Show HN: Ten years of running every day, visualized
nodaysoff.runToday marks ten years, 3653 consecutive days, of running at least one mile every day under the USRSA rules [1]. To celebrate, I built an interactive dashboard that turns a decade of GPX files into charts you can explore.
Running has truly changed my life: I've made lifelong friends, explored beautiful places, and more importantly invested into my own health and fitness, which I'm starting to see the positive benefits as I get older.
The stack is pretty simple: a NextJS app, with a Postgres database to keep all my running data, and all the stats are pre-computed and cached in Redis, so I effectively only hit the database once a day when a new run is ingested. On the fronted, I toyed with the idea of using D3 or pre-existing data viz libraries, but ended up rolling my own using SVGs directly, it gave me more control on the visualizations.
I used the Strava bulk export to pre-populate the database, and I'm using their webhook API to do incremental updates. I have to tap into OpenWeatherMap and OpenCageDate to enrich the running data a little bit.
Happy to answer anything about the stack, data pipeline, or how I stayed motivated for 10 years!
[1] https://www.runeveryday.com Run Streak Association rules: ≥ 1 mile per day
It'd be perfect if we can have a toggle to switch to metric system, like kilometers, meters, celsius for temperature, etc. I find it very hard to follow the numbers expressed in miles
I know it's a dumb trick but it works for me: I use the Fibonacci sequence. 3 miles? 5 km. 8miles? 13km. 33 miles? 55km.
Ha! That’s nice.
I never realized 1.609 miles/km is close to the golden ratio (1.618)
>I've run through stress fractures, heart procedures, flus and other physical ailments. I've run in frigid sub zero weather and in sweltering heat.
Respectfully, that sounds awful. Being sick sucks enough, the last thing I'd want or benefit from doing is physical activity during a flu.
Having experienced them, those runs were surprisingly not awful. In such cases I’ll jog a very slow mile, paying really close attention to what my body tells me (if I can walk, I can shuffle a mile or so). If anything, the act of getting out of the house and accomplishing something has more than once given me a morale and energy boost while sick.
The actually awful runs I’ve had are more of the "type 2 fun" kind (running in the desert, grueling trail runs), or the occasional hungover run before I quit drinking.
Did you have the flu (influenza) or a cold? Because I had influenza once and couldn’t even walk from bed to the kitchen.
I’m asking, because in German, many people call a regular cold a flu here.
But the chance to catch real influenza is like once every 20 years or so.
What about COVID-19?
I'm a daily runner and I had influenza in February, for the first time in 30 years. I had a high fever for a full week and could not even sit up in bed.
People tend to think any bad cold is the flu, and underestimate just how bad actual influenza is. In retrospect, the narrative of "COVID is just like a bad flu" is pretty accurate, because the actual flu is a pretty traumatic experience, and the idea of getting a worse version is terrifying.
I am a runner. I had proper flu this year for the first time. I have never been that ill ever before. I could not even get upstairs to bed one night when I was at my worst.
My mothers advice on how to tell if it’s cold or flu: if someone dropped a big pile of money outside your window and you could get out of bed to retrieve it then it’s probably just a cold, if not it’s flu.
My flus were probably covids, I think it tends to bounce around in the population in the post covid days while loosing strength.
I have one really bad case if flu 20 years ago. Maybe I'll have to give up my streak then. It will be a bit sad, but maybe good for me that it opens up for some other way of exercise.
Different people react differently to flu and colds.
I usually don’t get any colds at all, but I catch the flu once a year and need to be in bed at least for a week. So I started vaccinating since a couple of years and have avoided it so far.
My wife on the other hand catches every cold possible but her flu is gone in a couple of days.
Said that, my doctor has always strongly advised against doing any sport during flu or immediately after due to risks of heart infection. That’s something I’m going to follow, I’m not a sports professional and I have no need to risk my hearts health.
Different people react differently to flu and different strains are different. I remember when I was 30 I got the flu and I had enough energy to walk to the nearest convenience store to get lunch and enough energy to do an hour of driving practice a day and the rest of the time I lay in bed. I did not have the energy to read a book. I didn’t have the motivation to turn on the radio. It was awful. Glad I haven’t had the flu since.
It was interesting today to discover the concept of "type 2 fun".
I often wondered why people did these self-evidently unfun things, purportedly "for fun".
