easier, you just get faster."
It's hard, and will always be hard, but seeing and feeling the results, beating my PRs, etc. keep me going, and also celebrating the small wins. Some days, just committing to going to the gym and picking up the weights is a big accomplishment and you should absolutely celebrate it.
"It doesn't get any easier, you just get faster"
- Greg LeMond
No it often gets harder because stuff-happens.
No we often need days-off to rebuild.
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Alright, so I'm open to ideas here. My problem is getting bored while running.
When I'm in a good routine, I run on my treadmill indoors. (I can't currently run outdoors for reasons I don't want to get into at the moment.) However, after a few weeks, especially if work/family life is getting stressful, I tend to stop running just because I want to work on something more mentally stimulating and tangibly productive with my extremely limited free time.
I have tried:
- Movies/TV Shows: I'm hit-or-miss when it comes to enjoying these. The ones I don't care for are boring to watch. The ones I like, I tend to get engrossed in them and pay more attention to the screen than my workout and end up phoning it in. Plus I'm not sure there are enough of these that I can watch one or half one one every single day. (Bonus: I don't watch anything with ads.)
- Music: I don't like most pop music, and the music that I DO like, I try not to listen to every day because I'll get sick of it that way and then I won't have any music to listen to when I want to listen to music. I can deal with high-energy EDM but 99% of it is not great, especially when binge-listening. Also I get tired of staring at a blank wall and so have tried finding live EDM performances to watch on YouTube. This is a lot of work and so far has worked okay but not perfect.
- Podcasts: There are a LOT of podcasts that I want to catch up on, but half the time I want to stop and take notes because the advice or information being given sounds really useful or seems worth following up on. Maybe there are comedy podcasts out there that I wouldn't hate?
- Audiobooks: I love reading but I have a hard time getting into audiobooks. Same issue with podcasts, I often want to stop and research topics and that would take me away from the treadmill.
Have you tried other forms of cardio?
Running never did it for me, I just couldn't stick to it, was always miserable and bored, etc. My main focus is strength training, but for my cardio cycling is what brings me joy. I would dread going for a run, but I excitedly look forward to my next bike ride.
Cycling, swimming, hiking, rowing, even dance will all get you the same benefits so if you're bored doing one, try something else - the important thing is to get moving, the specifics of the activity doesn't matter.
If you really want to get into running, and you have some green spaces or trails near you, give trail running a try. It's the one form of running I sort of enjoy - I get so bored on a treadmill or just in my neighborhood, but I love being out in the woods.
> half the time I want to stop and take notes because the advice or information being given sounds really useful or seems worth following up on.
Like running, keeping notes in your head is something that gets easier if you do it a lot. It's also a really useful skill to have when talking to people in person.
It certainly sounds like you've tried a lot. One approach could be to (and I'm not being facetious) cultivate a mindfulness-in-boredom practice. Seriously. I'm not saying you will initially get onto the treadmill thinking "Boy, I can't wait to be bored." However, over time you might start to crave that time in your head. Alternatively (if that sounds absolutely unappealing), you might try another type of exercise. Running definitely isn't the be all, end all. I wish you luck!
Unpopular opinion: Maybe being bored isn't a bad thing. It allows for an escape from constant stimulus and eventually, your mind will learn to wander, introspect, and come up with new ideas.
This is how we ran before smartphones, anyway.
I
My solution to getting bored is to run harder. Zone 4 heart rate is really the sweet spot for me. It's intense enough that I don't get bored - it's like all the energy that would typically make my mind look for stimulation gets sucked up and directed towards running instead. But, critically, it isn't that hard to sustain - I can do 30-40 minutes of Zone 4 and, while it isn't exactly a walk in the park, it's infinitely psychologically easier than full-out sprints.
Be careful to avoid injury, however. I wouldn't recommend this until you've already got a solid running base of miles to build upon.
Yeah, injury is one of my issues. I have not been a consistent runner all my life and ramping up too quickly has lead me to a torn tendon (twice) which takes MONTHS to heal.
Very much the same. The best luck I ever had was when I forced myself to do zone 2 for a month or two before really getting into it.
Could try informative podcasts that just give you information, instead of wisdom or life practices - such as a history of philosophy, or some other topic. Or just history in general!
For audiobooks, something I've been wanting to try is to see if I can listen to an audiobook of a textbook for a topic that I'm interested in. But I'm not sure if it would work well, since often textbooks have diagrams and such.
- Audiobooks: I love reading but I have a hard time getting into audiobooks. Same issue with podcasts, I often want to stop and research topics and that would take me away from the treadmill.
Sounds like you are only listening to non-fiction? You don't need to research topics to enjoy (say) a genre thriller, so listen to fiction.
If you're on a treadmill, then you should try Zwift
> I tend to stop running just because I want to work on something more mentally stimulating and tangibly productive
Maybe accept that running, or perhaps exercise in general, is not your thing? You clearly have more pressing interests and there are other ways to maintain good health. My grandfather lived well into his eighties with nigh a scrap of fat on him and, near as I can tell, did no formal exercise after his army days ended. My mother is on the same track despite health issue severely limiting her mobility.
I say this as a guy who rides an indoor cycling trainer 3-4 times a week during the winter and turns in to a raging jerk if he doesn't get his workouts done. If you're not a "gym guy", "runner guy", "biking guy" or whatever, why waste your extremely limited free time trying to become one?
Treadmills are boring, yeah. Not sure why you can't run outside but that's probably worth more interrogation than a single parenthetical comment.
One possibility is trying a different form of cardio. I personally don't enjoy running at all... but I love cycling. Running for 30 minutes is super boring, but I can go do a 4-hour ride no problem. If you can't go outside at all, then this won't really help you though.
Same here : I discovered the fun of rollerblading in skate parks at 34.
Never did any sport in my whole life, officially obese, but now I’m taking a collective course in a skatepark every week and I’m having so much fun that I’m forcing myself to do more sessions even when I don’t feel like it. And even if I’m still pretty "bad" at it, it’s just amazingly liberating.
I guess you just have to find your thing ?
My best cardio is doubtless stair machine while doing Anki with headphones and a small Bluetooth game pad in hand
Try biking. I can't run due to a hip issue and it has been very fun for me.
I love biking! And I do bike a lot. In fact, I often bike and run on the same day. But where I live, biking is only feasible about 5 months out of the year unless I invest in a bunch of cold weather gear. (And impossible at least 2 months out of the year due to snow/ice/slush/etc.)
get an indoor trainer if that’s the case
Find a neighbour with an active dog and offer to take them for regular runs.
What about a particularly exciting book in audiobook form?
To get back into running I listened to some page turners, but I’d only listen to them when running. Sometimes I’d do an extra lap just to hear more. And I’d look forward to the next run.
Once the habit takes, I don’t need as much stimulation.
Another idea is political commentary slop or news. Don’t consume any during the day like you normally do (Reddit, twitter, news sites).
Instead consume it only through Youtube on your run. It’s usually stimulating enough to compel the run.
Man - I knew this in my teens - I just didn't DO it.
It is amusingly frustrating to finally learn this. Trying to convince my kids of it, and they don't believe me. At all.
Spouse is also dubious. Remarks that spending 20 minutes on a treadmill or out walking is actually somewhat hard to do. Not wrong, but it only gets easier if you do it. And then it starts to get a lot easier.
Try convincing them with incline walking - feels less daunting than running and has helped me get going! And now as it's gotten easier I'm starting to feel a natural running bug to up my intensity.
Alas, I'm trying to convince them to put down whatever other distraction they have. That is a predictably difficult thing to surmount.
I started "running" a mile a week ago. I use quotes because I walk the first couple blocks to warm up and walk the last several blocks to cool down, and the entire route is just over a mile. On day 1, I jogged for a couple blocks at a time, walking for rest in between. I definitely walked more than I jogged.
This morning, I jogged more than I walked, and almost jogged the entire distance between warm up and cool down.
I haven't decided yet if I will then move to doing a second lap or if I will instead work on speed.
Either way, the daily habit has been surprisingly enjoyable, even if I'm very out of shape. The progress is addicting.
I was here about a year ago. Getting close to doing 5k 4 times a week, but the last 2k are more walk than run. I'm definitely more interested in getting endurance over speed, but both improve pretty steadily at this point. I guess once I'm doing 5k without walking I'll try to just increase pace. Pretty amazing how much better my quality of life is since exercising seriously for the first time in my late 40s.
If you have the time I recommend working on distance first. Running farther is great for fat loss & cardio training and speed only really matters if you're trying to be competitive in races or have to squeeze your run into a confined time slot.
I also find that adding distance makes it easier to improve time. If I can only run 1 mile, it's pretty hard to run that same mile but faster. BUT if I can run 3 miles, it's a bit easier to run 1/3 of my normal distance but focusing on pushing the pace.
We can try 10 yards faster and then repeat.
As-long-as we gradually increase our effort.
Somedays walk, somedays jog, somedays shorter, somedays longer — it's all good.
The cool thing about running and lifting weights is that you see a lot of progress early on. The path to a sub 30 minute 5k is all about getting out the door and consistently running a little more. Pretty much everyone who starts weight lifting has a moment a few months in where they go to lift a random household object and are shocked by how light it feels.
I was you like 3-4 months ago. Part walking, part running. It was a tough start and I was extremely sore during many runs!
Keep it up though. All of a sudden it all sort of comes together. I just ran 9 miles straight last week! I was shocked and so excited.
Don't push yourself too hard, especially if you are out of shape.
I did the same thing but kept pushing harder because my muscles could keep up and I wanted to build up cardio endurance, but I didn't take into account my bones.
Shin splints are no joke and will sideline you for months without warning. It takes several months for your leg bones to build up the compressive strength to deal with continuous high impact running.
Even if your endurance can take it, take your time. Slow and steady wins the race.
>I've run through stress fractures, heart procedures, flus and other physical ailments. I've run in frigid sub zero weather and in sweltering heat.
Respectfully, that sounds awful. Being sick sucks enough, the last thing I'd want or benefit from doing is physical activity during a flu.
