21 Days

"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." 
-Samuel Johnson. 

This is not your typical blog post. I'm not going to reflect on some great run I've been on recently or talk about a race that I am planning to run. Instead I'm going to talk my relationship with running, and my plan for this relationship in the future. 

Since the spring of 2011 when I decided to stop running on the track and cross country team at Nebraska Wesleyan, my running career has consisted of sporadic 1-2 mile runs at a pace much slower than what I could do in my “glory days”. Countless times I have found myself spending my evening sitting at my computer making an excel sheet of what my training plan is going to be for the next 9 months. I would start the training plan, but then when I started to get sore or just too busy to go for a run I would decide to take one day off. One day would quickly turn into one week, which would then turn into one month and then several months. That’s how I got to the point I am at today. I weigh about 40 lbs. more than when I first stopped running, and I’ve noticed that my pants fit a little tighter thanks to a gut that has developed into what some might call a beer gut or a spare tire. All this stops today.

Actually all this starts today. I've always heard that it takes three weeks to make an action into a habit. So for the next 21 days I am going to run once every day. No elaborate training plans or excel sheet. Just me going out for a run every day for three weeks. If you are in the same spot as me where you want to get back into (or start up) running, then join me in this 21-day challenge. If you are already running consistently then try implementing some other activity that will help improve your running for 21 days (core, weight training, more miles), and if you have completely mastered the art of running, then you could always try to focus on some personal habit to better yourself (try flossing). 

So that’s it. 21 days starts today. 21 days to a new, better you. Won’t you take the challenge? 

-Paul Watley