[HN Gopher] Show HN: Ten years of running every day, visualized
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Show HN: Ten years of running every day, visualized
Today 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
Author : friggeri
Score : 849 points
Date : 2025-07-10 16:21 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (nodaysoff.run)
(TXT) w3m dump (nodaysoff.run)
| agcat wrote:
| Love it! How did you stay motivated?
| friggeri wrote:
| 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.
| sim7c00 wrote:
| 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!
| tempestn wrote:
| Those might've been some of the treadmill runs. Also looks
| like they were all one-milers.
| joshvm wrote:
| 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)
| ahalimah wrote:
| 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?
| friggeri wrote:
| 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.
| zparky wrote:
| 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.
| natnatenathan wrote:
| I came to say this as well. I really like the design and all
| the fun statistics.
| som wrote:
| Agreed. Was wondering where the inspiration came for each chart
| choice?
| friggeri wrote:
| I wanted something minimalist but high contrast, and enough
| variety so charts would not be repetitive. I have a thing for
| data visualization, so I pulled inspiration from the pile of
| books I have on my bookshelf.
| yamatokaneko wrote:
| 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.
| friggeri wrote:
| I thought about it last week, was pretty quick to hack
| together!
|
| I loved loved running in Japan, such a wonderful country
| mvkillu wrote:
| Love it!
|
| I will hit one year mark in a couple of weeks. Currently
| maintaining stats in a Google spreadsheet :)
|
| https://vijaykillu.com/
| friggeri wrote:
| Congrats, that's an amazing milestone!
| high_priest wrote:
| SVGs? So, some of the staistics graphs do not update, or have you
| made them dynamic by hand?
| chrisxlucas wrote:
| 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?
| nasmorn wrote:
| 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.
| YuvalFishbine wrote:
| That's awesome! any tips for people who are just starting out?
| GZGavinZhao wrote:
| 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)
| kccqzy wrote:
| 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.
| __turbobrew__ wrote:
| 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.
| igouy wrote:
| Our heart rate will not stay the same when we run.
|
| Our expectations change. We learn to expect a faster heart
| rate.
| friggeri wrote:
| 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!
| fifilura wrote:
| 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.
| elric wrote:
| 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.
| faeyanpiraat wrote:
| 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.
| hackeraccount wrote:
| 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.
| sciencesama wrote:
| do you have code it on github ?
| GZGavinZhao wrote:
| 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
| kazinator wrote:
| In particular, the access to indoor treadmills.
| MOARDONGZPLZ wrote:
| 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.
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| 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
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| I ran on the Queen Mary II, every day, across the Atlantic :)
|
| Much easier than a plane, though.
| paulcole wrote:
| 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...
| zylepe wrote:
| 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" -\\_(tsu)_/-
| bot403 wrote:
| 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.
| elcaro wrote:
| 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.
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| 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
| friggeri wrote:
| I haven't been to Australia, but I've run in Hawaii, which is
| part of Oceania (broader than just Australia).
| bigDinosaur wrote:
| 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.
| 4gotunameagain wrote:
| Eh, that doesn't really count. Sounds like a good excuse for
| a trip ;)
| pedalpete wrote:
| Come to Australia! It's a great place to run!
|
| 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).
| xarope wrote:
| 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).
| soperj wrote:
| there's also 8 continents now apparently.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealandia
| paulcole wrote:
| 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.
| flexagoon wrote:
| > Around 6,000 days since I last intentionally ate meat
|
| What does "intentionally" mean? Are you sometimes accidentally
| tricked into eating meat?
| paulcole wrote:
| I was pre-empting the ultra-clever HN commenter who might
| question whether I'd accidentally eaten meat as a byproduct
| of food production.
| lbrito wrote:
| >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.
| mobiledev2014 wrote:
| 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
| noah_buddy wrote:
| 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.
| RHSman2 wrote:
| 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.
| simianparrot wrote:
| 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.
| d1sxeyes wrote:
| 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.
| balfirevic wrote:
| 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.
| LandR wrote:
| 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
| afterburner wrote:
| 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.
| RamblingCTO wrote:
| 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.
| noah_buddy wrote:
| Scientific information on the topic is quite sparse.
| There are ascientific recommendations about _vigorous_
| activity that probably have some merit, but unless you
| are terribly, terribly ill, a very light workout is not
| _known_ to increase adverse health outcomes.
| gempir wrote:
| 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.
