Run everyday?
Serious runners will criticize by saying, “You only run 1 mile a day?… I run 5-10 miles every day. Or something similar because to someone who runs, 1 mile a day is really nothing. I don’t consider myself a serious runner. I have used running every day as a tool to improve many parts of my life. You can run a mile on your rest day and you can run interval sprints for a mile and get as intense of a work out as you want. It’s all up to your creativity.
No more pain.
One way that I believe running has improved my life is my feet, knees, and legs do not ache during the day without reason anymore. Don’t get me wrong, there are many days where I feel discomfort and I just push through it. In a few more minutes the pain is gone and I feel no pain the rest of the day. That happens to me many days. Where before I started my daily running, I could just pull a muscle or tweak my knee just by walking around. I know now that it is because I didn’t stretch and warm my legs up every day. So a very big benefit is your legs are ready for the day and pain is minimized.
No, I’m not crazy… Okay, maybe a little.
Another way running has improved my life is through the many thought experiments I conduct during my runs. Some days I will run with my eyes closed for 10 steps and then open my eyes for 1 step. I’m running places where this is not too dangerous, but don’t do this unless you are running in a safe area. It may sound strange, but there is a level of concentration that you have to achieve to do this for a mile. The concentration helps to clear your mind for the day. Some days I’ll listen to an education podcast. Some days I’ll listen to on specific tone the entire run to become more familiar with a particular guitar cord I am studying that week. I sometimes count objects as I run… and some days I visualize the future. All of these mental exercises are good for your brain and sometimes it keeps your monkey brain from tell you to that you are crazy for doing this everyday.
Your Minimum Everyday is the Key
I believe the most beneficial effect of running everyday is that my minimum health level is above average because I move my body to a minimum level everyday. I don’t believe that my minimum is over stressing myself on a rest day. I have days where I work out hard after my minimum and I have to recover from those days by doing my minimum for a few days afterwards. Who says we are not supposed to move everyday? And who says that resting means that you do nothing all day. Move and stretch everyday.