I’d been talking to him about the running challenge only a short time before he died. Although I knew his health was deteriorating, it still felt like a terribly sudden shock at the end. Unfortunately he had become very frail and poorly since Christmas with advanced Parkinsons Disease and was only just back home from a very long hospital stay. A short while after I got home, my mum rang with the awful news that my dad had suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away. It was strange that the day after our really positive run, I was hot and uncomfortable and everything just felt really off. One particular day I struggled, to the point of feeling sick, was day 19. Throughout the whole challenge there were maybe only 3 or 4 runs that felt much harder than the rest. The washing machine always had running gear in it. Day 19 – 23 (Losing my dad)īy this stage it felt totally normal to fit in a run each day. On Day 18 we ran a pacey 5km run around our local water park and both agreed that it was actually enjoyable! I felt capable and strong that day, grateful to my body for being able to do this. I was also hitting a few personal bests on the roads I’d run lots of times before, so speed/stamina had improved. Feeling fitter already, my calf and thigh muscles looked pumped up and I could feel some glutes. But I also felt like they were recovering better between sessions.

Yes – still with the sore legs! This had become the norm, but mainly in the mornings (when I adopted an old lady shuffle) and straight after a run. (It’s weird how quickly something can become a habit.) My lower legs still hurt, so afterwards I used a foam roller on my calf muscles. My ankle wasn’t 100% but I was strengthening it with heel dips on the stairs and, although sore, it didn’t feel like I was making it any worse by running on it.

I felt the benefit of all those resistance band stretches and was ready for run number 6.īy day 10/11 I had kind of got used to the idea of going for a run every day. Still, we did it and I even went to a circuit training session in the evening. On Day 6 I did a class in the morning that concentrates on strengthening the core. We kept it short at 3.6km but it felt hideous.

On Day 5 I woke up in a more positive mood and although I still ached, I felt a run was possible. I was in a bit of a negative mindset at this stage because the wall chart showed sooo many days left. I was so tired, I felt like I could fall asleep in the kitchen making dinner. By our fourth consecutive run, my calves were pretty achey and lower back niggling a bit. I kept a bit of a diary and here’s what I found during those 30 days: Day 4-6 (Crappy early days)īecause I’d never run on consecutive days before, I was a bit preoccupied, worrying about getting an injury. But I felt like I wanted to carry on with the challenge ad I think it helped me in a way. Although he was poorly and had been for a while, it was extremely difficult. We decided to keep the distances around 5km or less each day to hopefully avoid strains.Īlthough this was not at all about weight loss, I did weigh myself at the start just out of curiosity to see if running daily made any difference.ĭuring this time, my dad sadly passed away. We scheduled our runs around work commitments and only ran a few separately, when our diaries kept us apart. I found a chart that we could print off to count down the days and it looked daunting. Perhaps the consistency would improve fitness and instill a good routine going forwards – after all, if we could accomplish this, surely 3 or 4 regular runs per week wouldn’t seem out of the question. I figured I could only see and if my 47 year old body said NO! then at least I’d tried. But at the same time I was quite keen to challenge myself (having a tendency to shy away from anything I considered ‘too hard’ normally). I thought at my age I needed a day’s rest between runs, really. Although I’ve been running a couple of times a week or so for the past two years, I’ve never been the athletic type and had only just about recovered from an achilles strain. That seemed quite ambitious, but maybe we could try doing it for a month? It’s a fair question, really… It began with a conversation we had about people who had managed to run every single day for a year. I recently embarked on a 30 day running challenge with my friend, Lisa and the question we probably got asked the most about it was, ‘Why.?!’

30 day running challenge results