| igouy wrote:
| > 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.
| noah_buddy wrote:
| I believe that he means 00:01 as in one minute after
| midnight and not 1 second runs. The minimum distance is a
| mile for his streak I believe
| igouy wrote:
| Do you think it matters what they mean? It's a game with
| arbitrary rules. If the game helps then fine.
| andyst wrote:
| 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
| zipping1549 wrote:
| It's honestly downright dangerous. I don't think anyone's going
| to _enjoy_ running after that.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| The author sounds as though they still do.
| mrbonner wrote:
| 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.
| jimbokun wrote:
| I was more surprised the doctors even let him run after a heart
| procedure.
| afterburner wrote:
| Did he ask them?
| _Algernon_ wrote:
| 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.
| fifilura wrote:
| 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.
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| 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?
| fifilura wrote:
| 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?
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| 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.
| Elixir6419 wrote:
| 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.
| kaffekaka wrote:
| 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.
| fifilura wrote:
| 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.
| kaffekaka wrote:
| 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.
| Imme_Play_5550 wrote:
| 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.
| fifilura wrote:
| 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.
| grumpy-de-sre wrote:
| 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).
| verisimi wrote:
| 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.
| fifilura wrote:
| I am surprised by the emotions in this thread!
|
| Where do they come from?
| mns wrote:
| 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.
| fifilura wrote:
| 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)
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| 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.
| fifilura wrote:
| It will be good for you. Start with a mile/day for three
| weeks. From there the past days will push you forward.
| igouy wrote:
| A sequence of 5k race times (and ages) from yesterday:
| 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 60
| grumpy-de-sre wrote:
| 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.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| A treadmill looks even worse to my eye though. At least
| they're getting outside?
| grumpy-de-sre wrote:
| 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.
| solumunus wrote:
| I must be one of the few that prefers treadmill running.
| The fact that it requires zero attention turns it into
| meditation for me.
| anton-c wrote:
| > 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.
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| You have to appreciate how critical recovery time is to
| improving your strength/stamina/whatever.
| fifilura wrote:
| Do you tend to avoid household chores or letting the dog
| out on your resting days?
| _Algernon_ wrote:
| 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".
| balfirevic wrote:
| > 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.
| stephenbez wrote:
| 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.
| jmye wrote:
| 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.
| igouy wrote:
| 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/
| hatsnp wrote:
| 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.
| _Algernon_ wrote:
| If you are sufficiently trained, a 1 mile day is a rest day
| though.
| pferde wrote:
| Not when you have flu. Or a stress fracture on your leg.
| _Algernon_ wrote:
| 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.
| pferde wrote:
| 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.
| fivestones wrote:
| No experience with a stress fracture of my leg and
| running. But I know when I had the flu and did a slow
| easy 1 mile run I felt much better after than before.
| Same thing happened with Covid.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| 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.
| kaffekaka wrote:
| 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.
| Imme_Play_5550 wrote:
| 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.
| vl wrote:
| 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?)
| BadOakOx wrote:
| 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...
| mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
| 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.
| busymom0 wrote:
| 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?
| mathieuh wrote:
| 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.
| serial_dev wrote:
| 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...
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| 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.
| amenghra wrote:
| 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.
| ses1984 wrote:
| 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.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| > 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.
| busymom0 wrote:
| I understand what you are saying but OP is not an average
| American. They have been running every single day for 10
| years, so chances of them already being very conscious
| about their diet are very high I think.
| nasmorn wrote:
| 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
| Aurornis wrote:
| 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.
| pomtato wrote:
| wait what? you get morning erections when on low
| testosterone?
| DanOpcode wrote:
| When googling, it seems to be the opposite. That morning
| erection is a sign of a healthy testosterone level.
| IAmGraydon wrote:
| Yeah that's not true at all. Not sure where he got his info
| but it's incorrect.
| Xenoamorphous wrote:
| He probably meant absence of morning erections.
| Aurornis wrote:
| 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.
| jksflkjl3jk3 wrote:
| 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.
| Aurornis wrote:
| 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.
| ropable wrote:
| 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.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| I think the nuance gets lost in a lot of the "no days off"
| messaging
| neutronicus wrote:
| 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.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Maybe you already looked into barefoot running. I found
| it took the impact off my knees.
| neutronicus wrote:
| 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.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| 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.
| johnrob wrote:
| 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.
| NicoJuicy wrote:
| 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.