Having experienced them, those runs were surprisingly not awful. In such cases I’ll jog a very slow mile, paying really close attention to what my body tells me (if I can walk, I can shuffle a mile or so). If anything, the act of getting out of the house and accomplishing something has more than once given me a morale and energy boost while sick.
The actually awful runs I’ve had are more of the "type 2 fun" kind (running in the desert, grueling trail runs), or the occasional hungover run before I quit drinking.
Did you have the flu (influenza) or a cold? Because I had influenza once and couldn’t even walk from bed to the kitchen.
I’m asking, because in German, many people call a regular cold a flu here.
But the chance to catch real influenza is like once every 20 years or so.
What about COVID-19?
Also a daily runner (6.5 years) - the worst time to run is when you have a head cold. The impact from the run just pounds throughout your skull. I have run when I had influenza and Covid. Only one mile at a time, up and down my driveway, but it wasn’t pleasant. But it was really only bad for a day or two, and for the sake of the running streak, you run (jog/walk) your mile and you’re done (and you collapse back to sleep). Then, once you’re starting to feel a little better, the feeling of running just one mile (when you’re used to running 3 or more) is the hard part.
I also ended up training for a marathon while I had a mild pneumonia. I had no clue until I saw my doctor for a routine checkup.
When you have a running streak like this, you find ways to make it work. You’re often running with some kind of a knock, be it a cold, or some knee pain.
I'm a daily runner and I had influenza in February, for the first time in 30 years. I had a high fever for a full week and could not even sit up in bed.
People tend to think any bad cold is the flu, and underestimate just how bad actual influenza is. In retrospect, the narrative of "COVID is just like a bad flu" is pretty accurate, because the actual flu is a pretty traumatic experience, and the idea of getting a worse version is terrifying.
Hah! I had that exact reaction. So many medicines are labeled like “X Cold and Flu”, like “X Stubbed Toe and Decapitation”, and people start thinking about them as similar.
No, they’re. Not. One is miserable. The other invites pleas for a quick and merciful death.
I am a runner. I had proper flu this year for the first time. I have never been that ill ever before. I could not even get upstairs to bed one night when I was at my worst.
My mothers advice on how to tell if it’s cold or flu: if someone dropped a big pile of money outside your window and you could get out of bed to retrieve it then it’s probably just a cold, if not it’s flu.
If you think you have the flu, it's a cold. If you think you're dying, it's the flu.
I had proper Flu this year, and almost exactly 4 weeks later caught COVID for the first time. Prior to these events I had a 5 year streak of being completely illness free, not a sniffle, not a head cold.
Both illnesses completely K.O.'d me. Literally 5 days straight of laying on the couch alternating between sleeping, sweating, or just groaning when I tried to move. So uncomfortable I couldn't even enjoy watching TV. I spent most of my awake time just kinda.... staring at the ceiling.
During the Flu on day 4 or 5 I was starting to feel a bit better, I was starting to care that my house was a bit of a wreck and the carpet in particular getting pretty gross (lots of dog treat crumbs). I did a half-assed job of vacuuming 2 bedrooms, the living room, and the den. Took maybe 15 minutes. That was the extent of my activity for the rest of the day, I was just wrecked. Had to sit down to catch my breath and get control of some violent shakes.
Next time I catch the flu I have to try going for a jog. It would probably put me into a coma long enough to sleep through the rest of the cold.
My experience as well. The one time I had the proper flu there was absolutely no chance I would walk, let alone run, more than 10 meters inside the apartment. I was completely broken for five, six days and just a wreck the week after that. Awful memory.
My flus were probably covids, I think it tends to bounce around in the population in the post covid days while loosing strength.
I have one really bad case if flu 20 years ago. Maybe I'll have to give up my streak then. It will be a bit sad, but maybe good for me that it opens up for some other way of exercise.
Different people react differently to flu and colds.
I usually don’t get any colds at all, but I catch the flu once a year and need to be in bed at least for a week. So I started vaccinating since a couple of years and have avoided it so far.
My wife on the other hand catches every cold possible but her flu is gone in a couple of days.
Said that, my doctor has always strongly advised against doing any sport during flu or immediately after due to risks of heart infection. That’s something I’m going to follow, I’m not a sports professional and I have no need to risk my hearts health.
Different people react differently to flu and different strains are different. I remember when I was 30 I got the flu and I had enough energy to walk to the nearest convenience store to get lunch and enough energy to do an hour of driving practice a day and the rest of the time I lay in bed. I did not have the energy to read a book. I didn’t have the motivation to turn on the radio. It was awful. Glad I haven’t had the flu since.
In the ultra running community, it's common to do a 1 mile "test" when you're feeling awful. You start your run, and if it still feels awful after 1 mile you walk on back home and try again tomorrow. Do this until you can just keep going again.
Did you not catch Covid? Even catching after getting the shots I still could barely move.
I barely felt covid, if not for temporary loss of smell I wouldn't think it was anything more than a moderate cold.
It was interesting today to discover the concept of "type 2 fun".
I often wondered why people did these self-evidently unfun things, purportedly "for fun".
They might be unpleasant but still fun. And they may be painful but in reward you get to see places you would otherwise not. Or you may get to discover your limits, which are of course further out than just pain and discomfort. So there is absolutely enjoyment in these "unfun" things.
Plus of course the chance to humble brag online afterwards!
I think part of it is that I just don't think of pain as per se bad. A lot of people I know who struggle with exercise feel a little discomfort and act like its the end of the world. They get shin splits or something and they decide they can't run. I've had mild shin splits continuously for 15 years. It doesn't really bother me in the same way, I guess. When I get back from a run if I lightly bump my shins its excruciating.
I will say that now that I am getting older its getting a bit tougher - the pain is worse and lasts longer and real chronic pain kind of bums me out, but I just enjoy the challenge of trying to work around my body.
I think comfort/discomfort is a highly individualized thing where your range gets calibrated by your experience, and that modern western lifestyles have created a very narrow band of what’s comfortable for many people.
I’m a big Type II fun person and feel that there are all sorts of highly satisfying life experiences to be had if you’re able to tolerate some discomfort, but there has to be some deliberate practice of getting comfortable being uncomfortable to ease into it.
Some people get literally high when running. Some don’t. The get high types invariably posture as if they have more dedication or willpower. Funny stuff.
You're right, there is no such thing as willpower and we're all automatons moving through the universe like planets in orbit, helpless to affect our future or how we feel about ourselves or the world.
Just because you feel like shit and your head is saying "this sucks ass", there's also the endorphins being released, the feeling of achieving something, of overcoming your own limitations and stuff.
I mean it's not for me but I can see how in hindsight (it's always in hindsight, never in the moment) it'll be considered fun. Or at the very least a story to share with friends or the internet, which is also fun.
I heard so often that it's outright dangerous to run when you're sick. Does anyone with knowledge know whether this is true? The general vibes of this thread gives me the feelings that it's more like a inconvenience than straight up dangerous to your heart and everything, which is what I heard and believed up until now.
Depends how sick, I have frequently heard that with mild head cold, that has not gone to lungs it is good to run to activate immune system etc.
I've had those days where a 10-minute shuffle felt more restorative than a full night's sleep
Lymphatic system is actuated by your movement. Sure, it will work with just the little movements that your body does to keep in one piece, but for full performance so to speak you need to move around.
There is definitely such a thing as overtraining. I got my free testosterone down to 15 (reference range=35-155 pg/mL) and my total testosterone down to 96 (ref=250-1100 ng/dL). From histograms from various studies, I hit the 1-percentile of low testosterone as a 35yo male. That's... uh... not good.
This was due to a number of factors: excessive running (the equivalent of ~50-70mi/week), calorie restriction, and possibly carbohydrate restriction. Thankfully symptoms of low T (namely morning erections) resolved ~1month after ameliorating those 3 factors. (For anyone interested, look up "Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport".)
Mileage isn't my goal. Health is.
OP states "I've... invested into my own health", but I'm not convinced.
While I don't disagree that "team no days off" is probably not the ideal way to promote long-term health, I'd assert that most of the adult population in first-world countries are far more at risk from a lack of sufficient physical activity than from overtraining. Not dismissing your own experience (it sounds pretty bad) and I assume from context that you worked yourself into that hole, but we need to be encouraging people to be doing more physical activity rather than less.
> I'd assert that most of the adult population in first-world countries are far more at risk from a lack of sufficient physical activity than from overtraining.
You're using the wrong reference group here. Would you still assert that most people when narrowed down to those who are running every day are more at risk from a lack of sufficient physical activity than from overtraining? Because that's the group we are discussing – those either doing it or considering doing it.
Most of the adult population in first-world countries are not considering running every day.
As a former runner (competitive trackin/xcountry) and a current recreational runner - I cannot imagine never taking a day off is actually safe for your knees and joints. At least for me, I simply cannot run every single day without developing some sort of tendinitis or other mild pain/ache.
Yeah. I'm training for my first official marathon right now and my rest days are sacred. I imagine if it's low volume running it's probably easier, but still, the pain adds up.
I think the nuance gets lost in a lot of the "no days off" messaging
I mean you're right, but if you're fat running is pretty rough on the knees.
Source: was fat, ran a lot, lost weight, got runner's knee, am fat again.
Maybe you already looked into barefoot running. I found it took the impact off my knees.
Oh yeah, haha
I've never done the like barefoot-barefoot thing but switched to minimalist zero-drop shoes.
It was in fact a game-changer for me, all of a sudden in my 30s I could run 10k without IT band pain (even when fairly athletic playing American football in my youth). But when I pushed more into the 10-mile range I got runner's knee - diagnosed w/o MRI or anything as patellar tendinitis although I'm sort of worried it was actually my meniscus.
I kept wanting to get back to it and kept re-aggravating. So I have now mostly given it up for like a year. Bad for my health of course. But as I move forward forced days off (ideally cross-training w/ swimming, kayaking, hitting a heavy bag, etc) just have to be part of the plan.
