A 2016 study showed that one fifth of adults felt the furthest they could run without stopping was 100 meters and according to a 2020 survey, the average person could only run a fifth of a mile without stopping and most people hadn’t run a mile in over a decade.
I’m 36 and spend most of my day sitting at a desk looking at computer screens. Cardio hasn’t really been my thing. I mean why run when you can walk, am I right?
But after watching my wife run in several races, I had to admit, it actually looked kind of fun. So this is where my story starts.
As you can see I don’t have the body of a runner. I’m 5’11”, 202 pounds and 23.8% body fat. According to my scale, my metabolic age is 3 years older than I actually am. Ouch.
So on my first attempt I ran a 12 minute mile. That’s a 5 mile per hour pace. My max heart rate hit a crazy high of 194 beats per minute. The number 1 thing I learned though, is running is a mental game you play with yourself.
You will find yourself wanting to quit shortly after you start. Your mind will start to tell you your legs are too tired, you can’t do this, my feet shouldn’t hurt like this, my lungs can’t take it, but you just have to embrace the suck and keep on pushing.
So now that I know I have it in me, it was time to focus on getting better, running that mile each day and trying to improve upon my last day's effort and to see if I can transform myself into a runner in just 30 days.
On day 4 I was able to run a 10 minute mile and I slowly begin to increase the speed on my treadmill on the days I ran on it.
By day 14 I hit a 9 minute mile, but I also started to feel the effects of running everyday without rest. I developed shin splints. The continued to nag me throughout the challenge and was just something I had to try and ignore and push through the pain. Is the the best advice, I'm not sure, but I'd gotten this far and I didn't want to discontinue this challenge.
The injuries did slow me down so my speeds weren't improving as quickly as they had been. By day 23 I got had gotten my time down to 8 and a half minutes. Also my knees began to hurt a lot more.
I decided at this point to just keep running, work on my breathing and then try to give it all on day 30. For my day 30 run I started at and 8 mile per hour pace for the first half mile. Then I bumped it up to 8.5 for a quarter of a mile and on the final quarter I kicked it up to 9 miles per hour and for the last 200 meters finished at 10 miles per hour.
My lungs were burning, but the accomplishment I felt was amazing. I finished at just a little over a 7 minute mile.
at 17 years old I was running a 6 minute 45 second mile, so seeing how im nearly 20 years older and 50 pounds heavier this was a huge win, and I am very happy with how far I cam in 30 days.
I didn't lose any weight during this challenge, mostly because I was less active than normal because of the nagging injuries. I tried to rest as much as I could for the next day. That being said, I actually felt amazing. I noticed a big difference with my breathing. I feel like I am getting more oxygen with each breath now and really feel great!
When I started this challenge I really wanted to run a 5K race, so I decided to run one, virtually on my treadmill, with the goal of finishing it without stopping. I was able to finish it with a time of 32 minutes. I really feel that I could improve on this, especially once some of my aches and pains subside. Now I have a new goal I can work towards!