I think part of it is that I just don't think of pain as per se bad. A lot of people I know who struggle with exercise feel a little discomfort and act like its the end of the world. They get shin splits or something and they decide they can't run. I've had mild shin splits continuously for 15 years. It doesn't really bother me in the same way, I guess. When I get back from a run if I lightly bump my shins its excruciating.
I will say that now that I am getting older its getting a bit tougher - the pain is worse and lasts longer and real chronic pain kind of bums me out, but I just enjoy the challenge of trying to work around my body.
Just because you feel like shit and your head is saying "this sucks ass", there's also the endorphins being released, the feeling of achieving something, of overcoming your own limitations and stuff.
I mean it's not for me but I can see how in hindsight (it's always in hindsight, never in the moment) it'll be considered fun. Or at the very least a story to share with friends or the internet, which is also fun.
I've had those days where a 10-minute shuffle felt more restorative than a full night's sleep
There is definitely such a thing as overtraining. I got my free testosterone down to 15 (reference range=35-155 pg/mL) and my total testosterone down to 96 (ref=250-1100 ng/dL). From histograms from various studies, I hit the 1-percentile of low testosterone as a 35yo male. That's... uh... not good.
This was due to a number of factors: excessive running (the equivalent of ~50-70mi/week), calorie restriction, and possibly carbohydrate restriction. Thankfully symptoms of low T (namely morning erections) resolved ~1month after ameliorating those 3 factors. (For anyone interested, look up "Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport".)
Mileage isn't my goal. Health is.
OP states "I've... invested into my own health", but I'm not convinced.
While I don't disagree that "team no days off" is probably not the ideal way to promote long-term health, I'd assert that most of the adult population in first-world countries are far more at risk from a lack of sufficient physical activity than from overtraining. Not dismissing your own experience (it sounds pretty bad) and I assume from context that you worked yourself into that hole, but we need to be encouraging people to be doing more physical activity rather than less.
I mean you're right, but if you're fat running is pretty rough on the knees.
Source: was fat, ran a lot, lost weight, got runner's knee, am fat again.
I think the nuance gets lost in a lot of the "no days off" messaging
But the daily mile is not what will push you into overtraining. It’s just 7 miles a week. Training hard in calorie restriction is IMO a horrible idea though. You would need to make sure to burn as little carbs as possible and not do any workouts. Basically dedicating a block to losing weight instead of improving your running. Might still get faster, weight is a factor in running
I've also seen how easily well-meaning habits (running, dieting, etc.) can tip into something detrimental, especially when the metrics become the goal. There's a fine line between dedication and depletion.
wait what? you get morning erections when on low testosterone?
When googling, it seems to be the opposite. That morning erection is a sign of a healthy testosterone level.
But how would you loose weight without calorie restriction?
Maybe this amount of running was excessive, but how did you even run such distances with T so low? (Ie how did you recover?)
I'm no expert on this, but I also read about this as I also tried calorie restriction.
You still have to keep your macros (and micros) in balance while on calorie deficit, which is even harder. Your body needs various things, you just need to optimize your food. Also, I think the main contributor for OPs issues was the fat deficit, which is very easy to fall into while you think you eat healthy a lean food. Fat is important for your hormone production.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26843151/
https://shilpidietclinic.com/low-fat-diet-and-hormonal-imbal...
In my experience(currently about 15kg into a 40kg weight-loss program), eating enough fat can also be very helpful for losing weight. It seems counter-intuitive, but it works for me. Fat contributes a great deal to satiety. My diet setup has been to have breakfast and dinner only, no lunch on most days. This way I can make both meals quite calorific, filling and plenty tasty. Crucial for maintaining adherence to the setup, which is by far the hardest part of weight loss.
When you have to go 7 to 8 hours without eating before dinner you want plenty of slow-burning calories. Long chain fats, protein, slow carbs, with plenty of fiber.
My typical breakfast ends up being one slice of bread with liver pate and cheese, another with peanut butter and either nutella(if I'm doing morning cardio or some other exercise mid-day. Lots of sugar in nutella, which gets used up immediately by the exercise anyway) or various kinds of jam with no added sugar(usually pear and apple, since they're not so tart and are pretty sweet without added sugar), and a protein pudding cup(20g protein). The bread needs to be whole-grain, of course. Ideally 100% whole grain.