Have you tried non-running (indoor) cardio as a regular replacement? Jumping jacks, squats, jump squats, mountain climbers, even jogging in place. I do cardio everyday but running is only every 4th day. Of course, if you have access to equipment there’s always stationary bike and other machines like an elliptical.
Yeah, zero-drop shoes is what I mean by "barefoot" running. Landing on the balls of your feet, not your heel.
Maybe 10 miles is too much regardless though.
Was fat, walked a lot, lost weight, started running, still -25 kg.
But I'm not that skinny since "long time". Running 2-3x a week.
Totally off-topic, but when did people start abbreviating testosterone to T? I noticed it a few years ago when TV commercials started airing promoting various snake oils to fix low T. But now I see it everywhere. Is it another idea that escaped body building forums?
It started on forums, bled into social media, and now it’s used by advertisers trying to capture the people who recognize it from forums and social media.
Interestingly, the businesses targeting this segment have pivoted into offering actual testosterone prescriptions, pill-mill style. They’ve discovered that if they can find a willing doctor then there are no consequences for writing mass prescriptions for testosterone as long as they can create a minimal paper trail documenting some symptoms. So people see an ad on social media or hear one on the radio, make an appointment, and the doctor quickly diagnoses them with “low T” based on vague symptoms like “not performing as well as I’d like in the gym”, and they get a prescription.
The business model is to charge a monthly fee such as $200/month. Once people start taking testosterone their body shuts off its natural production, meaning they feel devastated if they ever stop taking it. So the customer is hooked. Some people can discontinue and eventually recover, but most people who take it for years will have testicular atrophy such that they may never be able to live without testosterone injections again for the rest of their lives. This inconvenient fact is rarely communicated up front, of course.
I think it's a shame avoidance and marketing effort. It's not flattering for a man to admit he thinks he has low testosterone. Easier to talk about.
There is some fake shit no doubt, but you can have real problems that lower it. Kills dudes motivation, libido, etc and that kinda spirals towards depression sometimes. But it's not meant for long term use or meant to be given out as willingly as it is.
But the daily mile is not what will push you into overtraining. It’s just 7 miles a week. Training hard in calorie restriction is IMO a horrible idea though. You would need to make sure to burn as little carbs as possible and not do any workouts. Basically dedicating a block to losing weight instead of improving your running. Might still get faster, weight is a factor in running
But exercise along with calorie restriction will keep you from losing muscle mass and so your weight loss will be more from fat. I agree though, no need to train hard during calorie restriction.
I've also seen how easily well-meaning habits (running, dieting, etc.) can tip into something detrimental, especially when the metrics become the goal. There's a fine line between dedication and depletion.
But how would you loose weight without calorie restriction?
Maybe this amount of running was excessive, but how did you even run such distances with T so low? (Ie how did you recover?)
I'm no expert on this, but I also read about this as I also tried calorie restriction.
You still have to keep your macros (and micros) in balance while on calorie deficit, which is even harder. Your body needs various things, you just need to optimize your food. Also, I think the main contributor for OPs issues was the fat deficit, which is very easy to fall into while you think you eat healthy a lean food. Fat is important for your hormone production.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26843151/
https://shilpidietclinic.com/low-fat-diet-and-hormonal-imbal...
In my experience(currently about 15kg into a 40kg weight-loss program), eating enough fat can also be very helpful for losing weight. It seems counter-intuitive, but it works for me. Fat contributes a great deal to satiety. My diet setup has been to have breakfast and dinner only, no lunch on most days. This way I can make both meals quite calorific, filling and plenty tasty. Crucial for maintaining adherence to the setup, which is by far the hardest part of weight loss.
When you have to go 7 to 8 hours without eating before dinner you want plenty of slow-burning calories. Long chain fats, protein, slow carbs, with plenty of fiber.
My typical breakfast ends up being one slice of bread with liver pate and cheese, another with peanut butter and either nutella(if I'm doing morning cardio or some other exercise mid-day. Lots of sugar in nutella, which gets used up immediately by the exercise anyway) or various kinds of jam with no added sugar(usually pear and apple, since they're not so tart and are pretty sweet without added sugar), and a protein pudding cup(20g protein). The bread needs to be whole-grain, of course. Ideally 100% whole grain.
This ends up being about 700 calories, which is a pretty substantial breakfast. And most importantly, it includes a lot of protein(from liver, peanut butter, cheese, the bread and the pudding), a good mix of saturated fats with plenty of SCFA and MCT from the cheese and liver, mono- and polyunsaturated fat from the peanut butter, and tons of soluble and insoluble fiber from the bread and peanut butter.
This tends to keep me full until dinner time, at which point I can typically eat up to 1300 kcal depending on how active I've been.
On extremely active days, I might either add another slice of bread to breakfast, or have a protein snack and some fruit after exercise, as well as electrolyte drink with sugar in it during(important both for energy and fluid uptake).
Anyway, I'm rarely hungry except for just before eating, which is the idea. I think this would be much harder on a low-fat diet.
A small calorie deficit alone won’t lead to major problems.
The phrase “calorie restriction” is often used in the context of life extension to refer to periods of very low caloric intake, near fasting. This would cause problems with hormone levels.
When people say calorie deficit they usually mean low calories. Not 3000 kcal intake and 3300 burned which would be a healthy approach for a runner
If someone is running everyday like this, do they actually even need to lose weight? Aren't they already very fit?
Also, testosterone also gets impacted by fatigue. Running is more fatiguing than lets say stationary biking or elliptical. So maybe try other forms of cardio to burn calories too instead of only running?
> If someone is running everyday like this, do they actually even need to lose weight? Aren't they already very fit?
Not necessarily. There's a reason the saying is "You can't outrun a bad diet."
Before I got my diet dialed in I was cycling every day, upwards of 10 miles a day with a couple 20 mile rides per week, and was still gaining weight because I ate like crap, and more importantly, still ate more than I was burning with all the exercise.
The average American consumes 3,864 calories per day. A moderately active male might have a maintenance of ~2,647 calories, give or take a couple hundred. Just eating 500 calories per day over what you burn will lead to about a 1lb increase in weight per week. A zone 2 run might burn somewhere between 500-600 calories per hour, so its easy to see how quickly over eating can add up and at a point it becomes basically impossible to "run it off."
There's other factors that play into it such as lean mass vs. fat, etc. but in general, you can be very active and still be overweight.
You can eat like shit and do a lot of exercise and be overweight.
I’m 90 kg at 180 cm. I ride my bike 450 km per week. A few weeks ago I did a 340 km, 3000 m elevation ride at 25.6 km/h and yesterday I did a 220 km ride at 27 km/h. Last week I burned 13,468 calories from cycling (this should be fairly accurate as I have a power meter).
I would say I’m quite fit, I can obviously ride my bike further and faster than the vast majority of people but I am definitely overweight and look fat.
While I didn't run this much, I used to run 50 km / 30 miles a week. My "cardio" was good, but I didn't lose weight because all the running made me 1. extremely hungry 2. too tired to cook a proper meal, 3. have a convenient excuse to eat bad...
"How could I not eat a second donut, I just ran 15k!"
I was not "feeling fit", though, I believe I had low T, and I stayed relatively fat, which is not great for your organs, liver values, heart, etc.
So even if you are able to run 50K a week, you may still be somewhat unhealthy due to poor diet and other factors, and some of them can be improved by losing weight...
For #2, meal prep is a valid strategy; double up on ingredients when you do cook, put the leftovers in the freezer for later.
I was too lazy to cook a proper meal for a good while, but I would make something in weekends. Since all portion sizes in shops are catered for 2-3 people minimum, I'd always have 1-2 portions left over. I had convenient 500ml freezer/microwave containers which was also ideal for portion control. Lost 8 kilos in 8 months without actively dieting during that period.
Mind you it was also a stressful period, with a new job and stuff.
I’m no expert, but you should be roughly as tired burning 200 kcal running vs walking vs biking. The difference will be how quickly you’ll burn those calories.
It's not really the type of exercise but the intensity that determines fatigue. If you walk for an hour you will burn 200 kcal and ready to walk one more hour. If you try to burn 200 kcal sprinting, most people would become exhausted before getting close.
wait what? you get morning erections when on low testosterone?
He meant the opposite: They were absent.
It should be noted that this isn’t a truly reliable indicator like the internet suggests some times. For many people, they still get them but it occurs while they’re sleeping rather than at time of wake up.
Yeah I've always wondered about that. I haven't gotten them regularly since I was 16 - 17. But in my late 30's, I still have an annoyingly high libido, no issues in the bedroom, and testosterone in the upper range of normal.
Internet bro science about testosterone has evolved into something resembling a horoscope: If you read a list of symptoms of “low T” on the Internet nearly everyone will think they have a problem.
There’s a parallel problem where the testosterone replacement therapy industry has diverged from its original stated purpose of replacing missing testosterone. The trend now is to prescribe excessive doses, beyond what the person ever naturally had. It’s basically a doctor-prescribed steroids when overdosed, but that’s also what a lot of people think they want.
Even crazier, some of the TRT clinics are now prescribing anabolic steroid compounds that were only FDA approved for severe muscle wasting disorders and cancer patients. The subreddits even had scripts you could follow to trigger certain clinics to prescribe the steroids for a time.
When googling, it seems to be the opposite. That morning erection is a sign of a healthy testosterone level.
Yeah that’s not true at all. Not sure where he got his info but it’s incorrect.
He probably meant absence of morning erections.
My cousin played ice hockey when he was a teenager, and started playing again too soon after having a flu. That lead to a heart infection, and almost killed him. He never played ice hockey after that.
So yeah, please be careful when doing sports while sick.
Rule 0 of training as an athlete was: you do not train when sick
Rule 1 of training as an athlete was: you do not train for N extra days after N days of fever
You do not want a heart infection.
Keeping track of you morning resting heart rate will tell you exactly what is going on.
