Respectfully, that sounds awful. Being sick sucks enough, the last thing I'd want or benefit from doing is physical activity during a flu.
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.
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?
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.
No, they’re. Not. One is miserable. The other invites pleas for a quick and merciful death.
Most of the time influenza is not worse than a normal cold. You will have plenty of partial immunity via previous infections and vaccinations that takes the edge of most infections.
Same as COVID. Most of the infections are not even noticed by the ones infected. But sometimes it is/was extremely bad, if you had no previous exposure/vaccination, a large amount of bad luck and/or pre existing condition.
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.
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.
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.
I did my usual, ran a few miles on the treadmill, did family walks all over, etc. I just felt lethargic - like I didn't sleep well at all, but I powered through it.
I know people who were absolutely bedridden with the flu. I can 100% believe some people can almost entirely brush it off too.
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.
Intersting, in France we have the "flu-ish state" (un état grippal) when you have a seriuos cold.
Flu (grippe) is a real sickness, determined by the doctor or extrapolated from the context (everything around your head it, now it's your turn).
They are very distinct, though.
I often wondered why people did these self-evidently unfun things, purportedly "for fun".
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.
Please see this as your body trying to tell you something before you end up with a bad injury that could prevent you from running for weeks.
For me, shin splits subsided after I got more comfortable running shoes and shortening the distance covered during runs (i.e. ~5km down to ~3km, 5-days a week).
Now that said I don't think living your life as though you have no free will is a good life strategy. The illusion of free will is incredibly important. Fortunately we humans are masters at living with cognitive dissonance and inconsistent beliefs
I definitely do not believe we have free will in the most traditional sense, but I am a sort of compatibilist: its clear we cannot make a different choice in identical circumstances for meaningful reasons, but identical circumstances never occur anyway. A person's psychology is a sort of accumulation of all their experiences into biases for future behavior and our "will" is really just a manifestation of those experiences. But to whatever extent we can curate those experiences to produce a long term psychology that we like, I think we should do it.
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.
Plus of course the chance to humble brag online afterwards!
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.
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.
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.
Saying we need to do more physical activity is not carte blanche to run yourself into the ground. No decent running coach would recommend running every day anyway. 3-4 times a week, and then let your body rest and recover. Training does not make you healthy or stronger. Recovering from the training makes you healthy and stronger.
Source: was fat, ran a lot, lost weight, got runner's knee, am fat again.
But I'm not that skinny since "long time". Running 2-3x a week.
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.
Maybe 10 miles is too much regardless though.
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.
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.
Maybe this amount of running was excessive, but how did you even run such distances with T so low? (Ie how did you recover?)
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...
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.
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?
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.
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.
"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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Most people sit at a desk for 40 hrs a week. That is way more damaging to your health.
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.
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
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.
You should not conclude from that, that it is healthy for every person to do so.
> i call the one-milers "streak savers"
If that game helps, fine.
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
So yeah, please be careful when doing sports while 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 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.
According to https://www.myocarditisfoundation.org/about-myocarditis/:
> Men however are twice as likely as women to develop it, but women do develop myocarditis.
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.
Don't let rest feel like weakness. It’s where the real progress happens.
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.
He explains why he took Saturday and Sunday off ;-)
"As I rested for two days my body would get a reset. On Monday-sessions I would always be well rested and ready for another hard five days. And if I weren’t well rested, if my pulse was not responding as usual or if my legs felt heavier than they usually did on a Monday-session, I would take notice early. I would know that something was abnormal before it became a real issue and I would throw in some extra rest days and avoid a negative trend."
“Rest doesn’t preclude running” is a very simple, clear thought (followed by “recovery pace”, another very simple concept, well known in running). If you don’t want to respond to it because you don’t know anything about running, that’s fine, but maybe, you know, don’t jump into a conversation you’re not capable of participating in?
"Usually I did not train at all during rest days. I rested both my mind and my body. However, if my friends wanted to go alpine skiing or go for a hike, I would join them. But I didn’t perform any intended active recovery. I tried to live a normal life."
“Rest with zero recovery running” is a very simple, clear thought.
And either way, yeah runstreak is probably not optimal for improving your stamina. I am sure there are more rigorous programs for that.
