Is running for 100 days straight incredibly stupid or a good idea?
Luckily for you, we have tested it, and the answer is a little bit of both…
It all started over a couple of beers—as many great stories do! A friend and I agreed on running every day for 100 days straight. The rules were simple:
You have to run every day
Minimum 4 km a day
You have to hit a 1000 km on day 100
That is an average of 10 km each day for 100 days. So, how did it go? Well, let’s just say that it was a learning experience. Both of us lost around 10 kg during the 100 days, and both were glad when it was over.
What are the takeaways then? Well, let’s take them one at the time:
The Mental Game
Running every day is a mental challenge. It can be very challenging to find the time and motivation to run. We all have demanding lives, and daily exercise can be hard to fit into the daily schedule. But the logistics of it is the easy part. Actually putting on your running shoes can be a damn near impossible mental task. I would have given up so many times, if not for the competitive element of the challenge. So, in short, being forced to run every day, is often not as enjoyable as you may think, but the upside to this is mental clarity. After forcing myself out of the door, I enjoyed every single one of my runs. Being by yourself for an hour, with nothing but your own thoughts, helps you to think stuff through—who would have thought—and appreciate the small things in life.
I sit in front of a computer, like so many others, trying to solve things that often are mentally challenging—for me at least—and my daily run helped me in this aspect. Every time I experience brain-fog I would go for a run, and after 45 minutes or so, the fog usually lifts and I can think straight—spoiler, this is one of the big takeaways.
Recovery and Injuries
This was a big concern for me. I have injured myself before, preparing for a marathon—and this would impose a similar demand on my body, but without any recovery days. So, how did it go? The truth is, I didn’t feel any pain during the 100 days. I often felt completely exhausted and rundown, but never in pain. The funny thing is, after the challenge was over, I took a week of all training, and after five days I started feeling pain in my hip, both knees and my left ankle—it stopped after a week or so, but it was interesting how your body can adapt to a demand and then falls apart afterwards. So, from an injury standpoint, I can only encourage people to try this kind of challenge.
Fitness, Weight loss and Body Composition
I lifted weights for the first 50 days or so of the challenge. But at a point, I wasn’t able to recover from the strain anymore, so I focused only on running for the second half of the challenge. This was also an interesting experience—as long as I was lifting weights, my body composition stayed roughly the same. I got a bit leaner, but I kind of looked the same. The big difference happened when I stopped lifting—I leaned down so fast that people started to notice, and were getting concerned. Losing weight was not a goal, I was happy with my weight, but I could not eat enough to sustain my weight.
Strength levels also suffered, I didn’t think too much about this because, in daily life, it doesn’t matter that much how much you squat. But to my big surprise, on day 90 I was unable to open a pickle jar. This shook me to my core. I think I was 12 years old the last time that happened to me—so now I looked lean and strong but had the strength of a weak runner, and at that moment I decided that being a full-time/exclusive runner is not my thing.
Other aspects of your physical expression start to suffer when you specialize in one domain, and you start to adapt heavily to the stimuli that your body receives. My V02 max went up 5 points during the 100 days, but it was at the expense of other aspects of my physical expression.
All-in-all
Is this something that I recommend? The answer is—it depends. This is not the most productive way to get fit, but I have adapted the “train everyday” aspect of it. I still go for a run if I feel like my brain has stopped working—which happens quite frequently—and I now alternate between biking, running, weightlifting, gymnastics and football, and I am contemplating getting back into archery and golf.
All-in-all… My recommendation is to move daily and do stuff that you enjoy. I know Scott agrees with me on this point, and this is one of the cornerstones of our philosophy.
So, go out and move a muscle, change a thought, and in the long run it will change your life.
Until next time,
Stay safe, healthy and mentally sane.
Lennart