This ends up being about 700 calories, which is a pretty substantial breakfast. And most importantly, it includes a lot of protein(from liver, peanut butter, cheese, the bread and the pudding), a good mix of saturated fats with plenty of SCFA and MCT from the cheese and liver, mono- and polyunsaturated fat from the peanut butter, and tons of soluble and insoluble fiber from the bread and peanut butter.
This tends to keep me full until dinner time, at which point I can typically eat up to 1300 kcal depending on how active I've been.
On extremely active days, I might either add another slice of bread to breakfast, or have a protein snack and some fruit after exercise, as well as electrolyte drink with sugar in it during(important both for energy and fluid uptake).
Anyway, I'm rarely hungry except for just before eating, which is the idea. I think this would be much harder on a low-fat diet.
When people say calorie deficit they usually mean low calories. Not 3000 kcal intake and 3300 burned which would be a healthy approach for a runner
If someone is running everyday like this, do they actually even need to lose weight? Aren't they already very fit?
Also, testosterone also gets impacted by fatigue. Running is more fatiguing than lets say stationary biking or elliptical. So maybe try other forms of cardio to burn calories too instead of only running?
While I didn't run this much, I used to run 50 km / 30 miles a week. My "cardio" was good, but I didn't lose weight because all the running made me 1. extremely hungry 2. too tired to cook a proper meal, 3. have a convenient excuse to eat bad...
"How could I not eat a second donut, I just ran 15k!"
I was not "feeling fit", though, I believe I had low T, and I stayed relatively fat, which is not great for your organs, liver values, heart, etc.
So even if you are able to run 50K a week, you may still be somewhat unhealthy due to poor diet and other factors, and some of them can be improved by losing weight...
For #2, meal prep is a valid strategy; double up on ingredients when you do cook, put the leftovers in the freezer for later.
I was too lazy to cook a proper meal for a good while, but I would make something in weekends. Since all portion sizes in shops are catered for 2-3 people minimum, I'd always have 1-2 portions left over. I had convenient 500ml freezer/microwave containers which was also ideal for portion control. Lost 8 kilos in 8 months without actively dieting during that period.
Mind you it was also a stressful period, with a new job and stuff.
You can eat like shit and do a lot of exercise and be overweight.
I’m 90 kg at 180 cm. I ride my bike 450 km per week. A few weeks ago I did a 340 km, 3000 m elevation ride at 25.6 km/h and yesterday I did a 220 km ride at 27 km/h. Last week I burned 13,468 calories from cycling (this should be fairly accurate as I have a power meter).
I would say I’m quite fit, I can obviously ride my bike further and faster than the vast majority of people but I am definitely overweight and look fat.
I’m no expert, but you should be roughly as tired burning 200 kcal running vs walking vs biking. The difference will be how quickly you’ll burn those calories.
It's not really the type of exercise but the intensity that determines fatigue. If you walk for an hour you will burn 200 kcal and ready to walk one more hour. If you try to burn 200 kcal sprinting, most people would become exhausted before getting close.
My cousin played ice hockey when he was a teenager, and started playing again too soon after having a flu. That lead to a heart infection, and almost killed him. He never played ice hockey after that.
So yeah, please be careful when doing sports while sick.
Rule 0 of training as an athlete was: you do not train when sick
Rule 1 of training as an athlete was: you do not train for N extra days after N days of fever
You do not want a heart infection.
Keeping track of you morning resting heart rate will tell you exactly what is going on.
I came here to say this, running while being sick is incredibly stupid, more so for men.
i had similar experience as author. so run few times a week for 7 years.
i was run in pine forest(it produces air with antibiotics), sub zero, down to -20c(in light clothes and sneakers).
for simple throat and nose conditions it was immediately healing, body temperature under 38c.
there rule was - never stop. nor walk. only run(until get to shower). or will get ill. tested few times.
in hockey people does not seem to run all time
also, i was run on frozen randomized ice pieces, dirt and snow like things. i had to adapt my posture for that, basically it does not streess same joints same way, not like thread mill or flat city roads. it was good. rule was never walk. when i started to walk, slipped to ground fast.
How is it worse for men?
I was under the impression that the risk is higher for men than for women.
According to https://www.myocarditisfoundation.org/about-myocarditis/:
> Men however are twice as likely as women to develop it, but women do develop myocarditis.
Why more so for men?