| kqr wrote:
| > 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.
| noboostforyou wrote:
| 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.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| 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.
| psunavy03 wrote:
| The problem is that the population which is not doing
| physical activity is the population uniquely at risk for
| overtraining. You can't put a couch potato out and have
| them run, run, run without them ending up with shin
| splints, stress fractures, and all the other issues that
| come from pushing too hard, too fast.
|
| 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.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| 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.
| nasmorn wrote:
| 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
| fivestones wrote:
| 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.
| criddell wrote:
| 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?
| Aurornis wrote:
| 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.
| anton-c wrote:
| 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.
| friggeri wrote:
| 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.
| WA wrote:
| 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?
| urban_winter wrote:
| 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.
| padjo wrote:
| 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.
| stank345 wrote:
| If you think you have the flu, it's a cold. If you think
| you're dying, it's the flu.
| titusjohnson wrote:
| 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.
| anonymous344 wrote:
| tip for the flu or cold: because they (viruses) get into
| your sinuses, and start to multiply there, not in the
| mouth or stomach, then would be good to put something in
| the sinuses to kill them. This needs to be done at the
| first sneeze! when there aren't yet billions of them.
| netipot, with cleaned water + salt is the way used for
| thousands of years. What is extra is to put pea size
| amount of cold pressed/virgin coconut oil in there (when
| water about 30c degrees, but not hotter) and flush with
| it. antiviral and antibacterial, gives nice coating also
| to sensitive skin inside sinuses. you'll skip the whole
| perioid of getting sick. works. trust me
| kaffekaka wrote:
| 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.
| barry-cotter wrote:
| 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.
| tirant wrote:
| 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.
| fifilura wrote:
| 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.
| ghc wrote:
| 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.
| kstrauser wrote:
| 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.
| mbreese wrote:
| 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.
| roarcher wrote:
| I ran a couple miles on a treadmill the last time I had
| COVID because I was going stir crazy from lying on the
| couch all week. It actually gave me a bit of a boost for
| the rest of the day, though I returned to feeling crappy
| the following day.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| I've had those days where a 10-minute shuffle felt more
| restorative than a full night's sleep
| silversmith wrote:
| 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.
| pmg101 wrote:
| 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".
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| 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.
| nathan_compton wrote:
| 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.
| User23 wrote:
| 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.
| nathan_compton wrote:
| 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.
| macNchz wrote:
| 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.
| ayewo wrote:
| > _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).
| kaffekaka wrote:
| 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!
| Yossarrian22 wrote:
| Did you not catch Covid? Even catching after getting the
| shots I still could barely move.
| balfirevic wrote:
| I barely felt covid, if not for temporary loss of smell I
| wouldn't think it was anything more than a moderate cold.
| wobfan wrote:
| 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.
| mewpmewp2 wrote:
| 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.
| grantmuller wrote:
| 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.
| ujkiolp wrote:
| then don't? not for everyone and that's why it's an achievement
| pimeys wrote:
| 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.
| RamblingCTO wrote:
| I came here to say this, running while being sick is
| incredibly stupid, more so for men.
| mendigou wrote:
| How is it worse for men?
| RamblingCTO wrote:
| 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.
| Zambyte wrote:
| Why more so for men?
| anton-c wrote:
| 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.
| dlahoda wrote:
| 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.
| fransje26 wrote:
| 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.
| ourmandave wrote:
| 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.
| WalterBright wrote:
| 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.
| michaelhoney wrote:
| 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
| jmpavlec wrote:
| 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.
| LeafItAlone wrote:
| The label seems to be off. It's 5 miles, not 5 kilometers.
| Based on the data below it and map.
| wging wrote:
| 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.
| friggeri wrote:
| Definitely a bug, will fix tomorrow, thanks for catching!
| bix6 wrote:
| Congrats! Why don't you ever take a day off eg for recuperation
| or during some of the more serious issues you mention?
| friggeri wrote:
| Jogging a slow mile is pretty much "a day off" these days
| lippihom wrote:
| Love how you laid (layed?) everything out. Super clean site.
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| 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.
| pocketarc wrote:
| Is it https://howisfelix.today, by any chance? I remember
| that being here.
