Our December running challenge
100 miles (or any distance you choose) by the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve
Rabbit, rabbit! 🐇🐇
(For those of you to whom this might seem odd, it’s a little tradition I picked up from a friend of mine years ago, as a way of wishing good luck on the first day of the month.)
If you’re feeling a little sluggish after the Thanksgiving holiday (like me!), then it might be the perfect time to give ourselves a running goal as we close out the year — and purely because it’s a nice round number that feels ambitious, I’m going to aim for 100 miles by the last day of December.
If that feels a little intimidating, I totally get it. As I’ve been thinking these past few days about the number of miles I wanted to aim for, one hundred certainly feels a little out of reach.
But then I remembered: I’ve done this before, a couple of years ago when I completed a 31-day running streak of at least a 5K a day — which adds up to 96.1 miles, meaning that I — and we! — can do this.
Choose a goal that works for you
Still, what’s meaningful to me may or may not be meaningful to you, so here’s what I have in mind: you choose a goal, whether that’s running every day, a certain number of miles/kilometers for the month, or a number of runs that makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something worthwhile, whether that’s one or two (or six or seven) runs a week.
I’ll post a check-in each day during the month — starting today, December 1 — in the Chat area of the Substack app and in our Strava group. I always love hearing how you’re doing with your running, and the app gives us a great place to share photos and our progress.
I hope you’ll join me; I think this will be a great way to keep in shape for running so we’re not starting from zero on January 1, while also not pushing ourselves too hard.
That’s really it — I’m excited to get started with you! In the meantime, take a moment to figure out a goal that’s right for you, and share it here in the comments if you like — and feel free to reach out with any questions!
Your friend,
— Terrell
I’ll make this as brief as possible… On July 12th I went to bed well conditioned and ready for an upcoming 10k and felt normal. I woke up on July 13th in a different status. Just didn’t feel “right” - a little dizzy, walked with an unsure gait, didn’t finish breakfast, wanted to sleep endlessly, couldn’t swallow well. Thought it would all go away with time. That afternoon I asked a friend of mine to take me to the ER. Over the next 24 hours and in this order, I could not talk intelligently, could not swallow, went into acute respiratory failure. Doctors were working no -stop to determine what we were dealing with. At that point I went on a ventilator. From that point all of my muscles were becoming paralyzed. I was unable to open my eyes or move on my own for 3 weeks. What a journey I was on and I know that God was with me. I had no fear but the peace that only He gives. After being cared for in 3 different facilities, I have been home almost a month. Still no firm diagnosis, but the evidence points to a rare autoimmune disorder.
My goal right now is to be able to walk at a pace that I break a sweat. If I can run again someday, that would be wonderful. I am blessed to have additional time in this life as a continue to gain strength every day. Thanks for reading this and keep up all the training and running. You never know when it will no longer be possible but it is not the end of the world!. God bless!
Hi Terrell!
I'm just returning to running today after a long recovery from health issues. I have a running coach to help me uplevel to ultrarunning while minimizing risk of injury.
My challenge is that I am currently working two full-time jobs to make ends meet. I am launching my own business to stop this insane work schedule, but in the meantime I have faced the choice of either running or sleeping, but not both. Because of that, I have not been doing scheduled workouts. Naturally, this is not moving me any closer to my goal, so today I am changing that.
Our YMCA just started 24-hour access, which I paid for this morning, so I no longer face the obstacle of unsafe conditions outdoors.
So, my goal for this month, starting today, is to do the workout scheduled by my coach (running, cross-training, or rest) every day this month, without missing or rescheduling, or rearranging. What's on the calendar is going to get done, no matter what. I don't care about miles or minutes, just establishing a consistent daily habit. The rest will follow naturally from there.
Rabbit, rabbit to you, too! 😎
Faith