The DRC is DONE!

For anyone who actually reads this blog, I haven't posted in a while. I suck at updating this thing.

I think the last time I posted was in September of 2013 and it was about my helping my cousin move to southern California.

Since then, I'd been doing pretty good with the Daily Run Challenge (DRC) I had begun back when Trisha Reeves of Barefoot Monologues first proposed it back in June of 2012.

When I first started the challenge, I didn't think I'd even make it past the first month. I thought I would eventually just tire of it and quit after the 30 days were done. I kept up with it until I got horribly sick this past January and finally put my toe shoes up for the day and slept all day.

I ran at LEAST a mile every single day from June 4th, 2012 until my last consecutive day on January 13, 2014.

That was 1 year, 7 months and 10 days of running at least a mile a day.

589 consecutive days of running at least a mile a day.

243 hours, 35 minutes and 45.6 seconds running.

I averaged a running pace of 10 minutes and 26 seconds during that period of time.

I'm sad that it's over. But kind of relieved. I don't have the pressure of it sitting on me anymore. It's not that I was accountable to anyone else, but with my OCD it bugged the crap outta me that I hadn't run yet if it was late in the evening. Now that I broke that cycle, I can now have a more manageable training schedule I can keep . . . not that I've started one yet.

I'm still kinda in recovery mode right now from that horrible flu. I haven't been laid out like that in at least 10 years. I think a part of it is (unfortunately) a challenge I undertook that I was nowhere near ready for. On Instagram, I follow a gentleman who's handle is @oldguyrunning. This guy truly is an inspiration. He has pushed himself to a level I would like to (kinda) reach eventually. He started running probably about the same time I began on my running challenge, but he was further behind than I was. I had already had a half marathon under my belt and had been running about a year. He was at the level I was when I first began running. The barely able to breath stage after running a couple of minutes.

Okay, I take that back. Just looking at his Instagram post, he had already begun getting healthier and had been a gym-rat before he took up running. He had made a significant improvement in his health. His first run was a 3.39 miler with a 20:12 minute pace. He was disappointed that he had to stop several times. But look at that jerk now (if you're reading this Bart, I'm using it as a term of endearment).

He has a bucket list that consists of 3 half marathons (which he's completed), 3 marathons (2 of which he has under his belt), 3 50K's and 3 100 milers. I don't even want ONE marathon under my belt. I just want to be able to run a whole HALF marathon!

Anyway, he has a list of  monthly challenges under the hash tag of #challengeville on Instagram. They are challenges one (usually) begins at the beginning of the month. He has recommended training days for each one, but I'll just give you the basic info:
Time Fighter: 48 Miles
Tin Man: 93.3 Miles (I think this was the birth of the Challengeville)
Bigfoot: 150 Miles (more on this)
Madman: 200 Miles
Psyco-Lex: 250 Miles
Traveling Man: 300

I can't rightly recall, but I think I may have started with the Tin Man. I was already running about 3 miles a day so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. I was dropping off the brat to her cheer coaching gig and I'd go for a run in the meantime while she was there. At the time, 3 miles was nothing. Now, it's a fight.

Anyway, the reason I think I may have got laid out was because I had decided to go for the next rung in the Challengeville ladder, the Bigfoot. With my running everyday, that would call for 5 mile days. In the 13 days that I ran that challenge, I completed 66.73 miles. I don't even want to get into pace because by the first week, I was getting really worked over. And by the end of the 2nd week, I was done. I think I may have weakened my body to the point where I was not getting stronger because I wasn't allowing any recovery time on these relatively long run days.

When I finally put my shoes up, I was dead to the world. That first day of not running, I didn't care. I was out most of the day. I only had some water, juice and a bowl of chicken soup. The next day, I kinda felt relieved that I didn't have to run every day anymore, but kinda sad that I wasn't able to complete the Bigfoot. I'm going to have to start all over again with Challengeville.

With the time we have left for this month, I can probably do the Time Fighter. And next month attempt the Tin Man again. I'll probably follow the training plan Bart has for it too. I don't need to run every day anymore. Having a day off to recover sounds good to me.

GD

p.s.
too busy to check, i wanna keep runnin'