Lessons from my most incredible year in running: 2,700 miles, 52 miles per week

This is exactly how much I’ve run in the last 12 months:

I didn’t count but I had no more than ten days of rest. Most were planned, and a couple of times I struggled to fit a run into my day. “Struggled” means really struggled. I never miss my runs, weekday or weekend, whether I am at home or traveling, whether it’s an ordinary day or an unusual one, whether I’m in high spirits, or feeling miserable.

I make no compromise when it comes out to running. It’s a non-negotiable daily habit.

I wasn’t always like this. In fact, just two years ago I couldn’t imagine running the miles I run today. There were weeks in the past when running a few days in a row, or let’s say on more than half of the days, felt exceptional. I remember thinking — what would it be like to run every day, or, for example, a weekly mileage that would equate to 10K a day on average? Over the years I had some good stretches in my hobby of running, but it’d never hit these numbers, not close, not for a single week.

Well, this year I ran 52 miles every week. That’s 7.4 miles every day, or close to 12km. Most recently I’ve been consistently running 65 miles a week, so 9–10 miles a day. In the past, I’d run ten miles once every few weeks and it’d feel big and special. Now…