The site is cool but as a runner this is not admirable and not something others should emulate. Interesting how few comments call that out but perhaps not surprising if your audience admires The Hustle
Respectfully, if this guy has been doing it for ten years, it’s obviously not so bad as you make it out to be. It’s not a grind set mentality, it’s just one guys choice to exercise in a certain manner.
I am a runner. I train at what is probably the 80th percentile for longer distances, so I am by no means an expert. But I do understand that if you are running 7 miles a week, most of the time, your body isn’t going to be that beat up, especially if you are taking it slow.
It's not about the running but the "running through sickness and fractures". It's just plain stupid to risk your health like that. Great that it worked, but this is nothing anyone should blindly emulate. Have fun with the heart infection because you needed to run for virtual internet points.
Read it out loud ‘7 miles a week’
Most people sit at a desk for 40 hrs a week. That is way more damaging to your health.
Yeah once I read that I realised it wasn’t extreme at all.
I take ~2 mile brisk walks every day (the kind where my pulse will average to 130), interspersed with casual multi-mile hikes up the mountain trail nearby. That’s just my baseline cardio and movement to feel good and keep myself healthy.
What I’ve learned is a lot of people would call a “brisk walk” which takes your heart rate to average 130 “a run”. A runner’s definition of running can be quite different to a layperson’s.
[delayed]
Ten years might not be long enough for long term damage to make itself known. In fact, most of the time, it's nowhere near long enough.
However, the cardio should help. With overall health that is, not whatever blown knee or hip or whatever he'll have to deal with later.
It worked out for this specific person under these specific circumstances with a methodology he might have not even fully shared.
You should not conclude from that, that it is healthy for every person to do so.
I (still!) have an uncle who had a similar mindset, broke his leg half way through a race and only realised when he stopped at the end, that he couldnt walk any further
finally when they had to (successfully) defib him during a race, that shook him into assessing his health not running for the sake of running
There's a mindset with distance runners that I have seen over and over, just sometimes way too much of a generally good thing
It is only a mile and you can run really, really slow.
I am also a run-streaker (3 years by now). I am not proud of running when i have the flu. But I run really slow and only the required amount.
Effort comparable to going to the store to buy food and aspirin.
Just gonna say, as a fellow excessive exerciser... exercise doesn't make you stronger. It's the recovery afterwards and the resulting growth/adaptation that makes you better.
Don't let rest feel like weakness. It’s where the real progress happens.
You have to appreciate how short a mile run is.
And either way, yeah runstreak is probably not optimal for improving your stamina. I am sure there are more rigorous programs for that.
I've been running five miles roughly every other day for fifteen years. If I've got a flu or not feeling great I'll take a few days off, no loss. Not sure how one would objectively determine "stamina", but my resting HR is in the bottom 3% for my age.
Obsessively run streaking one mile every day sounds completely bizarre to me and a complete PITA.
Almost as bizarre as those poor bastards that I see doing laps around tiny parks / basketball courts (the monotony would drive me crazy).
But the stats! The streak fail! That's what running is about, right?
Imo, this is OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) expressed as running stats, rather than thimble collections or hand washing. It's about gaining/regaining a sense of control of one's life.
I am surprised by the emotions in this thread!
Where do they come from?
The running community is intense. As a former "runs way too much" runner, you get very into it and it kind of takes over your life, it becomes your whole identity. Until you get injured from it and it wakes you up.
Thank you for your comment about identity. Was it something I wanted or did it sneak up on me?
The 1000+ days behind me means something. And many days it is what pushes me through.
It would be nice if I could find a ramp down scheme, but then with something else to ramp up, otherwise it would probably be better to just keep going.
Just stopping on a random Wednesday, it would just feel very weird.
(I am not the person in the article, just another guy with a streak)
You have to appreciate how critical recovery time is to improving your strength/stamina/whatever.
Do you tend to avoid household chores or letting the dog out on your resting days?
We are talking about a level of effort that is less than people's commute or a simple walking of the dog. People exert themselves more than a slow 1-mile jog by vacuuming their house or carrying groceries home from the store.
It doesn't magically turn dangerous just because the activity is labeled "running".
Rest doesn’t preclude running. Most high end runners run every day. It’s very easy to run at recovery pace and feel better than if you’d done nothing at all.
I find the tendency of very amateur runners having very strong opinions about running, odd. There are literally decades of research, and while the particulars change over time, the macros tend not to.
