100 Day Challenge - What I learned
Monday marked the last day of my 100 day run challenge. There's been a lot of chatter about run durability here and elsewhere and after 6 weeks of sloth following IMMOO I was ready for something to get me back into the groove so I started the challenge on Nov 1. There are different versions of this challenge but I set out to run at least 3 miles every day for 100 straight days. Being the Type A person I am I was never satisfied with only doing the minimum so I ended up doing at least a 5K each day.
I've gotten a lot of questions from those that follow me on Strava, etc so wanted to share what I learned. There are a few others in the Haus that did the same or similar challenges (Danielle, Ian, etc) so they can chime in with their experiences as well.
I was excited and curious to see the effects this consistency would have and now that it's done I think it was immensely positive from both a physical and mental POV.
Challenge by the numbers:
- Consecutive Days Running : 100
- Total Mileage 475.2
- Average Daily Mileage 4.75 with a low of 3.1 and high of 11.1
- Weekly mileage range from 27-42
Timing
It wasn't intentional but the timing worked out pretty well. I was fully recovered from IMMOO and only had about 5 weeks of overlap with JOS. Had I done NOS or DOS it would have become more challenging to balance the increased time commitments and fatigue from the OS plans.
Fatigue/Injury
This was an area I was curious as I'd previously never run consecutively for more than a few days without a recovery day. I was incredibly surprised how good I felt for essentially the entire challenge. Yes, there were those days when work or travel limited my flexibility and the last thing I wanted to do at 9:30PM was go knock out a 5K, but it reinforced that so much of fatigue is mental and once you get those first few minutes under your belt things sort themselves out. There is only one run in which I felt 'bad' and that was on a Monday morning after a Sunday afternoon run that was probably a bit more aggressive than it should have been and didn't allow for ample recovery.
I was also curious as to my equipment (shoes) wear and tear. I switched to a new pair of my trusty Newton Distance about a month out from IMMOO, so they had approximately 150 miles on them. I wore them throughout the challenge and they held up amazingly well...now they have over 625 miles on them and still going strong. I've worked a lot on running form and efficiency so this is a validation of both the awesomeness of Newtons and the importance of running form/cadence. Here are the pics I took this morning of the shoes at 625 miles. I tried Hokas for about a half season but I had to come home to my Newtons. I know there's a lot of you with bad form that must rely on those Hoka's though 
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Speed
A majority of my running was done between Z1 and Z2 with an occasional mile repeat at Z3 or Z4. I was very curious as to how my speed would be impacted by such limited speedwork. What I was very surprised by is that I seemed to maintain (at worst) and possibly improve my top end speed. I found this out on a recent trip to Phoenix where I noticed a Strava CR nearby that I wanted to go after and ended up snagging it by a pretty wide margin. It was reinforced last week in the same way when I was out of town for a ski weekend and snagged a local CR with a pace 10 seconds faster than my Z5 pace without too much challenge. This was very surprising to me as many of my previous running improvements came during a 'run fast not far' type of approach. Maybe that means there is value to both and by mixing it up you can see benefits from either.
In summary...i learned a lot about myself as a runner over those 100 days. It learned more about my body and how it feels when fatigued and how fleeting general fatigue really can be. It was also fun....once I got to the 50, 60+ day streak the stakes got higher. I prioritized my schedule to make sure I didn't slip up. It was fun sharing stories with everyone else that was participating in the challenge along with those that were the curious observers from the outside.
Hope this is helpful!
Oh..and I almost forgot....there was a sweet hat waiting at the end 
Comments
Important to note this is a frequency, not a volume challenge. Longest week of 42 miles, and longest run of 11 miles should be noted. For those considering this, the value lies in the frequency. Don't add in volume as unless (a) you've got years of consistent running behind you AND (b) you intend to PR in a stand alone marathon. Otherwise, the risk of injury is just not worth it IMO. I've learned that long runs over 1.5 hours are an exercise in breaking yourself down, and need some attention to recovery afterwards.
I'm trying the same thing, except I don't run on most days when I ski, and I'll be off on a three week trek in April/May. Otherwise, my NY resolution is to run every day this year, with an average mileage intended to be in the 30-35/week range.
Running in long-course triathlon is an interesting topic. The speed at which we run in an IM is significantly slower than a stand alone marathon, meaning durability trumps speed. And it appears that frequency in training trumps volume and intensity in getting that needed durability. One day a week of speedy intervals ought to be enough for us, along with several days of strides at the end of a run. Lesson learned over the past 15 + years of training/racing.
I really like your breakdown of lessons learned. I would totally agree that keeping the body moving with these relatively short runs each day helps maintain the flexibility and range of motion of the legs & hips, so that you are not fighting your own body mechanics on the days that you want to run intervals or at a higher intensity.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks for organizing your thoughts regarding high frequency running. I am also in the camp of making this more of a focus this season, although for full disclosure, I have participated in the "run durability" IM plans the past 2 seasons with occasional 30 day streaks sprinkled in.
This season, similar to you, I decided to amp it up but even more than in past years. I committed to myself to a large run block of 50mpw x 16 weeks. No intensity - just rock solid frequency and volume. Going in, the past several seasons I have averaged around 25-30 mpw with only 2 50 mile weeks ever. So far, I have strung 10 weeks of 50+, 85+ consecutive running days, with about 6 weeks to go.
Many people in the haus, as well as out of the haus who have committed to and completed a similar type project have enjoyed the long lasting benefits that have been described. Thank you to those of you in this thread and elsewhere who have shared their experiences as they have given me the confidence to trudge on when interest wanes. I hope to join you in enjoying the benefits, as well as sharing the experiences to hopefully encourage those interested in pursuing a large run block.
I am also interested/curious in how this plays out individually across the season in terms of speed, durability, fitness transfered to other disciplines, and ROI for time invested. I can say that after an initial adoption period, I have re-calibrated my own perspective on a 10 mile run...
Kudos Jeremy, and keep the momentum going.