I came here to say this, running while being sick is incredibly stupid, more so for men.
i had similar experience as author. so run few times a week for 7 years.
i was run in pine forest(it produces air with antibiotics), sub zero, down to -20c(in light clothes and sneakers).
for simple throat and nose conditions it was immediately healing, body temperature under 38c.
there rule was - never stop. nor walk. only run(until get to shower). or will get ill. tested few times.
in hockey people does not seem to run all time
also, i was run on frozen randomized ice pieces, dirt and snow like things. i had to adapt my posture for that, basically it does not streess same joints same way, not like thread mill or flat city roads. it was good. rule was never walk. when i started to walk, slipped to ground fast.
How is it worse for men?
I was under the impression that the risk is higher for men than for women.
According to https://www.myocarditisfoundation.org/about-myocarditis/:
> Men however are twice as likely as women to develop it, but women do develop myocarditis.
Why more so for men?
I don't have a specific thing to back it up but from my exercise science degree(in another life) men are at a greater risk for pretty much all heart/cardiovascular problems.
The site is cool but as a runner this is not admirable and not something others should emulate. Interesting how few comments call that out but perhaps not surprising if your audience admires The Hustle
Respectfully, if this guy has been doing it for ten years, it’s obviously not so bad as you make it out to be. It’s not a grind set mentality, it’s just one guys choice to exercise in a certain manner.
I am a runner. I train at what is probably the 80th percentile for longer distances, so I am by no means an expert. But I do understand that if you are running 7 miles a week, most of the time, your body isn’t going to be that beat up, especially if you are taking it slow.
It's not about the running but the "running through sickness and fractures". It's just plain stupid to risk your health like that. Great that it worked, but this is nothing anyone should blindly emulate. Have fun with the heart infection because you needed to run for virtual internet points.
Read it out loud ‘7 miles a week’
Most people sit at a desk for 40 hrs a week. That is way more damaging to your health.
Yeah once I read that I realised it wasn’t extreme at all.
I take ~2 mile brisk walks every day (the kind where my pulse will average to 130), interspersed with casual multi-mile hikes up the mountain trail nearby. That’s just my baseline cardio and movement to feel good and keep myself healthy.
What I’ve learned is a lot of people would call a “brisk walk” which takes your heart rate to average 130 “a run”. A runner’s definition of running can be quite different to a layperson’s.
I always thought (and still do!) it's about whether there are moments when both of your feet are off the ground, not about the pace.
Isn't that running?
If my heart rate is 130, that's a run for me, all be ot slow. 33-35min ish 5k.
A brisk walk would be 95ish
Ten years might not be long enough for long term damage to make itself known. In fact, most of the time, it's nowhere near long enough.
However, the cardio should help. With overall health that is, not whatever blown knee or hip or whatever he'll have to deal with later.
> with the occasional 0:01 run to be sure I get one in that day
> i call the one-milers "streak savers"
If that game helps, fine.
It worked out for this specific person under these specific circumstances with a methodology he might have not even fully shared.
You should not conclude from that, that it is healthy for every person to do so.
I (still!) have an uncle who had a similar mindset, broke his leg half way through a race and only realised when he stopped at the end, that he couldnt walk any further
finally when they had to (successfully) defib him during a race, that shook him into assessing his health not running for the sake of running
There's a mindset with distance runners that I have seen over and over, just sometimes way too much of a generally good thing
It is only a mile and you can run really, really slow.
I am also a run-streaker (3 years by now). I am not proud of running when i have the flu. But I run really slow and only the required amount.
Effort comparable to going to the store to buy food and aspirin.
Just gonna say, as a fellow excessive exerciser... exercise doesn't make you stronger. It's the recovery afterwards and the resulting growth/adaptation that makes you better.
Don't let rest feel like weakness. It’s where the real progress happens.
You have to appreciate how short a mile run is.
And either way, yeah runstreak is probably not optimal for improving your stamina. I am sure there are more rigorous programs for that.
I've been running five miles roughly every other day for fifteen years. If I've got a flu or not feeling great I'll take a few days off, no loss. Not sure how one would objectively determine "stamina", but my resting HR is in the bottom 3% for my age.
Obsessively run streaking one mile every day sounds completely bizarre to me and a complete PITA.
Almost as bizarre as those poor bastards that I see doing laps around tiny parks / basketball courts (the monotony would drive me crazy).
A treadmill looks even worse to my eye though. At least they're getting outside?
If a treadmill was my only option. I straight up wouldn't run.
If you hate running and you've only tried it on a treadmill, highly recommend giving it another try somewhere nice outside.
I must be one of the few that prefers treadmill running. The fact that it requires zero attention turns it into meditation for me.
> Not sure how one would objectively determine "stamina", but my resting HR is in the bottom 3% for my age.
It's not testable at home but if you're curious, google VO2 max.
But the stats! The streak fail! That's what running is about, right?
Imo, this is OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) expressed as running stats, rather than thimble collections or hand washing. It's about gaining/regaining a sense of control of one's life.
I'm allowing that maintaining the streak is perhaps the prime motivation when you are finding it hard to drag one's sorry ass out of bed every day. So maybe it's a good thing if it keeps you running.
I stopped running maybe 7 or 8 years ago. This thread has me wanting to go back to a mile a day or so — I'm past 60 years old now and more concerned about my health than I used to be.
A sequence of 5k race times (and ages) from yesterday:
It will be good for you. Start with a mile/day for three weeks. From there the past days will push you forward.
I suffered from an eating disorder a very long time ago that shared a lot of the same mechanisms (thankfully my starvation survival instinct was stronger).
A healthy relationship with exercise does not look like this and I hate seeing this stuff promoted.
I am surprised by the emotions in this thread!
Where do they come from?
The running community is intense. As a former "runs way too much" runner, you get very into it and it kind of takes over your life, it becomes your whole identity. Until you get injured from it and it wakes you up.
Thank you for your comment about identity. Was it something I wanted or did it sneak up on me?
The 1000+ days behind me means something. And many days it is what pushes me through.
It would be nice if I could find a ramp down scheme, but then with something else to ramp up, otherwise it would probably be better to just keep going.
Just stopping on a random Wednesday, it would just feel very weird.
(I am not the person in the article, just another guy with a streak)
You have to appreciate how critical recovery time is to improving your strength/stamina/whatever.
Do you tend to avoid household chores or letting the dog out on your resting days?
We are talking about a level of effort that is less than people's commute or a simple walking of the dog. People exert themselves more than a slow 1-mile jog by vacuuming their house or carrying groceries home from the store.
It doesn't magically turn dangerous just because the activity is labeled "running".
I looked it up and running slowly at a 12 minute per mile pace is about 8 METs, and vacuuming might be around 4 METs so that doesn’t seem to be true.
Also running tends to be more repetitive and pounding on the joints which requires more recovery time than simply vacuuming. I’ve never heard someone get injured vacuuming but I know dozens of people injured from running.
> People exert themselves more than a slow 1-mile jog by vacuuming their house or carrying groceries home from the store.
As someone who vacuums and carries groceries but doesn't run, I find that pretty hard to believe. Maybe if you are a very fit runner? But then those other activities would hopefully also be easier.
Rest doesn’t preclude running. Most high end runners run every day. It’s very easy to run at recovery pace and feel better than if you’d done nothing at all.
I find the tendency of very amateur runners having very strong opinions about running, odd. There are literally decades of research, and while the particulars change over time, the macros tend not to.
Here's Nils van der Poel's (World champion, World record) 5k 10k speed-skating training-program.
He explains why he took Saturday and Sunday off ;-)
https://www.howtoskate.se/
If you are sufficiently trained, a 1 mile day is a rest day though.
Not when you have flu. Or a stress fracture on your leg.
When you have run for a while, you get a pretty good feel of what kind of pain / discomfort you can push through, and what kind of pain / discomfort is actually harmful.
I suspect that the original poster has a better sense of these factors, for their own body, than you do and is much more suited to make these decisions.
As someone who has been running a lot for past 30 years, I respectfully disagree. This is objectively a bad idea, no matter what the "factors" or "sense of" these factors is, or what the runner's subjective situation is.
This isn't really that simple. Studies keep coming out showing that even people undergoing chemo and other heavy therapies benefit from some exercise(ex brisk walks), showing upwards of 20-30% better results. For his fitness a very light run could be as taxing as a brisk walk for a common person and still bring some benefits in fighting his illness.
I don’t feel strongly on either side, but I do want to point out that “I am not proud of running when I have the flu” immediately suggests a course of action that could make you more proud. It seems that not-running when sick would make you happier? Is it really worth doing just for the completionism?
i am not sure about the OP or the motivation and I am not a Streak runner/mover myself, but I do see the appeal of it, that will keep someone moving and exercise more or less consistently. Overall maybe the bad it is doing on bad days, is compensated with the good it is doing on good/average days. It is a long term motivator. For me now that i was cycling about 2-300km per week last year, going to nearly 0 this year so far because life and stuff, makes it pretty hard mentally to get back into the saddle, because of reduced performance, fatigue and just the general feeling of what it felt like to be in a faster group ride that I would get dropped from and i need to work my way back up there in performance and endurance. Having a streak going might have helped with this.
The way I see it is this: maintaining a run streak can be hard, but what is even harder is taking rest days when needed and every time get back on it. The (amateur) runners that impress me the most are those that keep running for years, decades, not through some neverending streak but through determination. The skill to abort a long run streak without quitting running is admirable.
Ok, happy for you that you have the intrinsic motivation.
You seem to be equally intrinsically motivated to tell me what to do and not do based on your experience.
I am not describing my own motivation, nor am I telling you what to do. I am only describing what to seems to be the most difficult thing to do. It matches well the expressed view that "if I break the streak I might stop running for good".
Sorry if you feel pressured to do anything.
Then I would loose my streak and the magic would disappear.
I am not a pro athlete. I think there are many days where athletes go beyond what they should to win some gold medal in some competition.
This is for me only and I am fine with it.
Can you tell me what you think you'd do?
Ya, that's fair, arbitrary motivators are arbitrary, but they still give motivation. I strongly dislike running, so if it was me I think I would give up once I get sick, or likely would not start the streak to begin with. I'm not saying that's the right solution, just trying to address your question.