This isn't really that simple. Studies keep coming out showing that even people undergoing chemo and other heavy therapies benefit from some exercise(ex brisk walks), showing upwards of 20-30% better results. For his fitness a very light run could be as taxing as a brisk walk for a common person and still bring some benefits in fighting his illness.
If you are sufficiently trained, a 1 mile day is a rest day though.
Not when you have flu. Or a stress fracture on your leg.
When you have run for a while, you get a pretty good feel of what kind of pain / discomfort you can push through, and what kind of pain / discomfort is actually harmful.
I suspect that the original poster has a better sense of these factors, for their own body, than you do and is much more suited to make these decisions.
I don’t feel strongly on either side, but I do want to point out that “I am not proud of running when I have the flu” immediately suggests a course of action that could make you more proud. It seems that not-running when sick would make you happier? Is it really worth doing just for the completionism?
i am not sure about the OP or the motivation and I am not a Streak runner/mover myself, but I do see the appeal of it, that will keep someone moving and exercise more or less consistently. Overall maybe the bad it is doing on bad days, is compensated with the good it is doing on good/average days. It is a long term motivator. For me now that i was cycling about 2-300km per week last year, going to nearly 0 this year so far because life and stuff, makes it pretty hard mentally to get back into the saddle, because of reduced performance, fatigue and just the general feeling of what it felt like to be in a faster group ride that I would get dropped from and i need to work my way back up there in performance and endurance. Having a streak going might have helped with this.
Then I would loose my streak and the magic would disappear.
I am not a pro athlete. I think there are many days where athletes go beyond what they should to win some gold medal in some competition.
This is for me only and I am fine with it.
Can you tell me what you think you'd do?
Yeah I was in the camp of " tough it out" when I was younger. Now, I understand how and when to listen to my body and lrt it rest is as important as working out with it. When my body is under stress from illness there is no need to put more stress on it.
I was more surprised the doctors even let him run after a heart procedure.
It may come as a surprise to you, but doctors don't have any means of "letting" people do anything. They can, at most, advise.
Did he ask them?
then don’t? not for everyone and that’s why it’s an achievement
It's honestly downright dangerous. I don't think anyone's going to _enjoy_ running after that.
The author sounds as though they still do.
[flagged]
I think you might be coming across as the moron here. Not someone who has done their ‘ritual’ for 10 years.
Let him live as he wishes.
I find the tenacity inspiring, although I have no intention of replicating the feat.
Why are you guys saying they if the author is clearly a guy?
The singular they has been common in English for almost four hundred years. If gender is unknown or irrelevant to the sentence, then they is completely grammatically correct.
If you're trying to make a political statement, then I think that pointing out the use of they is more of a statement than the use of it is.
At risk of… what? Being uncomfortable?
Hi I record my running for almost 15 years
you can check https://yihong.run/
and also a repo: https://github.com/yihong0618/running_page
The map on your page is incredibly cool to me! Is 2023 a bug or did you really run a single loop for the whole year? What I imagine running while on house arrest would be like :D (Just kidding, of course :))
Very impressive work.
I've been on an unbroken rowing streak (Concept2) since December last year. Half hour per day mandatory, no rest days. Typical distance rowed is 6.5-8km. There are days where I "take it easy" but I still force a minimum distance of 6.5km regardless of how long it takes. My rationale for using the C2 is the lower impact and the fact that it resides inside a climate controlled building. These factors help reduce the possibility of excuse making.
I found that taking even one day off is all it takes to throw my discipline into a death spiral. Making it a required thing no matter what changes the psychology and game theory. It has become entirely a background concern after day 90 or so. There are days where I have to row and then do hours of yard work. The first two weeks of Texas summer almost got to me. But, this too has become a background concern. I can wake up, row 30 minutes, landscape for 2 hours, and then write code or post on HN until the sun goes down. No naps, stimulants or motivational speeches required.
A lot of the comments are raising how unsafe it is to be exercising through 10 years of life without a day off, but as someone who also tends to let a day off turn into a year off, I can appreciate the wisdom of slowing rather than stopping / having a slow day rather than an off day.
I don't think 1mi per day is dangerous by a longshot but pushing through injury and sickness is wildly dangerous. heart infection is a thing, especially for men
The pace chart looks very close to a normal distribution, cool!
