New Year Challenge – 31 in 31 in 31

I went into New Year’s Eve without a solid idea of what I want out of 2015 fitness-wise. I came out of New Year’s Eve with not much more clarity on how the entire year will pan out, but at least I had a goal for January. Over champagne (or was it the Moscow Mules!?), Asia and I made a commitment to run 31 times for 31 days in a row, in honor of our 31st birthdays (Mine was on Christmas, hers was in September – close enough!). The hashtag #31in31in31 was born!

The idea of the 31 for 31 for 31 challenge came from a friend of Jeremy’s who was at the same restaurant as us on New Year’s Eve. He’s currently on the Run Streak of a lifetime – he’s run nearly 400 days in a row! He said that his minimum run is always 3.1 miles and he takes a photo each time. Although I’ve never had the urge to do a Run Streak before, it suddenly sounded like a fantastic idea (finally – a healthy choice made while intoxicated). We basically stole his idea, but made it a little easier. We’d run 31 days in a row, starting on January 1st, with a minimum of 1 mile a day. We also decided we’d take a photo. Somewhere in there, I also challenged us to do at least a 1 minute plank every day.

Asia and I kept our commitment and went for our very first run (and first plank!) on January 1. We’re 14 days in now and incredibly, Asia and I have run EVERY single run together! After not getting to see each other much for the last few months due to her wedding and honeymoon and our trip to New Zealand, it’s safe to say we’re caught up. Luckily, we live just 1 block away from each other, so we simply meet at the corner to begin our run.

Although we said we’d do at least 1 mile, we’ve kind of mentally changed the challenge to a minimum of 3.1 miles and that seems to be the number we hit most weekdays. It’s nice because it allows us to wake up around 6 a.m. (rather than some of the scary 5:15 wake-up calls I had during CIM training in order to get in 8-10 miles) so it doesn’t feel crazy early. Because we haven’t been pushing the pace or going very far, running every single day hasn’t even been difficult physically – I don’t feel sore or tired, just rejuvenated each morning. The hardest part is getting out of bed!

Having someone to run with has been EXTREMELY helpful in getting my butt out of bed and into the cold, dark morning. It usually gets light within a few minutes of running and we’ve gotten a few great sunrises! There’s pretty much no way that I’d be running in the morning without this goal and without Asia, so to say that this challenge was just what I needed is an understatement. Also, I’ve challenged us to make it to a 5 minute plank – definitely something I wouldn’t have done without a goal. So far I’ve gotten to 3.5 minutes – almost there already!

Although most of our runs have been just Asia and I, we have had some fun ones as well. The first weekend we did a 4 mile trail run with our friends who ran Ragnar Trail Vail Lake with us, and this past weekend we did the 5k fun run as part of the Carlsbad 5000 kickoff party. We even managed to get our plank in that day after the pizza!

Unfortunately Asia has a business trip in January so we won’t be able to do all 31 days together but we’ll keep each other accountable. I’m almost sad we’re nearly halfway finished!

Have you ever done a Run Streak or a Plank A Day challenge? How long did you do it for? What was the minimum you’d run or plank?