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| Very cool but not even close on the UI side. The guy I'm
| thinking of had a full 3d blue human model and a really
| slick UI.
| edverma2 wrote:
| This is so cool. Congrats on ten years!
| ideashower wrote:
| Damn. I want to try this, now.
| jimbokun wrote:
| Well you can go out and set a one day streak right now!
| zug_zug wrote:
| I'd be curious to see long-term improvements, like resting
| heartrate over time, or heartrate @ 10 min mile over time.
| rocauc wrote:
| 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
| anonnon wrote:
| > 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.
| friggeri wrote:
| 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.
| urda wrote:
| (oh no this was on the wrong comment and alas past the delete
| window ha).
| efilife wrote:
| I don't understand how this is related, can you explain?
| urda wrote:
| Hah oh my this was on the wrong HN article I had open. Thank
| you so much for kindly pointing that out.
| DevX101 wrote:
| Do you have longitudinal resting heart rate data? Would love to
| see how it changed over the years.
| friggeri wrote:
| 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.
| LeonM wrote:
| > 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.
| LourensT wrote:
| 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.
| vunderba wrote:
| 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.
| hopelite wrote:
| 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.
| friggeri wrote:
| 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.
| nelox wrote:
| Honest question. Why is it imperative you run everyday? What
| would it mean for you to not run for day or everyday?
| blackbear_ wrote:
| 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.
| friggeri wrote:
| 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!
| ultrarunner wrote:
| The idea that running leads to knee damage is a pervasive myth.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| How so?
| noah_buddy wrote:
| 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.
| Helmut10001 wrote:
| 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.
| pedro_caetano wrote:
| 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.
| alternatex wrote:
| 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 :)
| jamil7 wrote:
| 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.
| rubansk wrote:
| 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.
| NoPicklez wrote:
| 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.
| nikolayasdf123 wrote:
| > 1 mile / day ... for months. in 2022, 2023, 2024
|
| cmon. that's barely a run
| nikolayasdf123 wrote:
| try 10km+ a day. then we will talk
| v7engine wrote:
| 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.
| fungibletaco wrote:
| amazing
| yihong0618 wrote:
| 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
| tomashubelbauer wrote:
| 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 :))
| nico_h wrote:
| Zoom way out, the usual area is a bit "south".
| Anduia wrote:
| > every. single. day.
|
| No logs for May 1st, 2021, what happened that day?
| faeyanpiraat wrote:
| You monster!
| friggeri wrote:
| That was a bug :)
| patrickhogan1 wrote:
| 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)?
| friggeri wrote:
| 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.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| Would be super cool to see a "no days off" streak in a skill-
| based sport like that
| reactordev wrote:
| 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.
| can16358p wrote:
| Impressive.
|
| A nice addition would be adding a switch for converting to non-
| American units though
| DanOpcode wrote:
| Is it possible to toggle from miles to km?
| lynx97 wrote:
| 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.
| jahsome wrote:
| 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."
| rixed wrote:
| 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.
| llmthrow103 wrote:
| 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?
| zkmon wrote:
| 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.
| Manuel_D wrote:
| 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.
| _Algernon_ wrote:
| 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.
| krzat wrote:
| 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).
| randlet wrote:
| 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.
| wjholden wrote:
| 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.
| rixed wrote:
| 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?
| k__ wrote:
| Neurotypicals, am I right? :')
| rixed wrote:
| You are always the neurotypical of someone, I guess :)
| epolanski wrote:
| 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.
| jdefr89 wrote:
| Same.. I am surprised someone would remember the exact dates to
| when they started running consistently... Seems odd..
| randlet wrote:
| 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.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| Watch the start of most race events and the first thing
| that people will do as they start is turn on their watches.
| footy wrote:
| 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.
| jdefr89 wrote:
| 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.
| footy wrote:
| I don't remember either, but I've always kept training
| logs. The 10 minutes are to check those!
| mminer237 wrote:
| 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.
| rixed wrote:
| 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?