I have also done a couple longish run streaks, but would have rested if ill.
Why do you run with the flu of you feel bad about it? What is the point of fulfilling the "rules" of run streaking?
For me the by far biggest positive effect of run streaking was that I knew every morning when I woke up that I would something i enjoy that day. The training is too low intensity and volume to really matter and doing it for the rules would have felt pointless.
If you "know better" are you a "run-streaker" because of some innate need to not break a streak? Is the streak the thing that keeps you motivated?
I can see how you might worry that if you take off one day when you are sick that somehow you'll start taking more and more "sick days" out of perhaps laziness. But I also feel like someone with such a level of dedication would not be in much danger of doing that.
I had an operation a while back, and had to give up running for 6 weeks (running increases blood pressure which can cause internal bleeding). I was climbing the walls waiting so I could step out and resume running.
One of the symptoms of the flu is aching joints. Running on aching joints may be damaging them, so I don't.
Worked with a guy who led the local running club and he'd run in nearly all weather. But even he admitted defeat after bundling up in heavy winter gear and doing a few blocks in -50F wind chill conditions.
I was more surprised the doctors even let him run after a heart procedure.
Did he ask them?
It may come as a surprise to you, but doctors don't have any means of "letting" people do anything. They can, at most, advise.
Yeah I was in the camp of " tough it out" when I was younger. Now, I understand how and when to listen to my body and lrt it rest is as important as working out with it. When my body is under stress from illness there is no need to put more stress on it.
then don’t? not for everyone and that’s why it’s an achievement
It's honestly downright dangerous. I don't think anyone's going to _enjoy_ running after that.
The author sounds as though they still do.
[flagged]
I think you might be coming across as the moron here. Not someone who has done their ‘ritual’ for 10 years.
Let him live as he wishes.
I find the tenacity inspiring, although I have no intention of replicating the feat.
Why are you guys saying they if the author is clearly a guy?
The singular they has been common in English for almost four hundred years. If gender is unknown or irrelevant to the sentence, then they is completely grammatically correct.
If you're trying to make a political statement, then I think that pointing out the use of they is more of a statement than the use of it is.
this is not a political statement, the author's gender is just known so there's no reason to use they
At risk of… what? Being uncomfortable?
It'd be perfect if we can have a toggle to switch to metric system, like kilometers, meters, celsius for temperature, etc. I find it very hard to follow the numbers expressed in miles
I know it's a dumb trick but it works for me: I use the Fibonacci sequence. 3 miles? 5 km. 8miles? 13km. 33 miles? 55km.
My dumber version: Just multiply by 1.5. It's fine unless you are using a treasure map.
Same here. Usually it's x1.6 but 1.5 is easier to calculate and you add a teeny bit after.
Mine is divide by 3, multiply by 5. Simple and quite accurate.
Ha! That’s nice.
I never realized 1.609 miles/km is close to the golden ratio (1.618)
It is quite clever. My own rule of thumb is "add half of the amount in miles, then 10% of the (original) amount in miles". What's interesting is that it happens to be just as precise as the method shown above (ie. 1.6 v 1.609 v 1.618 )
Hey, this is very smart. The golden ratio... Wow!
Fahrenheit is easy if you just forget trying to translate it to Celsius and just equate it to roughly:
- 0 = freezing
- 50 = mild
- 100 = Very hot (not burning just very hot)
Yeah but Fahrenheit still feels super alien and unintuitive if you haven’t used it much. I have like three or four approximate values that I think I know what they feel like, but most of the time I really have to stop and think.
For casual human use I would say Fahrenheit is one of the more easily defended imperial units since it has more resolution.
In reality hearing its 80 outside where I live could mean beautiful day or sweltering mugginess so it's never been a great indicator for me regardless of unit.
Or when people adjust a thermostat by like 2 degrees. If you changed it and didn't tell me idk if I would even perceive it. Temperature is weird.
The resolution part doesn't really hold for me, celsius can have decimals to have as much precision as you need but for weather purpose, half degree precision is usually more than enough.
We Celsius users use decimals if we need higher resolution.
That's fair. When I put "I would say" followed by "in reality" it means I don't fully support it.
The previous comment said they don't find F that useful since they aren't familiar. I am, and I dont find it that useful for predicting how it actually feels outside. Celsius doesn't change much for me in that situation.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries...
If you go for a run at 0C with a T-shirt you'll probably be OK. Gloves and ear coverings would be nice.
If you go for a run at 0F in a T-shirt, you won't be running for very long. That's like -18C.
0 = freezing
“Frigid” would perhaps be less confusing “Freezing.”
...except 0°C is literally originally defined as the freezing point of water? "Freezing" seems more on-point to me...
The temperatures given in that comment are very obviously in Fahrenheit...?
oh, OOPS, I didn't look at the GP
In that case, I stand corrected, and 0°F should definitely be "Frigid" nto "Freezing"
(thx for the alert)
I can somehow convert distances in my head, by pace is harder! If someone has a trick to quickly convert between minutes/mile and minutes/km please chime in.
I always use minutes as percentages of hours to convert miles to km, 30min is 0.5 hours so following that 30miles=50km.
Yeah! Please do
I got hopelessly addicted to running in college, then got a knee cartilage injury and haven't consistently ran in 3 years. Absolutely soul-disfiguring for those who love to do long slow runs like yourself. Cool data and visualizations!
Unreal that you rolled your own svg's for this instead of using d3.js. That absolutely blows my mind, great work!
Hi I record my running for almost 15 years
you can check https://yihong.run/
and also a repo: https://github.com/yihong0618/running_page
The map on your page is incredibly cool to me! Is 2023 a bug or did you really run a single loop for the whole year? What I imagine running while on house arrest would be like :D (Just kidding, of course :))
Zoom way out, the usual area is a bit “south”.
Very impressive work.
I've been on an unbroken rowing streak (Concept2) since December last year. Half hour per day mandatory, no rest days. Typical distance rowed is 6.5-8km. There are days where I "take it easy" but I still force a minimum distance of 6.5km regardless of how long it takes. My rationale for using the C2 is the lower impact and the fact that it resides inside a climate controlled building. These factors help reduce the possibility of excuse making.
I found that taking even one day off is all it takes to throw my discipline into a death spiral. Making it a required thing no matter what changes the psychology and game theory. It has become entirely a background concern after day 90 or so. There are days where I have to row and then do hours of yard work. The first two weeks of Texas summer almost got to me. But, this too has become a background concern. I can wake up, row 30 minutes, landscape for 2 hours, and then write code or post on HN until the sun goes down. No naps, stimulants or motivational speeches required.
What do you do if you're out of town for a vacation, work trip, family event, etc? I could see making a daily habit work for running since your feet work anywhere but if you physically don't have access to a rowing machine do you find some alternative?
I haven't encountered this scenario yet, but I would just substitute with running, stationary bike, etc. The whole point of rowing is to minimize impact and encourage consistency day-to-day. If we need to deviate on rare occasions to stay on track, it's not a big deal.
Not overthinking the exercise is a big part of not falling off the wagon. If you wrap yourself around that post it can really discourage you. Perfect is the enemy of really, really good things.
A lot of the comments are raising how unsafe it is to be exercising through 10 years of life without a day off, but as someone who also tends to let a day off turn into a year off, I can appreciate the wisdom of slowing rather than stopping / having a slow day rather than an off day.
I really enjoy the philosophy of the 80/20 rule for running (Book from Matt Fitzgerald), which says that 80% of your training should be at level 2, where your heart rate is much lower. It's made it a lot easier to actually go run every day, as it doesn't leave me feeling exhausted and it changes the psychology from feeling like I need to run faster to actually needing to slow myself down, which is really transformative for me in particular. YMMV, pun intended.
I don't think 1mi per day is dangerous by a longshot but pushing through injury and sickness is wildly dangerous. heart infection is a thing, especially for men
I don't know what impress me the most: that you run every single day for 10 years, or that you manage to have a data point for each of those. Not a single day did you forget your phone/watch/wtv? Not a single data loss? Not a single account hijaking/locked out/revoken token? Do you have your personnal SRE team?
It's all stored on Strava. You just push a button when you start running and when you stop. If it's habit, you notice pretty fast if you don't have your phone, especially if you listen to music or something when you run.
I don't run as much, and never more than 1h, yet it happened several times to me that my phone battery died on me while running. (I'm obviously not carrying a powerbank with me, and my phone is many years old). It would also expect that Strava or the network would fail from time to time (no need to go as far as antarctica for that - I've been living in germany for less than a year and I have lost track already of how many times the 5G/4G network has been out of order for hours). I guess strava has a good networkless mode. Or maybe my experience with tech has been particularly bad and I'm an outlier?
I keep track of my calories every day, every meal, every snack from a very long time. It's very rare to not have the phone or another device close when I'm eating or after the meal, even if offline I'll send a WhatsApp message to myself and it will be sent when im back online.
In the very rare occasions I don't have a phone I vividly remember what I've eaten and will record it later.
Neurotypicals, am I right? :')
You are always the neurotypical of someone, I guess :)
Same.. I am surprised someone would remember the exact dates to when they started running consistently... Seems odd..
A lot of runners (me included) are data nerds and record every runs date/time, distance, pace, weather, shoes worn, how we're feeling, temperature, elevation gain etc.
why? Give me 10 minutes and I could tell you the exact dates of each training program I've done since I was in University 18 years ago.
Really? I can hardly remember what the hell I was doing one day ago... I am probably just burned out though so that doesn't mean much.
I don't remember either, but I've always kept training logs. The 10 minutes are to check those!
I'd like to congratulate you on all those 1 mile days - I opened the link expecting to go "yeah, this person is just extremely lucky that they're one of those people that can just run all the time with no issues".
But a 1 mile run mean you've put your shoes on, went outdoor, were active and it feels extremely doable for anyone. I'm wondering if I walk at least 1 mile each day, if not, I definitely should!
Thanks for the share!
He does run inside 13% of the time.
OP, what is that grid of geo-located countries called? It's beautiful, and I want to play with such a map. Is there a name for this?
