Complete with fig leaves. – Jeff Huber
You may have heard other people mention this “holiday streak” or just “streaking” in general – not the naked running kind, the running every day kind – and wondered, “is that a thing?”
A holiday streak is simply this: running a minimum of one mile every day between Thanksgiving and your choice of Christmas or New Year’s. I like New Year’s, because for most people, holiday eating extends beyond December 25.
Those are the only rules. One mile, each day. A few suggestions, though, to make it a little easier to stick to it:
- Tell your friends and family what you’re doing. Not only will their support help you through the slug, but they’ll likely offer to join you and maybe start a streak of their own.
- Put it on your calendar. A scheduled run is more likely to get done. I once did a year+ streak and there were days when it would be 9:30p and I’d realize hadn’t run yet.
- Take some easy days. Seriously. Especially if you’re currently only running 4-5 days, make those extra days slower than your usual easy pace. Otherwise your other runs might suffer.
- Add a hard day, too. If just one day a week you push yourself for that mile, you can make it a game to see if your “best” improves over this month.
- Consider adding some races to the calendar. This mixes things up a little, and you can find races from both Columbia Gorge Running Club (CGRC) and Clark County Running Club (CCRC) offers races that are only $2 for non-members.
Good luck, streakers!
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Run Oregon Blog
We started the Run Oregon blog in February 2007, because felt like running in Oregon and SW Washington deserved more positive coverage. We also wanted to level the playing field so that small, non-profit races could compete with big events; and to support local race organizers.
