I’m a month overdue talking about my annual “Bad Idea Birthday Challenge”. Granted March and April have been a bit complicated and unorthodox. This year is a birthday milestone too. The big 4-0. Last year the challenge was to convert my age to kilometers, divide by 10 and complete that distance in miles. If I were to repeat that challenge, that means running 6.4 miles and that is not very challenging this year. So I need to come up with something new. The unprecedented living conditions of our current situation also creates complication. So what can I do for my bad idea birthday run amid covid?
40 Miles?? I Don’t Think So!
I’m not crazy enough (yet) to stop dividing by 10. Running 40 miles seems frightening, even if I divide the distance up over a couple of days. The pandemic has postponed (for now) the Flying Pig events until mid-October. The plan for the pig, this year, was to complete a 15k (i.e. run the 10k followed by the 5k). I thought about making the 15k my birthday challenge; however by October I will be half way to 41.
Each week I’m beginning to push myself a little bit more. I’m inching (literally and figuratively) toward 5 miles a day, and 8 miles on my “push day”. Therefore I’m leaning toward completing a half marathon, over the course of two days, as my 40th birthday challenge.
If I’m successful it might be the mental leverage I need to convince myself that in 2021 I will reach the apex of my running workouts. It might mean that the Bad Idea Birthday Challenge for 2021 will be the Flying Pig Half Marathon.
I could accomplish so much more if I only had minions!