Those are called "tile grid maps", I got the template for the world one here: https://policyviz.com/2017/10/12/the-world-tile-grid-map/
Fascinating. I wonder if this is all run time or a mix of running+walking? I started running recently three days a week and this is my schedule-walk 5 mins , run 22 minutes, walk 5 minutes, another 22 min run, and then a final 5 min walk.
I cover about ~4 miles or so depending on my pace. I increase my running duration every other week by a few minutes.
just wanted to say the site looks awesome! I love the minimal black+white/grayscale and the fonts are just lovely. vis looks great too, I enjoyed poking around nearly all of the unique runs to look at the map and paces.
Agreed. Was wondering where the inspiration came for each chart choice?
I came to say this as well. I really like the design and all the fun statistics.
Can you post a picture of what your body looks like? Curious if a person who runs every day has a very thin body or if you are more well built still
I'd be curious to see long-term improvements, like resting heartrate over time, or heartrate @ 10 min mile over time.
Impressive. I did streak running for 6 months nice and it was some of the most productive running in my life. Interestingly I have much higher yearly averages than you do but still consider daily streak running quite hard. Not being a morning runner myself might contribute since I get into a lot of close calls that way. My streak literally ended when my daughter went into the hospital and I couldn’t well just fuck off for a run any longer.
I'm not running so much anymore (foot injury) - but for the last 15 years I've spent an hour+ on the road or in the gym 5 - 6 (sometimes 7) days a week. Also through sickness, injury, etc. It's changed the way I view being alive and healthy - I actually consider it "chronic medication" :) Kudos to the OP though - that's some mad dedication.
Streak culture is motivating, but I always wonder where the line is between discipline and obsession. Still, there's something powerful about building a routine that becomes part of your identity
Stop treating obsession like a bad thing. That’s the only way how you get at front page of hackernews.
As someone with severe OCD my entire life... Trust me its a bad thing.
I am gonna blame your OCD for the malfunctioned sarcasm detector.
Something funky with your personal beats. It says your best 5k was in 35:35 but your best 10k was in 43:26. Not possible for those both to be true . I guess the 5k data is screwy since that is quite a slow 5k time.
Edit: seems maybe tht 5k is mislabeled, should be 5 miles... But that feels like a less standardized time.
Just a labeling issue. If you click on the 5k you get a detail popup on the right that says 5 miles, which is much more in line with several of the other times.
5 miles is not that uncommon a race distance in the US; 8k is very close, but you can still find both. (There are much fewer 3-mile or 6-mile races, those are mostly all 5ks and 10ks.) Though it's unclear if it was an organized race.
edit: it probably wasn't an organized race, there's a separate "races" tab.
Definitely a bug, will fix tomorrow, thanks for catching!
The label seems to be off. It’s 5 miles, not 5 kilometers. Based on the data below it and map.
I admire your dedication. I also like the spartan look of your site.
I'm a trail runner and I've been running over 18 years or so, not every day, but two or three times a week. Sickness or health, injury, birthdays, holidays, rain, snow, -30C. My last big run was around Christmas. After that I had about three months medical off-time. Now it's very hard to get back on track. I just had to cancel some summer running events. It's not just motivation, but general stiffness and musculoskeletal pains like shin splints and knee and ankle soreness. My guess is that at my (middle) age, you either do it or lose it.
I advise anybody to find something they like and stick with it. Vary it according to how your body feels, but always do something. Keep the body (and the brain) working.
Have you tried getting back into cardio with a softer method like biking? Maybe that combined with some strength exercices could toughen up your body enough that you can start running again! Anyway, best wishes.
Trail running has started to absolutely wreck my back. Part of the problem is that I can't wear shoes that have plastic in them because of an allergy. Advice?
There’s a movement called “barefoot shoes” / “barefoot running”. Very different gait from usual running and all the cushioning is in the muscles/ tendons. You can find some brands that have coton + rubber shoes (rubber is from a plant whereas plastic is from petroleum, don’t know if that works for you). And hemp or wool insoles. Probably not very durable but softer and more flexible than leather.
I'd be interested in some knee cartilage statistics.
Under the "Countries Visited" section it says "been lucky to run on all seven continents, including antarctica!", but it doesn't look like they've been to Australia.
there's also 8 continents now apparently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealandia
Oh lol you’re right! Perhaps they ran in Australia before they started this ten-year streak? In that case it could still be true, but not show in the data
Edit: also, they pulled the data from strava. It’s possible they forgot to record their Australian run(s) in strava for some reason
wonder if I know this person, as I've also run on all seven continents, as well as the north pole (which is not a continent).
there aren't that many of us (that have run on antarctica, vs king george island).
I haven’t been to Australia, but I’ve run in Hawaii, which is part of Oceania (broader than just Australia).
Notably not on the tectonic plate Australia is on (which is mostly although not entirely just Australia in terms of land), though, if someone is going by that definition.
Eh, that doesn't really count. Sounds like a good excuse for a trip ;)
Some neat visualizations. I have a fondness for every-day running (I used to participate).
Having lived in Denver for a decade, I can say it’s definitely a run city. So many run groups. A guy I used to work with did ultra marathons of 100mi+. Insane. Good for you! I saw the flat irons green mountain run and immediately said “Hey, I know that place!!!”
I’m not going to run it but I’ve hiked up in there a bunch of times.
10 days in antarctica? Why were you there? Were these all treadmill days?
Do you have longitudinal resting heart rate data? Would love to see how it changed over the years.
I haven’t aggregated the trend over time, but my resting HR has definitely decreased, I’m roughly around 40bpm at the moment, down from ~60bpm 10 years ago.
> I’m roughly around 40bpm at the moment, down from ~60bpm 10 years ago
To put that into perspective for other readers: I've been running for about 10 years also, but typically 2x a week (10k mid-week, 15~20k weekend), I have no real data on my heart rate from when I started, but at rest I'm now typically at 60bpm.
I measure almost daily due to medication and having a minor heart defect, and I have noticed that if I skip a week of running, it'll slowly go up, averaging at ~62bpm, but when I train for a (half) marathon I typically increase my distance a bit and try to train every other day (~3x/week) then my heart rate a rest goes down a bit to be consistently below 60bpm (58bpm avg).
40bpm is very low, for non-athletes this would be considered dangerously low, but I guess daily running at OPs distance would classify OP as an athlete. Also keep in mind that heart rate differs per person, some people just naturally have a low heartbeat.
He might be referring to his sleeping heart rate. Mine's around 40bpm too, and although I'm in shape, I am definitely not an athlete. There is a correlation with height (taller -> slower bpm). If you are young and fit, I don't think you have much to worry about a slow resting heart rate, in the absence of other symptoms.
Was just coming to say that there's definitely a genetic component. Even in my more sedentary periods of life, my resting HR never really peaked above ~55 BPM. Playing tennis and going for regular runs with my husky puts my resting HR at 38-40bpm. My father who also runs and plays sports has a similar heart rate.
Just so we're clear on definitions, resting HR is your heart-rate AT REST (meaning sitting or lying down quietly), it's not necessarily your HR while you are sleeping which may be potentially lower.
That is very cool, thanks for sharing, and congratulations on an epic streak.
I'm also into running visualisation, and created the running report card:
https://run-report.com/
It visualises your year in running, with some fun narrative generated by GPT. Here's my report card:
https://run-report.com/8725202.html
Nice work. My first thought was whether I could get similar graphs for my own data — this run-report.com does exactly that. Clean design, and the GPT-generated summary is a nice touch. Thanks for sharing.
I'm all on again, of again runner.
I was in the on phase, and we decided to get a puppy. She lives to sniff, run, and explore. So, looking forward to a long streak!
This is brilliant!
I'd like to see your average HR per pace marker to see how your running zones have changed at the same pace over time.
The average HR for a 10k you did at 5,50 per km did 6 years ago compared to now at the same pace.
What a dope website. I used to run every day for a ~year and every since I'm on a decline. Would really love to get into that habit again.
Impressive.
A nice addition would be adding a switch for converting to non-American units though
Great job. The website is well done, too. I had a streak of about 400+ days several years ago which I ended the day after a marathon. Today I take off when I am sick or the day after a long race. The morning coffee doesn't taste right unless I run beforehand. :)
I find the coffee tastes better when I clean my teeth after the run :-)
Looks fantastic! I run somewhat regularly and enjoy it, but would never make it my primary form of exercise due to the high impact stress on the body and relatively high injury rate compared to other solo forms of exercise. What made you decide to make it your primary form of exercise, and to do it every day?
Just from stats alone I assume op is from Colorado but ~4 years in a decade were split between NY and CA, that’s impressive level of traveling even ignoring all the rest of the even more impressive international trips. What do you do for living, man on the run:)?
Running has been good for me and my folks too.
It doesn't have to start big, you can start by running down your block once a day and go from there.
Start small, think big.
Obligatory Tom7 recommendation: [How I ran the length of every street in Pittsburgh: PAC TOM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c8i5SABqwU).
In this "expert mode running" video the protagonist, Tom Murphy VII, of computer science comedy YouTube fame, runs 3661 miles across 269 runs in this mammoth 16 year project to run every street in Pittsburgh, thus "completing" it Pac Man style.
If you are not familiar with Tom7 and his whimsy, I cannot recommend enough that you check his videos out.
First, congrats on your self discipline.
Second: About running just one mile in a single day: Does have any physical benefit? (Yes, I know you run more than one mile on many days.) It would take more time to change in to/out of your clothes and shoes than run a mile. Plus it only burns 100 cals. Can you imagine someone writing here that they only swim 9 mins per day... Or bike 9 mins per day?
> Does have any physical benefit?
Compared to what? Sitting on the couch, snacking on chips? Of course.
Compared to letting your body fully rest during that day (perhaps in between longer runs).
Did you ever have a day where you just jumped on the treadmill and ran a few steps and said, “eh, technically that counts” and ended the run early?
See the note about the one mile runs.
