I’ve never run long distance—so I started running a 5k every day

I’ve never run ‘long distance’ in my entire life. 

But about one week ago today, I set myself a challenge: 

I wanted to run a 5k every day for 7 days. 

Don’t get me wrong, to true long-distance athletes, they’re not even warmed up by running 5k.

But as a 200+ pound dude who writes for a living, this challenge felt pretty daunting. 

As a side note, don’t expect this email to explore some incredible physical miracle where I went from running a 45-minute 5k to a 30-minute 5k in just one week. 

(Although, I did manage to get 3 minutes slower over the course of the challenge - look at me!) 

Instead, this email is mostly to explain why I made this step in my life, how it’s helped me so far and where I want to go from here. 

So let’s start with the back story…

There’s a Belgian YouTube channel called ‘Average Rob’ and the basic concept is that two average guys take on incredible physical challenges. 

Their most recent challenge was beyond inspiring to me. They’re tackling what many dub the most difficult foot race on earth, ‘Marathon des Sables.’ 

For those that haven’t heard of this before, ‘Marathon des sables’ is an ultra-distance foot race that takes place annually in the Sahara Desert.

The race covers a total distance of approximately 250 kilometers (155 miles) over six stages.

Participants must carry all their equipment, including food, clothing, and sleeping gear, with only water and a tent provided.

Plus, as I’m sure you didn’t miss—it’s in the middle of the freaking DESERT, with the highest temperatures reaching 50 Celsius (122°F.)

People have died doing this foot race and when I saw these two normal dudes accepting this challenge with just 6 months for preparation, it struck a chord with me. 

I realized, what if it is mostly just a mental game? What if all I have to do is just not give up and be willing to take on a challenge? 

So I set myself a FAR easier challenge that very same day.

As I stated earlier, I would run 5k, every day, for 7 days. 

In this email, I’ll explore the results of my experiment so far! 

Let's begin with the data…

As you can see, I pretty much went from 0 running to a heck of a lot of running. I find this chart HIGHLY satisfying, I have to say. 

Here are my 5k times so far…

(Regular runners, you’ll get a good ego boost out of this!)

I should also note I used the running app Strava to collect my data and also name my runs…

1. ‘First 5k’ Strava time: 42m:40s (Actual moving time: 41m:23s)

2. ‘5k with pauses’ Strava time : 47m:57s (Actual moving time: 37m:25s)

3. ‘SO FREAKING HARD’ Strava time: 50m:56s (Actual moving time: 49m 39s)

4. ‘4th 5k’ Strava time: 54m:06s (Actual moving time: 52m:19s) 

5. ‘5th 5k holy how’ Strava time: 55m:29s (Actual moving time: 49m:24s)

6. ‘I’ll run but I’m ill’ Strava time: 48m:56s (Actual moving time: 38m:58s) 

7. ‘Very relaxed 5k with Nadia’ Strava time: 1h:04m:30s (Actual moving time 1:09:00s) 

8. ‘Forgot to un pause but 5k’ Strava time: 45m:39s (Actual moving time 41m:19s)

I ran these 5ks from Monday 7th to Thursday 17th (taking a two-day break over the weekend).

My ‘Whoop’ data also tells a pretty interesting story, but I’ll just give you some of the highlights…

On average, during each run, I burned 626 calories, had a heart rate of 132 bpm, recovered 65% day by day, and had an HRV of 70. 

Now that you have the data, let me talk about my personal feelings towards this challenge and what it’s inspired me to do going forward.

1. It really was all in my head. 

As soon as I let go of how fast I could run and simply told myself, “All you need to do is get to the end, no matter how many times you stop or have to walk,” I was able to finish. 

Yes, my calves burned, yes, I felt light-headed, yes, I might have cried on the day I was both sick and ran a 5k—but at the end of the day, I did it, every single day. 

Something I thought was impossible to me was simply a mental block rather than a physical one. 

Honestly, the hardest thing was just getting out the door and getting halfway, once I was halfway into the run, I had to get home one way or another, so there was no real motivation needed. 

2. I progressed way faster than I thought.

You can’t really see it in the data, but by day 5 of the challenge, I had fallen in love with my 5k route. I loved being away from the house for that long, I loved pushing myself hard, I loved feeling like I could do hard things. 

I also found it was fun to set myself smaller challenges, like running faster and then taking breaks for the length of the 5k. 

I’ve also noticed an already dramatic change physically, which wasn’t the point, but a great perk.

3. It increased my respect for my body

I found myself taking baths, stretching, considering more closely the effects of the food I ate, and generally just treating my body with more respect. I felt so in tune with my body. 

I also felt a self-respect to a level I’ve not felt in a long time and that has translated into treating my body far better. 

4. I felt part of something bigger than me

It sounds really silly, but seeing all the other runners every day has been really inspiring to me. I feel connected to them and like I’m part of something larger than myself; I feel a connection to people I’ve never even spoken to because I feel like we’re both pushing ourselves in the same ways. 

5. Tracking the data made all the difference.

Tracking my data made things fun, let me know how to pace myself and naming the run at the end became a sacred and extremely fun privilege. 

(I highly recommend Strava to any runner who doesn’t already use it!) 

I genuinely think if I didn’t know my times, calories burned and total distance traveled, I wouldn’t have done the challenge. 

Having the data feels like a badge of honor you can keep, cherish and reflect on. It also makes you feel less sad about your poor times, because you know how fun it’ll be to reflect on them in the future when you massively improve. 

6. I want to keep doing this for as long as I can. 

That’s really the final part of this email.

I plan to do this every week at least for the next 3 months. I’m setting myself that challenge publicly because it will make me feel far more accountable. I appreciate all of you who read these emails because without them, I wouldn’t have had sufficient motivation to make this happen. 

Again, the data above is truly some terrible 5k times by anyone’s standards, but the fact that I’m so proud of it proves that was never really the point. 

I would truly suggest setting yourself a similar challenge, make it public, make it hard and track it! 

These three factors have been the key to success for a guy who’s never run longer than a mile in his life, to someone who’s determined to run daily 5ks for the next 3 months. 

I’ll get back to you with the results soon! 

Thank you for reading. 

Jacob

What Counts

P.S. We wanted to let you know that What Counts is evolving. We’ve noticed that the stories you like most (and we enjoy making most) are the personal stories we’ve been sending once a month, where we talk about how we’re implementing the science of self-improvement in our own lives. 

Going forward, we want to spend more of our time and emails focusing on these personal stories. We’ll aim to increase the frequency to two per month. 

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