Streaking!
Streaking: It is not what you're thinking. It is how many days in a row can I get an hour of exercise in. Last year, I made it to 50 days. The highlight might have been somewhere in the thirties. I didn't think about it and put on an older Tshirt from the Ryman Auditorium. My wife asked me when I got the shirt. I told her that she was with me when we got it a few years ago. She thought it was new. Truth is that I hadn't worn it for awhile. Either it had shrunk, or I had grown. Somehow during that streak either the shirt got bigger, or I got smaller.
When I reached 50, I just quit. I remember that I had set a goal of reaching 100 straight days of exercising at
least an hour a day. Exercising for an hour at a time would get me the most for my effort. My problem is weight. Exercising for an hour would help me lose weight. It worked. Well, it worked until I stopped doing it. When I stopped doing it, it stopped working.
After this winter I had gained weight. I am not running a marathon this spring, but I am running a half marathon. Fear of the marathon is a great motivator to exercise. Apparently, I don't fear 13.1 miles as much as I fear 26.2 miles. Streaking itself can be a motivating factor. I looked up running streaks. There are actual rules for running streaks. In order to maintain a running streak the runner must run at least a mile everyday. There are 7 registered streaks over 40 years.
The streak worked for me last year. It makes sense to try it again. My rule is that I have to go for an hour a day to continue the streak. I made it to 17 in my first attempt. In that 17 days I saw progress, my shirts stopped shrinking. The streak included, walking, running, bicycling, and kayaking. All exercise is good. Some forms are slightly better that others. They all have two things in common. If you do them they work. When you stop doing them they don't work. In a major AHA! Moment I figured that out.
On the 18th day, I had a toothache. I slept at the shipper, in Columbus Ohio, where I was supposed to pick up my load going back to Green Bay. My plan was to bust it hard through Chicago and run on my mandated 30 minute break. The shipper came out and informed me that my load had been picked up 3 days ago. It was a broker load and the information stopped somewhere between the broker and me. I live load my load at another location. I had to take my 30 minute break before I got to Chicago and it was raining. My streak ended.
This time though I started a new streak the next day. Streaking seems to have two edges to it. The motivation to keep it going-no matter what. Then there is the disappointment of losing a streak. This year I hope that I have struck a balance. On the 19th day I ran.