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| I don't know about Strava, but I have a Garmin running
| watch. It's got a battery that lasts for over a week and
| stores all activities until it can be uploaded via phone.
| The only failure point there might be user error, but given
| we're talking about a 1 mile run, I barely count that as
| penance if I have to redo it.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| 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
| HeartStrings wrote:
| Stop treating obsession like a bad thing. That's the only way
| how you get at front page of hackernews.
| jdefr89 wrote:
| As someone with severe OCD my entire life... Trust me its a
| bad thing.
| puppymaster wrote:
| I am gonna blame your OCD for the malfunctioned sarcasm
| detector.
| fivestones wrote:
| But obsession and OCD aren't equivalent.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| I've always found obsession to turn into resentment. For myself
| I need to give myself permission to take a day off and find a
| schedule that works for me.
| shahzaibmushtaq wrote:
| 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.
| dmazin wrote:
| Strava and GPS watches and Apple Watch make this really easy,
| even back in 2015.
| import wrote:
| Most of the well known GPS watches supports GPX exports.
| avkpatel wrote:
| Developer version of Forest Grump.
| ropable wrote:
| 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.
| bob1029 wrote:
| 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.
| zdc1 wrote:
| 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.
| RamblingCTO wrote:
| 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
| fivestones wrote:
| Do you have e some evidence for this? I'm looking but
| having trouble finding any. May you are talking about
| myocarditis risk during/after influenza infection? Even for
| that I can't find anything specifically showing that
| exercise increases the risk. I haven't looked exhaustively
| though, and I'd love to see the evidence if you can point
| me to it.
| gh0stcat wrote:
| 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.
| nlarew wrote:
| 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?
| bob1029 wrote:
| 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.
| blarg1 wrote:
| 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.
| albatrosstrophy wrote:
| As someone who' just counting steps, I'm genuinely curious what's
| your average steps per day? And how many steps over 10 years?
| HeartStrings wrote:
| Is this healthy?
| sjmulder wrote:
| Running through illness and injury isn't, otherwise why not.
| But I don't think that's the point. It's challenge to yourself.
| reader9274 wrote:
| What shoes do you use? How often do you replace them? How are
| your knees holding up after ten years?
| boguscoder wrote:
| 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:)?
| maxglute wrote:
| This is beautiful. I wish you lifted 10 years ago!
| serial_dev wrote:
| 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?
| unixfox wrote:
| 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.
| distances wrote:
| I don't want to speak for the OP, but most people don't take a
| 16 hour flight ever in their life.
| matwood wrote:
| 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.
| randlet wrote:
| 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.
| fivestones wrote:
| Once I did 5k running with my son in mostly empty terminals of
| an airport while on a layover. We were training for a race and
| didn't want to miss the day.
|
| 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)
| junon wrote:
| These graphs are gorgeous, visually and otherwise. Really well
| done display of information.
| moomoo11 wrote:
| 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!
| dirkc wrote:
| 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!
| Tepix wrote:
| He does run inside 13% of the time.
| ColinEberhardt wrote:
| 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
| steivan wrote:
| 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.
| Zaylan wrote:
| 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.
| Antitoxic6185 wrote:
| you seem to be leaking your access token for mapbox.com api?
|
| 'pk.eyJ1IjoiZnJpZ2dlcmkiLCJhIjoiY21jbHdmZmZmMGV3dTJpcHR5cWcwOHhzd
| yJ9.Z-XMMh_nFDjm8FUyB2tZ_w'
| hotdogsalesman wrote:
| pk usually means publishable key - should be fine
| countfeng wrote:
| I admire your persistence and it's something I should learn from.
| musikele wrote:
| 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
| navane wrote:
| 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.
| catoc wrote:
| Ha! That's nice.
|
| I never realized 1.609 miles/km is close to the golden ratio
| (1.618)
| donpott wrote:
| 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
| )
| gus_massa wrote:
| My dumber version: Just multiply by 1.5. It's fine unless you
| are using a treasure map.
| chakintosh wrote:
| Same here. Usually it's x1.6 but 1.5 is easier to calculate
| and you add a teeny bit after.
| alt227 wrote:
| Mine is divide by 3, multiply by 5. Simple and quite
| accurate.
| mnaimd wrote:
| Hey, this is very smart. The golden ratio... Wow!
| DanielVZ wrote:
| 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)
| stephen_g wrote:
| 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.
| anton-c wrote:
| 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.
| eCa wrote:
| We Celsius users use decimals if we need higher
| resolution.
| anton-c wrote:
| 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.
| Chico75 wrote:
| 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.
| igouy wrote:
| https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-
| rankings/countries...
| igouy wrote:
| "... the US National Weather Service (NWS) uses the
| Celsius scale internally and when communicating with
| other scientific agencies, but converts temperatures to
| Fahrenheit when releasing data to the general public."
|
| Kind-of funny; kind-of sad.
|
| https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-
| rankings/countries...
| brudgers wrote:
| _0 = freezing_
|
| "Frigid" would perhaps be less confusing "Freezing."
