Sunday, February 12, 2012

The 120 Day Running Challenge - A Focus on Healthy Exercise

120 Days of Consecutive Running
Challenge - 2012 

Nothing like starting off the new year with a different type of challenge, typically it has been all about the mileage or getting ready for an event. This one on the other hand is more to ensure that I get out and get a little bit of physical activity everyday. Now, I know its not like I am a couch potato or anything but there are days where I would rather just do nothing at all. I am also using this opportunity to get others moving as well, so far quite a few people have jumped on with the idea, and I think that is great, with all the technology these days it is really hard to convince some people that they need to get out and partake in life in general. In short, they do not know what they are missing, and life will pass them by.

Now I was not the originator of this little idea (I am not smart enough for that), I first heard of this through some online friends of mine, Vanessa, Shacky and Jason, who were taking the ball and running with it so to speak. It is kind of interesting how it developed, first it was run a mile for 30 consecutive days, then it was a mile for 90 days, which finally developed into 1 or 2 miles for 120 days. Now I have never been known to shy away from a challenge, so of course I jumped on board with the high end of things, because that is just how I like to roll (go big or go home), we will see how smart I was by the end of this.

With the intent of getting people out and moving everyday, and this being for fun the rules are pretty loose, running, walking, biking, swimming, martial arts, weight-lifting, cross-fit training, pushups, burpees, yoga, hey even rolling down a hill will work (I would not recommend this for a mile or two though, I would be so sick from being dizzy, woooh). You can break it up over the day, take your kids or the dog (or if you are my mother the iguana) out for a walk, whatever you want as long as you get out and get your butt moving.

Have you seen a 60 year old woman walking
a 6 foot long iguana?

The important thing is to just get out there and partake in some physical activity. Obviously running, walking, biking is easy to measure your miles of completion. The others will take some creativity on your part for the measuring aspect. Just remember if you want to do more, go for it, nobody is going to chastise you for being the eager beaver now.
 
Nicole and I have 8 days in the books with  111 to go as of end of day Saturday (one of my days included 2.2 miles of mountain bike riding as I tested out my new ride, pretty sweet with disc brakes for those big downhill runs).
 
New Mountain Bike for my CDR training.
Gail is well on her way as well, with I believe 5 days in the books as well. So come on join the challenge and get your family and friends involved as well. It means less video games and more experiencing of life, which to me is a Win-Win situation.

For all you Facebook Users, there is a group called the 120 Days of Consecutive Running which has been formed where you can post your daily mileage and how you achieved it with optional entry in the form of a haiku (believe me some of them are pretty interesting and worth joining the group for). Please be warned, this group is all about fun, so sometimes the language is a bit off the wall or colourful, but if you go in with a open mind, you will laugh with the rest of us.

Happy running everybody, and I hope you achieve your goals.

On on.


 

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