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).
If you hate running and you've only tried it on a treadmill, highly recommend giving it another try somewhere nice outside.
It's not testable at home but if you're curious, google VO2 max.
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 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.
21:34 — 65
22:49 — 64
23:04 — 61
23:41 — 64
24:45 — 75
24:57 — 63
25:06 — 67
25:41 — 66
25:52 — 66
26:37 — 63
27:01 — 73
27:31 — 70
27:52 — 74
28:49 — 76
29:29 — 61
30:34 — 78
30:55 — 86
31:03 — 72
31:14 — 68
& another 14 older than 60A healthy relationship with exercise does not look like this and I hate seeing this stuff promoted.
Where do they come from?
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)
It doesn't magically turn dangerous just because the activity is labeled "running".
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.
A mile of slow running is ~11 minutes.
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.
Presumably their (aaronbrethorst) "resting days" are resting from running, not resting from "household chores" and "letting the dog out".
Should we ask whether you have an unblemished daily streak of "household chores" and "letting the dog out".
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.
You seem to be equally intrinsically motivated to tell me what to do and not do based on your experience.
Sorry if you feel pressured to do anything.
I drink coffee too, if someone wants to take a stab at that.
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?
I take it to express fear of losing the streak and fear that the magic would disappear.
It's the feeling of fear as motivation that I dislike.
I think what's important for me is that for me this does not feel at all unhealthy. It is more a way to maintain a good habit, like brushing my teeth.
And I don't feel like I need to be saved by anyone.
Some days I run farther but most days I run 2 miles. As much as a lunch break allows.
You seem to have read what isn't there.
I was attempting to check if I had read what wasn't there.
And perhaps I did, if it's "more a way to maintain a good habit".
When less-than 3 times-per-week my run-habit will feel unfamiliar. When transitioning from distance runs to intervals my run-habit will feel unfamiliar. After a 10-day vacation break my run-habit will feel unfamiliar. And soon it feels familiar again.
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.
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.
One of the symptoms of the flu is aching joints. Running on aching joints may be damaging them, so I don't.
I find the tenacity inspiring, although I have no intention of replicating the feat.
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.
I never realized 1.609 miles/km is close to the golden ratio (1.618)
- 0 = freezing
- 50 = mild
- 100 = Very hot (not burning just very hot)
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.
Kind-of funny; kind-of sad.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries...
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.
If you go for a run at 0F in a T-shirt, you won't be running for very long. That's like -18C.
“Frigid” would perhaps be less confusing “Freezing.”
In that case, I stand corrected, and 0°F should definitely be "Frigid" nto "Freezing"
(thx for the alert)
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.
- weird monkey from Bojack Horseman, paraphrased through my memory
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.
But that's not as snappy for a cartoon monkey to say.
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.
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.
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.
I use WorkOutDoors (with a Polar H10), and I've attempted the whole "do hill sprints" thing to calculate it, but I'm generally not far off from 220-age. When I put my resting heart rate into WorkOutDoors the zones get thrown even further off, so I don't even bother with that data point. I've kinda just shrugged it off and assume what is reading as Zone 5 is more like a high Zone 4.
I've considered doing a lactate threshold test, but honestly I just go running once a week to supplement my muay thai training, so it's not totally worth it to me.
Threshold test might help you dial it in, and it doesn't have to be in a lab (though that would be most accurate) -- you could do a workout effort to estimate your max sustainable heart rate for an hour, then calculate zones based on that threshold HR (i.e. my Garmin calculates based on % LTHR, where zone2 ends up being 83-89% of LTHR).
It's also not an exact science - it's a spectrum and shifts day to day depending on lots of conditions!
- load chess problems (look at a diagram before getting out the door) and try to solve it while running. Sometimes, I solve it the first 5min, sometimes I get frustrated because it turns out to be too difficult.
- practice polyrhythms. you have a dominant cadence while running, now impose others on top of it.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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ?
If going outside is not an option, stationary bicycles are a thing though there wont be any nice outdoor scenery to go with your cycling.
This is how we ran before smartphones, anyway.