| toss1 wrote:
| ...except 0degC is literally originally defined as the
| freezing point of water? "Freezing" seems more on-point to
| me...
| filleduchaos wrote:
| The temperatures given in that comment are very obviously
| in Fahrenheit...?
| toss1 wrote:
| oh, OOPS, I didn't look at the GP
|
| In that case, I stand corrected, and 0degF should
| definitely be "Frigid" nto "Freezing"
|
| (thx for the alert)
| 0_____0 wrote:
| 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.
| tbassetto wrote:
| 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.
| fivestones wrote:
| Yeah! Please do
| mosquitobiten wrote:
| I always use minutes as percentages of hours to convert miles
| to km, 30min is 0.5 hours so following that 30miles=50km.
| seany wrote:
| 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.
| anon191928 wrote:
| "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.
| matwood wrote:
| 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.
| nluken wrote:
| 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.
| throwaway2037 wrote:
| 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?
| calcifer wrote:
| > Does have any physical benefit?
|
| Compared to what? Sitting on the couch, snacking on chips? Of
| course.
| xenocratus wrote:
| Compared to letting your body fully rest during that day
| (perhaps in between longer runs).
| fivestones wrote:
| Yes. It does have physical benefit.
|
| 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."
| wvh wrote:
| 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.
| nathan_compton wrote:
| 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?
| nico_h wrote:
| 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.
| jdkoeck wrote:
| 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.
| raffael_de wrote:
| I'd be interested in some knee cartilage statistics.
| johncole wrote:
| This is incredible, really nice work. How do you deal with
| physical injury and giving yourself time to heal?
| seizethecheese wrote:
| The pace chart looks very close to a normal distribution, cool!
| queeey wrote:
| Such pretty visualizations!
| suralind wrote:
| 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.
| jimlawruk wrote:
| 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. :)
| igouy wrote:
| I find the coffee tastes better when I clean my teeth after the
| run :-)
| igtztorrero wrote:
| 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.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Zone 2 doesn't have the highest burn rate. It's just easier to
| maintain it longer. 1 hour Zone 2 burns more than 30 in Zone 3,
| but 30 in Zone 3 burns more than 30 in Zone 2.
| grilledchickenw wrote:
| 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?
| friggeri wrote:
| 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/
| david927 wrote:
| 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.
| kirtakat wrote:
| Man - I knew this in my teens - I just didn't DO it.
| bovermyer wrote:
| 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.
| singlow wrote:
| 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.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| 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.
| nlarew wrote:
| 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.
| igouy wrote:
| 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.
| 2c0m wrote:
| 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.
| BizarroLand wrote:
| 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.
| noman-land wrote:
| The cheat code isn't knowing it'll make you feel better. The
| cheat code is convincing yourself to suffer through it.
| Neywiny wrote:
| 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
| vrosas wrote:
| 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.
| scubbo wrote:
| 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.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| > 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.
| shpongled wrote:
| "It doesn't get any easier, you just get faster"
|
| - Greg LeMond
| igouy wrote:
| No it often gets harder because stuff-happens.
|
| No we often need days-off to rebuild.
| loeg wrote:
| 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.
| mtalantikite wrote:
| 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.
| loeg wrote:
| Yeah, true. Putting your shoes on and getting out the
| door is half the battle. I wouldn't call that suffering,
| though.
| mathteddybear wrote:
| The cheat code is to substitute it with something like
| rollerblading. But you'll need to practice it ~3x longer each
| time, and aint' nobody on HN got time for that.
| taeric wrote:
| 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.
| misha599 wrote:
| 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.
| taeric wrote:
| Alas, I'm trying to convince them to put down whatever
| other distraction they have. That is a predictably
| difficult thing to surmount.
| bityard wrote:
| 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.
| toolslive wrote:
| I - 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.
| Sxubas wrote:
| Try biking. I can't run due to a hip issue and it has been
| very fun for me.
| bityard wrote:
| 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.)
| thorncorona wrote:
| get an indoor trainer if that's the case
| johnfn wrote:
| 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.
| bityard wrote:
| 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.
| johnfn wrote:
| 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.
| mtalantikite wrote:
| Same. Just looking at my last 8k run from the other day I
| was in Zone 5 for 22 minutes and Zone 4 for 16. I run very
| infrequently, but I find it very difficult to just do
| steady state Zone 2 runs, it feels like going for a walk. I
| prefer to pick up the tempo and just really focus on my
| breathing/stride.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Your zones aren't calibrated correctly. Zone 5 is only
| sustainable for a few minutes. It's not just 220 - age
| for max HR and applying the %'s.