I started walking everyday 1-4km, and then switched to jogging 1-2.5 km everyday. It built up the muscles in my back so I no longer slouch, also fixed constipation issues I was having.
you seem to be leaking your access token for mapbox.com api?
'pk.eyJ1IjoiZnJpZ2dlcmkiLCJhIjoiY21jbHdmZmZmMGV3dTJpcHR5cWcwOHhzdyJ9.Z-XMMh_nFDjm8FUyB2tZ_w'
pk usually means publishable key - should be fine
Running every day for ten years is impressive enough on its own. What really stands out to me is how you turned the whole thing into a structured, data-driven project. The way you blended life and tech feels genuinely inspiring. It's not just about running, it's about how you choose to spend your time.
I really appreciate the website, it's amazing!
How do the runs end up on the dashboard? Is that Apple Watch / Strava data that you automatically or manually export? How many different systems did you have to integrate? I assume you don't necessarily used the same app or watch to track your running ten years ago that you use today?
The pace chart looks very close to a normal distribution, cool!
This is so cool! At what point did you start thinking about this project? Like, were you quietly working on it a year ago after every run, just waiting for this moment?
And hey, great run in Japan! (Tokyo here!) I love the map visualization too.
I thought about it last week, was pretty quick to hack together!
I loved loved running in Japan, such a wonderful country
You collected and logged all 3653 days of data through a device or manually by typing/saving it where initially (excel sheet) after each new run?
The details are astonishing.
Can you tell how you managed all of this so gracefully? Were you working on this idea from day 1? When did you buy this domain?
You even saved and displayed a few dozen live map coordinates as well from 2016 onwards.
Most of the well known GPS watches supports GPX exports.
Strava and GPS watches and Apple Watch make this really easy, even back in 2015.
Congrats! How are your knees doing if I may ask and how did you take care of them?
I've only been running for a couple of years and already feeling troubles brewing in.
The idea that running leads to knee damage is a pervasive myth.
The focus is usually on the increased impact during running, but arguably when averaged over the time it is actually somewhat equivalent to walking, the 'air time' of each joint means you are effectively under no load with some form of decompression.
It is effectively a higher load with a lower duty cycle. versus walking with a lower load at about 50% duty cycle.
Joint 'damage' is a misnomer. Joint surfaces are under load/impact and friction while running, that is just biomechanics.
Other mechanical parts like bearings have a load capacity and lifetime. It is not a stretch to model the same for articular surfaces on your hips, knees, ankles.
I agree, and I've heard the same. In my experience, knee problems always disappeared with moderate running. Of course, you have to allow yourself time to recover after running. But as far as I know, the science is that joint lubrication in your knees needs activity to function properly.
How so?
Old people often have bad knees. Runners often become old people. People make an association that’s not born out in statistics. Most of the body is “use it or lose it” and running improves blood flow and development of muscles and structures of/around the knee.
I’ve been lucky to never have any real knee issues. The only period I ended up with a little knee pain was because of a poor running shoe choice, and it resolved when I got properly fitted and changed shoes. Hope you figure out the source of your troubles!
Do strength training, as in compound leg exercises once or twice a week. Squats, forward lunges, (and many more you can find online for knee strength). The healthiest approach to running is not just running, especially if you're over 30 :)
It might be worth going to a sports physio that specialises in runners. I did this a year ago and fixed my overstriding and increased my cadence and no longer have random soreness or troubles in hips or knees etc.
Everything about this is absolutely wow
Insane dedication.
"Running over 30 miles a week for probably my first five, six years on Tour pretty much destroyed my body and my knees,” Tiger Woods said.
So in 4 years it might be really bad? Be careful.
Just running 30 miles a week is not enough to cause damage in most people. Tiger was also doing hours of professional-level golf training every day at the same time.
7 miles/week vs. 30. And this doesn't count all the other physical stresses Tiger put on his body, like the insane torque he was able to generate swinging a club.
Even if the poster walked a mile day, that's only 20 minutes and barely hits the recommended exercise time.
I feel like anytime these threads pop up about someone staying physically healthy a bunch of people come out the woodwork to make it sound like they are hurting themselves. I'm not really sure why.
Do you never get sick?
I'm inspired. I need to start trying for this sort of consistency with resistance training. While I'd never advocate for "no days off", a lifetime of progress is built on a lifetime of participation.
This is incredible, really nice work. How do you deal with physical injury and giving yourself time to heal?
Congrats! Why don’t you ever take a day off eg for recuperation or during some of the more serious issues you mention?
Jogging a slow mile is pretty much "a day off" these days
This really inspired me. I think I will do one on basketball.
Great work on data collection for 10 years. Quantified self tracking into a universal format is still really hard.
What tracking sensors do you use that input into Strava? (e.g. Garmin, Apple Watch, built in iphone, etc)?
It’s changed over time: I first used MapMyRun with my iPhone, then switched to Strava on the iPhone, then got a garmin, and nowadays an Apple Watch. I’m super grateful for Strava to exist, if only as a repo of all my workouts.
Would be super cool to see a "no days off" streak in a skill-based sport like that
How many shoes do you go through in a year?
How do you manage to always find the free time for run even though the conditions doesn't allow it? Like for example if you take a flight of 16 hours.
I'm not a run streaker, but am an avid runner and if you "only" need to run a mile you really only need to find 15min in a day to keep your streak alive.
I don't want to speak for the OP, but most people don't take a 16 hour flight ever in their life.
Yeah, 16 hours is crazy long. I would add that I found the best thing to do on both sides of a lengthy flight (say 6-8 hours) is exercise.
I feel very inspired by this, thanks for sharing! Didn't know this Run Streak Association existed but now I want to join. Congratulations on your immense achievement.
As someone who' just counting steps, I'm genuinely curious what's your average steps per day? And how many steps over 10 years?
I’ve always wanted to do this, but I fly to Singapore from the USA about annually. That means that I essentially skip a day (take off on day 1, land on day 3) so can’t qualify for the streak. Also why I couldn’t do the 366 day streak in one year.
I don’t think this is true! Days of your life are (imo) not defined by the date line, but by the 24-hour periods you experience. If you accept my rules, then as long as you always have flights shorter than 24 hours, you can still run on sequential days.
Edit: you could also potentially run on the plane. I admit that would be pretty weird though
I ran on the Queen Mary II, every day, across the Atlantic :)
Much easier than a plane, though.
Will Shortz (NYT crossword editor) had a table tennis streak that was going to be affected in a similar way.
> You cannot fly from New York to Bangalore without missing a day in the calendar. So I flew to Dubai and stopped there for two and a half days, played table tennis at clubs there, and then flew on to Bangalore. I’ve been to China and Japan multiple times, and, because of the time change, the flight leaves New York at, say, 11 a.m. and gets to China or Japan late afternoon the next day. So I play early in the morning, like seven or eight, go directly to the airport, fly to Beijing, get off the plane, and go directly to a club to keep my streak alive.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/w...
A friend of mine is on a 25 year running every day streak. He flew to Australia and landed 2 days after taking off and said that day “never existed for him” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I like your friend's rule. If a guy literally runs every day, through stress fractures, flu, winter snow, thunderstorms, etc, I'm going to cut him a break on an international flight and continue to celebrate his streak with him.
decade streak is legit impressive. just hit 30 days of 5k myself. some might scoff at the number of 1mile days but dragging yourself out when you're busy or exhausted is rough.
Love it! How did you stay motivated?
At first it was all about the challenge of doing one more day.
After about two years the streak became part of my identity, which might sound a little unhealthy. It’s easier to just head out and jog a mile or two than to let the number go back to zero.
This being said, it’s made for interesting conversations with medical professionals – I needed a cardiac ablation a couple of years ago and my electrocardiologist came to an “agreement” (as in she didn’t forcefully dissuade me from doing it) that I could jog a slow slow slow mile late in the evening the day after the procedure, as long as I kept my heart rate down and I made sure I was being mindful of my puncture sites.
just want to second this. and realy, antarctica?? how?? i mean, apart from the logistics etc , ... is it runnable? i can hardly picture it in such harshness!
Speaking for the US stations, in the summer you can run outdoors. I don't want to say many people do, but there are always some.
Here's me from a few years ago, to give an idea of the clothing required https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/life-at-the-pole/2021/01/week-...
Even at the South Pole, we have a 5k "Race Around the World" at Christmas, and a marathon shortly after New Year. In 2022, someone did an ultra. It's compacted snow/ice. Not easy terrain, but doable in your average pair of running shoes (with wooly socks). For the race events we normally ask someone to drive round the route a few times to compact it a bit more. On the coast at McMurdo there are routes that are more like traditional trail running - dirt/gravel, hills. I assume other stations are similar.
The more intrepid folks gave up when it got to around -50C and then it's treadmills until sunrise and it warms up again.
There's also a more pay-to-play marathon: https://www.icemarathon.com/ ($22k)
Those might've been some of the treadmill runs. Also looks like they were all one-milers.
I've run for 40 years but not every day because of age/illness (covid will pretty much end your life)
I don't think you should be running through illness and stress fractures but I can't really criticize as I get the obsession
My personal joke is that I like to get my "10,000 steps a day" in all in the first hour
but this is actually the most amazing part to me:
Do you have the source/pipeline available? I love the design and would want to do something similar for my own runs.
Congrats on the decade! Did you ever focus on specific metrics or was it always just about the run?
Unfortunately I ended up winging the data processing, so it was mostly a pile of adhoc scripts. The incremental update pulling from the Strava API is a little cleaner, but would require significant work to open source.
The only thing I ever really cared about was keeping the streak going, everything else has come second. I dropped out of a trail running trip after a fall because I felt that even though I could continue, putting too much mileage on my knee would jeopardize the streak.
I don't have the tenacity to run strictly _everyday_, so as a middle ground I don't run when it rains at anytime during daylight.
Of course the effectiveness of this rule depends on where you live :P
In particular, the access to indoor treadmills.
I love this! BTW you are selling yourself short on your 5K personal best. The time listed (35:35) is your best 5 mile, whereas your best 5K is a respectable 21:20
What shoes do you use? How often do you replace them? How are your knees holding up after ten years?