Interesting, I started running with my Walkman -> eventually Discman (switched back and forth with some headphones that did FM radio when I got tired of CD skips) -> Early mp3 player (could only fit about 5 songs at a time lol) -> classic iPod. I got injured and stopped running around the time I got my first smart phone, so I never experienced running with a phone.
I'm the same, but running literally allows me to do this while I'm running, instead of while I'm trying to go sleep. Most of my most significant problems were solved during mind-wandering runs.
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.
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?
This is profoundly bad advice. Being completely sedentary is absolutely awful when it comes to health. A single anecdote of a person who didn’t exercise but didn’t die young is meaningless. I’m not going to recommend people take up smoking because my grandpa smoked for 60 years and is still alive at 95.
I too once preached the exercise gospel to any that would listen. But I have mellowed out with age (while still riding my stationary bike).
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.
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 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.
As-long-as we gradually increase our effort.
Somedays walk, somedays jog, somedays shorter, somedays longer — it's all good.
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 now dialed my efforts way back, since apparently I was pushing way too hard and didn't even realize it. Thank you!
Continue doing the walk / jog that you found "surprisingly enjoyable".
Continue doing jog instead of walk when that feels OK to you, and walk or stop whenever you feel like it.
Continue for a month.
Long enough to learn what your body feels like with that regular exercise. Learn to distinguish routine tiredness from something doesn't feel right. Let how your body feels be your guide.
Also, progress will be smoother if you also try to level-up with exercises designed to prepare for running.
The best approach I've come across is "Running Rewired" by Jay Dicharry. I was lucky enough to stumble across it in the local library.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Running_Rewired/epZUDwA...
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.
From my own experience, after 2020 threw me into a bit of a depression I gained a bunch of weight for the first time in my life. I decided I was going to "workout every day" but gave myself a ton of grace about what the definition of "workout" meant. If it was bed time and I hadn't done anything yet I'd just do a couple sets of pushups to "check the box" and go to sleep. I tried to do as much as I could every day, but still gave myself a pat on the back as long as I did ANYTHING that I could call a "workout" ... I lost the weight shockingly quickly and felt a lot better even though most days I was only working out for 10-20 minutes.
Presumably more than a mile a day now
you can check https://yihong.run/
and also a repo: https://github.com/yihong0618/running_page
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.
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.
In the very rare occasions I don't have a phone I vividly remember what I've eaten and will record it later.
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!
Edit: also, they pulled the data from strava. It’s possible they forgot to record their Australian run(s) in strava for some reason
there aren't that many of us (that have run on antarctica, vs king george island).
Or NZ at the least. Hawaii isn't on the content. You've got only one continent to go before you can check that box.
I have 100% confidence you'll do it!
I ran every day for a year, and kinda wished I had kept going (though I only managed 3 continents in that year).
Edit: seems maybe tht 5k is mislabeled, should be 5 miles... But that feels like a less standardized time.
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.
I'm also into running visualisation, and created the running report card:
It visualises your year in running, with some fun narrative generated by GPT. Here's my report card:
Unreal that you rolled your own svg's for this instead of using d3.js. That absolutely blows my mind, great work!
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.
What does "intentionally" mean? Are you sometimes accidentally tricked into eating meat?
I’m not going to run it but I’ve hiked up in there a bunch of times.
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.
"Roger Federer says he was injured giving daughter bath"
https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/15059810/roger-federe...
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.
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.
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.
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:
COUNTRIES VISITED
been lucky to run on all seven continents, including antarctica!I've only been running for a couple of years and already feeling troubles brewing in.
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.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/is-running-bad-for-your-k...
> Running does not cause arthritis, and when you rest, your body — and your knees — recover from the effects of running
> The type of surface you run on does matter because it changes the impact on your body
Okay, so if running does not cause arthritis, how can the type of surface matter wrt to causing arthritis?
Then they suggest a new myth, that running prevents arthritis.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/does-running-cause-arthr...
> Runners can get arthritis, but is running the cause?
This section ends with "While the answers are still not entirely clear, we're moving closer."
Then they have a large section on why it's hard to determine.
https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/fitness/is-runnin...
> Knee and joint pain may be common complaints among runners
> More common sources of pain or injury in runners’ knees are iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) and patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), says Dr. Mayer.