| mtalantikite wrote:
| Yeah, I'm not totally sure how to fix that tbh and always
| have assumed it's just off. Open to suggestions though!
|
| 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.
| rige wrote:
| There's a good journal article that compares different
| perspectives and measurements for zones, that might help
| (if you're interested in the science!): https://journals.
| humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijspp/aop/a...
|
| 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!
| shpongled wrote:
| 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.
| josmar wrote:
| My best cardio is doubtless stair machine while doing Anki
| with headphones and a small Bluetooth game pad in hand
| pjerem wrote:
| 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 ?
| ayewo wrote:
| > If you can't go outside at all, then this won't really
| help you though.
|
| 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.
| jermberj wrote:
| 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!
| armonster wrote:
| 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.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| 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.
| glxxyz wrote:
| Find a neighbour with an active dog and offer to take them
| for regular runs.
| mellosouls wrote:
| _- 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.
| jonas21 wrote:
| > _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.
| loeg wrote:
| Treadmills are boring, yeah. Not sure why you can't run
| outside but that's probably worth more interrogation than a
| single parenthetical comment.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| 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.
| anthomtb wrote:
| > 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?
| wiether wrote:
| If you're on a treadmill, then you should try Zwift
| runjake wrote:
| 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.
| bityard wrote:
| You could be right. I'm not actually a heavy smartphone
| user, there are a few things I check but I mostly just read
| email, HN, and a handful of low-traffic subreddits. I'm not
| sure _more_ introspection is what I need, I literally have
| to read bland fiction just to shut off my brain in order to
| sleep at night.
| runjake wrote:
| _> I literally have to read bland fiction just to shut
| off my brain in order to sleep at night._
|
| 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.
| losvedir wrote:
| Consider picking up another language! I've found YA
| audiobooks (right now, Harry Potter) in my secondary language
| to be wonderful. It's interesting and engaging enough that I
| enjoy listening, and I don't feel like I need to "do"
| anything like take notes or whatever, because I know just the
| exposure is beneficial in and of itself.
| DwnVoteHoneyPot wrote:
| Just to clarify, you only run 1 mile per day? You're seeing
| fitness gains from 1 mile? I'm not judging, that's 1 mile more
| than I do now. I'm just wondering if that's a useful technique
| vs. running longer a few times a week. I'm guessing it useful
| to get you in the habit. Also, lower risk of injury. I guess i
| can just try it myself, it's only 1 mile.
| itslennysfault wrote:
| I'm not a doctor or any kind of expert, but I think
| consistency is pretty much always the best. A lot of people
| get stuck in a weird mindset of "it's only a mile why bother"
| ... but even just going for a walk every day is infinitely
| better than doing nothing.
|
| 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.
| elijaht wrote:
| > I started running a mile five days a week, and have slowly
| moved up distance and pace
|
| Presumably more than a mile a day now
| alexozer wrote:
| 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 :(
| timzaman wrote:
| 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!
| the_gastropod wrote:
| 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.
| ck2 wrote:
| 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:
| COUNTRIES VISITED been lucky to run on all seven
| continents, including antarctica!
| iancmceachern wrote:
| 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.
| rasen58 wrote:
| 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
| _jholland wrote:
| 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.
| dcreater wrote:
| Everything about this is absolutely wow
| Zeetah wrote:
| 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!
| turing_complete wrote:
| Do you never get sick?
| joduplessis wrote:
| 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.
| winterrx wrote:
| Insane dedication.
| downrightmike wrote:
| How many shoes do you go through in a year?
| BatmansMom wrote:
| 10 days in antarctica? Why were you there? Were these all
| treadmill days?
| cyberge99 wrote:
| 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?
| citizenkeen wrote:
| See the note about the one mile runs.
| loeg wrote:
| Some neat visualizations. I have a fondness for every-day running
| (I used to participate).
| no-reply wrote:
| 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.
| andrewrn wrote:
| 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!
| alalonde wrote:
| Reminds me of those "birthday challenges" I see a lot of here in
| the mountain west: e.g. climb 25 pitches on your 25th birthday,
| run 28 miles on your 28th, etc. Gets a lot harder (or more
| contrived) as you get older!
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