These graphs are gorgeous, visually and otherwise. Really well done display of information.
Is it possible to toggle from miles to km?
do you have code it on github ?
Honest question. Why is it imperative you run everyday? What would it mean for you to not run for day or everyday?
both the endeavor and the site are super cool - congrats on 10 years. interaction on the graphics would be a nice touch to select into a specific run. went looking for the code on your GH! https://github.com/friggeri
Tried starting a "run every day for a year" initiative last year. Wish it was for me, after 42 days I realized that I actually actively despise running and spend most of my time not running dreading the next one. Easiest habit I've ever dropped :(
Such pretty visualizations!
This is beautiful. I wish you lifted 10 years ago!
(oh no this was on the wrong comment and alas past the delete window ha).
I don't understand how this is related, can you explain?
Hah oh my this was on the wrong HN article I had open. Thank you so much for kindly pointing that out.
SVGs? So, some of the staistics graphs do not update, or have you made them dynamic by hand?
beautifullllllll—both the streak and the stack. Love how lightweight the architecture is for something so personal and long-term. Curious if you noticed any patterns in the data that surprised you once you visualized it?
Love it!
I will hit one year mark in a couple of weeks. Currently maintaining stats in a Google spreadsheet :)
https://vijaykillu.com/
Congrats, that’s an amazing milestone!
I love streaks like this.
My current bests are: 686 days for completing the New York Times Crossword and 582 days of 20+ minutes of Apple Fitness+ classes.
Plus 15,344 days without driving a car (I never learned) and without having alcohol or soda (just never had the interest). And 5,123 days since I've taken Ecstasy (tried it once).
Around 6,000 days since I last intentionally ate meat, but I couldn't tell you the exact date.
> Around 6,000 days since I last intentionally ate meat
What does "intentionally" mean? Are you sometimes accidentally tricked into eating meat?
I was pre-empting the ultra-clever HN commenter who might question whether I’d accidentally eaten meat as a byproduct of food production.
Love how you laid (layed?) everything out. Super clean site.
Reminds me of this one guys site from way back on HN that had tons of biometric data hooked up into a futuristic live panel. Wish I could remember the URL.
Is it https://howisfelix.today, by any chance? I remember that being here.
That's awesome! any tips for people who are just starting out?
I always hated running, but months of nagging by one of my colleagues (who does marathons) I started doing it, but keeping it short and slow for now.
My first jog was like 500 meters, and I was exhausted, but I've did like 20 more sessions since then, and I see a steady increase of distance I can go before I reach my first point of exhaustion.
Now I can go 1000 meters, and recover faster, and I even feel slightly generally better during my everyday life.
Since I'm not pushing myself too hard, it is actually kind of enjoyable and even though I do not have a regular routine, never before I had the spontaneous urge to jump up from my chair at the end of the workday and go running with a smile on my face.
Not OP but I've been consistently running for ~4 years (consistent := >=200K every month). The #1 advice I'd give is start short, start slow, e.g. start with 1 mile and as long as you're not walking you can consider yourself running. It's about finishing, not about speed.
Also unlike many people I know, I don't listen to anything while running. Running is a time for me to think about stuff that I'm too busy to think about during the day (e.g. contemplating life issues or is 1*0=0 because of 1 or 0)
I would say that starting slow is more important than starting short. And the important part of starting slow is having a full acceptance of slow running as valid running.
I used to think anything slower than 10:00/mile is jogging and doesn't qualify as running. This harmed motivation since when I was just starting I couldn't actually get faster than that every single run.
When you exercise try to stay in heartrate zone 2/3. This may mean walking up a hill as many people cannot start running and keep their heart rate down. Many who try to run get discouraged as they go too hard and blow up their heartrate which makes for a unpleasant experience.
Over time the speed and duration you can run will get better but your heart rate will stay the same.
I would recommend trail running as it is much more dynamic and you are less likely to get overuse injuries like people who run on concrete for many miles get stress fractures. Bonus points you get out in nature.
Our heart rate will not stay the same when we run.
Our expectations change. We learn to expect a faster heart rate.
If you run regularly there'll be nice days. The temperature will be 55F with no breeze and cloudy enough so the sun isn't annoyingly bright. You'll feel great the whole time and the only regret will be that it wasn't a longer run.
Those aren't the days that matter.
The days that matter are rainy. They'll be bastard hot and humid. Cold and windy. You'll be annoyed because you don't have time. Something will hurt and there'll be a thought in the back of your head that maybe if you skip today (and the next run too?) then you'll feel better.
Those crap days are the days that count. Those days are money in the bank. Enough of them and you get great days. Every day like that is a day where you can think that running for you is like a smoke to a pack a day man. It's not something you do it's something you are.
When I started out (3y into my streak now), the magic happened in some more or less distinct stages.
On week four "I am really doing this". And on week 12 "impossible to stop now".
Aim for those and you will be unstoppable.
Don't buy into the "couch to 5k" hype. Instead, try "none to run" and don't be afraid to take it even slower than the programme suggests.
Like others said: take it slow, invest in the long term, and most importantly learn to listen to your body. Best of luck in your journey!
Developer version of Forest Grump.
I admire your persistence and it's something I should learn from.
I envy all runners. I tried running many times, on consecutive days as well. After running for a minute or so, I start getting a burning sensation in the chest and I gasp for breath. I must stop and sit. After resting for a few minutes, I can repeat the same. However I can do fast walking for an hour. I suspect this is some condition that I have, rather than lack of practice. So I don't push it. Anyone thinks this is normal? Also I'm not sure if running for longer time is so much needed if I do walking.
Talk to your Dr obviously, but you may just be running too fast. There's lots of Couch to 5k programs that start off with 30s run intervals with walking in between.
With running you need to play the long game and slowly build up your pace, total mileage, and number of weekly training days. It's hard to be patient, but it seems to be the secret to minimizing training injuries.
It's normal. Run slow and have breaks every minute. It will improve pretty fast (every run will be slightly but noticeably better than the previous one).
Take a much more gradual increase in intensity. Start walking for 5 minutes, then speed walking for 5 minutes, then light jogging, etc.
Alternatively, try cadio exercise on a machine. Personally I like the elliptical machine way more than running. Mostly since I can watch Netflix and other videos while I do it. But it also lets you regulate and monitor intensity more effectively than running.
It took me at least a couple of months of regular running before I could run consistently on flat terrain without taking walking breaks (and almost a year to consistently manage long up-hill sections).
Consider taking it much slower and do intervals between walking and jogging (I'd do it by feel instead of timing exactly). Over time increase the proportion you jog.
Bike to run. Bike helps strengthen your knees, and it's very easy to target Zone 2, which achieves the highest calorie burn rate. This is how I got back into running after a meniscus injury, without surgery.
This is so cool. Congrats on ten years!
Congratulations. I just have one question; how do you run one day in each, Porto Rico, Hawaii, Austria, Sweden, let alone China?
In other words; what led to being in each of those places for only one day? I don’t understand how you, e.g., found yourself in Puerto Rico for only one day.
Unfortunately my treadmill runs don’t have GPS data associated with them. Austria, PR and Hawaii were places where I ran mostly in the gym.
This being said, Sweden is a fun one: I was in Copenhagen for a few weeks and I thought it’d be fun to take the train to Malmo, do my long run, and then take the train back. All that to say, I’ve spent 3h30 in Sweden, 3h05 of which I was running.
Shanghai was an overnight layover.
Damn. I want to try this, now.
Well you can go out and set a one day streak right now!
Is this healthy?
Running through illness and injury isn’t, otherwise why not. But I don’t think that’s the point. It’s challenge to yourself.
You need a angular histogram (like WORKOUT ACTIVITY BY TIME) but for miles per direction ran. Doesn't really need to be more granular than 3 cardnals long to be pretty interesting.
Very cool. I can’t run (bad knees) but I’ve been making a habit of walking at least 30 min a day, and goal of 90 minutes.
I’m happy to have hit that goal this past week, and your post inspired me to make every week a successful one in that regard. Thanks!
Cheers, best with everything!
> every. single. day.
No logs for May 1st, 2021, what happened that day?
That was a bug :)
You monster!
> heart procedures
Do you have AFib, by any chance? Congratulations on your streak, regardless.
EDIT: in another comment, you mentioned:
> I needed a cardiac ablation a couple of years ago
So I guess that's a yes? Was that when you were averaging 5.3 miles daily that one year? For those unaware, there's a well-established link between excessive endurance exercise and AFib.
Not AFib thankfully, I had a few sporadic SVTs while running (it’s however unclear whether exercise was the original cause, or if it was congenital and started manifesting while running).
Thankfully the ablation took care of them and I haven’t had an episode in a few years.
amazing
I think fitness fanatics should disclosed their BMI when they started the craze. At least around me, the only people really into compulsive running either have serious body weight problems they want to tackle, or were told by their doc that they need to move to avoid some cardiovascular problem. I don't know many slim people into compulsive running.
Counter point based on my own experience: in Europe the median runner is actually quite slimer than the median non-runner. And I'm surprised to learn it's different anywhere else.
This is such an odd statement to me. It almost sounds like you're claiming running is a scam propagated by the fats.
Anyway as a to counter your annecdote: I ran every day for a decade before some injuries. I was in quite a few clubs and I genuinely cannot think of a single person from those groups who wasn't "slim."
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> 1 mile / day ... for months. in 2022, 2023, 2024
cmon. that's barely a run
can't say if you are kidding? or if you are someone who runs 10+ km daily and looks down on others.
OP is doing this as a hobby, no need to criticize it in my opinion.
try 10km+ a day. then we will talk
Very cool, but running 1 mile really can't be considered a run of course. So don't reallt see this as ran-every-day-for-10y. Nice vis tho!
This is such funny gatekeeping. I don't know what % of the U.S. population could even run 1 mile at all without stopping, but I'm certain it's well under 50%, much less do at least that every day for 10 years. This is an impressive feat. For real, shame on you for crapping on this person's very respectable achievement.