So it doesn't sound like a myth, unless you restrict your definition of knee health to "osteoarthritis".
Each of these cited a number of studies. I know there's a lot of "these are professional researchers, of course they controlled for bias" and the studies said "we controlled for bias" but it wasn't clear how they controlled for bias or how it was effective.
For example, the one about marathon runners didn't analyze long term affects of marathon running, just whether the people who ran marathons at the time had arthritis (no: if you had arthritis you would probably quit running marathons). Another general meta study seemed similar (recreational runners have lower arthritis, but would you be a recreational runner if you had arthritis?) in addition to noting higher arthritis in long term (15 year) runners vs general population.
A nice addition would be adding a switch for converting to non-American units though
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.
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.
And hey, great run in Japan! (Tokyo here!) I love the map visualization too.
I loved loved running in Japan, such a wonderful country
Of course that may also just be due to locale.
Do you also use Apple Watch (or other smartwatch) while running? If so, in your experience, do the run stats match up with Strava?? How different are they?
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?
Here’s a study called “Minimum amount of physical activity for reduced mortality and extended life expectancy: a prospective cohort study” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21846575/
From the abstract: “Compared with individuals in the inactive group, those in the low-volume activity group, who exercised for an average of 92 min per week (95% CI 71-112) or 15 min a day (SD 1·8), had a 14% reduced risk of all-cause mortality (0·86, 0·81-0·91), and had a 3 year longer life expectancy.”
Of course 1 mile a day is less than 15 minutes for most people, but that 92 min per week is just 13 minutes 9 seconds per day. I’m guessing with the long runs he’s over this when measured weekly.
There are other corroborating studies too.
Here’s from “Association between Bout Duration of Physical Activity and Health: Systematic Review” (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6527142/)
“Additional evidence was identified from cross-sectional and prospective studies to support that bouts of physical activity <10 minutes in duration are associated with a variety of health outcomes…The current evidence, from cross-sectional and prospective cohort studies, supports that physical activity of any bout duration is associated with improved health outcomes, which includes all-cause mortality.”
Compared to what? Sitting on the couch, snacking on chips? Of course.
'pk.eyJ1IjoiZnJpZ2dlcmkiLCJhIjoiY21jbHdmZmZmMGV3dTJpcHR5cWcwOHhzdyJ9.Z-XMMh_nFDjm8FUyB2tZ_w'
I cover about ~4 miles or so depending on my pace. I increase my running duration every other week by a few minutes.
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.
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?
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.
Thankfully the ablation took care of them and I haven’t had an episode in a few years.
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!
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)?
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.
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)
> 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...
Edit: you could also potentially run on the plane. I admit that would be pretty weird though
Much easier than a plane, though.
Congrats on the decade! Did you ever focus on specific metrics or was it always just about the run?
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.
So in 4 years it might be really bad? Be careful.
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.
Of course the effectiveness of this rule depends on where you live :P
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!
The 16-17 hour flights from the US to Asia are really hard to manage when you are trying to run every day. Depending on when you take off, you may be in the air an entire calendar day, based on starting the flight in the time zone were you leave in the US and ending it in the time zone where you land in Asia. (Like Singapore airlines flight 23. Takes off 10:15 pm from New York on a Wednesday and lands 19 h 15m later on Friday morning 5:30 am in Singapore.) Either you decide that your first run in Singapore is going to be on New York time, or you say running in place on the plane is going to count, or you don’t take that kind of flight.
Flying the other way is easy to keep your streak with though. Take off from Singapore at 11:35 pm and land in New York at 6 the next morning (18 1/2 hours later)
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.
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.
I will hit one year mark in a couple of weeks. Currently maintaining stats in a Google spreadsheet :)
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 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.
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.
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 expectations change. We learn to expect a faster heart rate.
"People who are just starting out" may experience "blow up their heart rate" as unpleasant; and then they learn to expect a faster heart rate when they run.
These days my running heart rate peaks at 3.5x my at-rest heart rate.
On week four "I am really doing this". And on week 12 "impossible to stop now".
Aim for those and you will be unstoppable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
OP is doing this as a hobby, no need to criticize it in my opinion.
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."