{"id":48617,"date":"2016-03-31T07:15:39","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T11:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=48617"},"modified":"2021-09-11T04:21:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T08:21:57","slug":"running-challenge-running-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/fitness\/running-challenge-running-for-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Start a Running Challenge (and Actually Succeed!)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Should
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You\u2019ve heard of fun runs, 10Ks and even (gulp) marathons<\/a>. But the latest running challenges aren\u2019t about one all-out effort on race day. They\u2019re all about consistency \u2014 running a little bit every day for a month, season, or until the next holiday (Memorial Day, anyone?).<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning streaks are meant to engage runners, keep them motivated, and just be fun,\u201d says Bart Yasso, chief running officer for Runner\u2019s World<\/em> magazine, which holds running challenges<\/a>, called \u201cstreaks,\u201d several times per year. Readers across the world run at least one mile per day for a given period (usually between 30 and 45 days), and post their daily progress and pics as well as cheer on fellow streakers with the hashtag #RWRunStreak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>12 Awesome Ways to Measure Your Non-Scale Victories<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are part of a team, a virtual running group,\u201d Yasso says. After all, we don\u2019t all have the ability to be part of a run club or run with our friends on a daily, or even weekly, basis. So even if you\u2019re alone on the trail, these running streaks allow you to be part of an awesome running group.<\/p>\n

Plus, these running challenges are great for helping you hit your fitness goals<\/a>. For those who sign on for the United States Running Streak\u00a0Association<\/a>, your mission is to run one mile a day for the entire year. Can\u2019t get your butt outdoors? Refinery 29<\/a> challenges you to hit the treadmill<\/a> for 30 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest things that trips people up on their journey to fitness is staying consistent with their workouts,\u201d says running coach Kourtney Thomas<\/a>, C.S.C.S. \u201cIt doesn’t matter what you like to do, from CrossFit to yoga to running, there is always going to come a time in life when it’s tough to stay motivated. If you go through a challenge like this, it becomes a part of your routine, and that’s a huge value.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>Daily Burn 365: New Workouts, 7 Days a Week<\/a><\/p>\n

What About Rest?
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Recovery is key to any fitness routine \u2014 and running streaks are no exception, Yasso says. That\u2019s a big reason why most organizations, RW<\/em> included, cap their streaks at about four to six weeks. \u201cWe don’t want people to overdo it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to streak for 30 years here.\u201d (That said, hundreds of members of the United States Running Streak\u00a0Association lace up every day for a year or more. Definitely not advisable for 99 percent of runners out there.)<\/p>\n

Still, no matter how long or short your running streak is, you can build in rest and recovery<\/a> by running a shorter distance, or at a slower pace, or both, on designated \u201ceasy\u201d days. \u201cMake sure that you always have an easy day or two between any hard runs,” Thomas says.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>Hate Running? 25 Ways to Learn to Love It<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe that means rotating between short, low-intensity runs<\/a>, interval or speed runs, tempo runs and long runs. You could also consider a run\/walk streak, or capping some of your runs under a mile, Thomas says. \u201cJust think about getting a little time on your feet every day. Focus on consistency,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

A lot of organized streaks say you need to run a mile or more each day, but it\u2019s better to run to your ability than to push yourself too hard and risk injury<\/a>, Yasso says. (And we won\u2019t tell if you run a half-mile on some days or take walk breaks on others!)<\/p>\n

Are You Running Challenge Ready?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Likewise, a big part of staying injury-free during a running streak is being relatively fit and active before starting a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t how you start running,\u201d Yasso says. \u201cI\u2019m big on beginners starting off slowly.\u201d And running every day for a month or longer definitely doesn\u2019t qualify as \u201cstarting off slowly.\u201d However, if you\u2019re currently running four days a week \u2014 and it doesn\u2019t have to be a long distance every day \u2014 you can easily kick it up to seven days for a streak, Yasso says.<\/p>\n

If you’re not quite there yet, try incrementally increasing your activity levels for the next several weeks, focusing on both running and resistance work to strengthen your stabilizer muscles<\/a> and help prevent injury during the streak. Once you get up to comfortably <\/em>running a mile or so four days per week, you can start thinking about starting that streak. Listening to your body is key.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> Power Walkers: 3 Treadmill Workouts Just for You<\/a><\/p>\n

Go Streaking!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While we love large-group online running challenges, you don\u2019t have to wait for one to come around for you to get your streak on. Consider coming up with your own hashtag or closed Facebook group for you and your running friends \u2014 whether they live near or far \u2014 to complete a challenge together. Or post in an existing running Facebook group to see if anyone would be interested in completing a streak with you. You can also complete them on your own, and you\u2019ll still have non-runner friends and family members cheering you on. (And, FYI, runners post with the #RWRunStreak<\/a> hashtag on social media all year long.)<\/p>\n

However you decide to organize things, one thing\u2019s for sure: By the time your streak is up, you\u2019ll feel like a stronger, better runner than ever before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could you run a mile a day for 30 days? A running challenge could be the motivation you need to get fit and active. Here’s what you need to know. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,24,6],"tags":[266,288,103,108,341,357],"class_list":["post-48617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cardio","category-exercise","category-fitness","tag-beginner","tag-cardio","tag-motivation","tag-running","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2running"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}