I don't know what impress me the most: that you run every single day for 10 years, or that you manage to have a data point for each of those. Not a single day did you forget your phone/watch/wtv? Not a single data loss? Not a single account hijaking/locked out/revoken token? Do you have your personnal SRE team?
I keep track of my calories every day, every meal, every snack from a very long time. It's very rare to not have the phone or another device close when I'm eating or after the meal, even if offline I'll send a WhatsApp message to myself and it will be sent when im back online.
In the very rare occasions I don't have a phone I vividly remember what I've eaten and will record it later.
Neurotypicals, am I right? :')
This is incredible, really nice work. How do you deal with physical injury and giving yourself time to heal?
I'd be interested in some knee cartilage statistics.
I admire your dedication. I also like the spartan look of your site.
I'm a trail runner and I've been running over 18 years or so, not every day, but two or three times a week. Sickness or health, injury, birthdays, holidays, rain, snow, -30C. My last big run was around Christmas. After that I had about three months medical off-time. Now it's very hard to get back on track. I just had to cancel some summer running events. It's not just motivation, but general stiffness and musculoskeletal pains like shin splints and knee and ankle soreness. My guess is that at my (middle) age, you either do it or lose it.
I advise anybody to find something they like and stick with it. Vary it according to how your body feels, but always do something. Keep the body (and the brain) working.
Trail running has started to absolutely wreck my back. Part of the problem is that I can't wear shoes that have plastic in them because of an allergy. Advice?
Impressive. I did streak running for 6 months nice and it was some of the most productive running in my life. Interestingly I have much higher yearly averages than you do but still consider daily streak running quite hard. Not being a morning runner myself might contribute since I get into a lot of close calls that way. My streak literally ended when my daughter went into the hospital and I couldn’t well just fuck off for a run any longer.
just wanted to say the site looks awesome! I love the minimal black+white/grayscale and the fonts are just lovely. vis looks great too, I enjoyed poking around nearly all of the unique runs to look at the map and paces.
Agreed. Was wondering where the inspiration came for each chart choice?
I came to say this as well. I really like the design and all the fun statistics.
I'd be curious to see long-term improvements, like resting heartrate over time, or heartrate @ 10 min mile over time.
That is very cool, thanks for sharing, and congratulations on an epic streak.
I'm also into running visualisation, and created the running report card:
https://run-report.com/
It visualises your year in running, with some fun narrative generated by GPT. Here's my report card:
https://run-report.com/8725202.html
Nice work. My first thought was whether I could get similar graphs for my own data — this run-report.com does exactly that. Clean design, and the GPT-generated summary is a nice touch. Thanks for sharing.
I'd like to congratulate you on all those 1 mile days - I opened the link expecting to go "yeah, this person is just extremely lucky that they're one of those people that can just run all the time with no issues".
But a 1 mile run mean you've put your shoes on, went outdoor, were active and it feels extremely doable for anyone. I'm wondering if I walk at least 1 mile each day, if not, I definitely should!
Thanks for the share!
He does run inside 13% of the time.
Something funky with your personal beats. It says your best 5k was in 35:35 but your best 10k was in 43:26. Not possible for those both to be true . I guess the 5k data is screwy since that is quite a slow 5k time.
Edit: seems maybe tht 5k is mislabeled, should be 5 miles... But that feels like a less standardized time.
Just a labeling issue. If you click on the 5k you get a detail popup on the right that says 5 miles, which is much more in line with several of the other times.
5 miles is not that uncommon a race distance in the US; 8k is very close, but you can still find both. (There are much fewer 3-mile or 6-mile races, those are mostly all 5ks and 10ks.) Though it's unclear if it was an organized race.
edit: it probably wasn't an organized race, there's a separate "races" tab.
The label seems to be off. It’s 5 miles, not 5 kilometers. Based on the data below it and map.
Definitely a bug, will fix tomorrow, thanks for catching!
First, congrats on your self discipline.
Second: About running just one mile in a single day: Does have any physical benefit? (Yes, I know you run more than one mile on many days.) It would take more time to change in to/out of your clothes and shoes than run a mile. Plus it only burns 100 cals. Can you imagine someone writing here that they only swim 9 mins per day... Or bike 9 mins per day?
> Does have any physical benefit?
Compared to what? Sitting on the couch, snacking on chips? Of course.
Under the "Countries Visited" section it says "been lucky to run on all seven continents, including antarctica!", but it doesn't look like they've been to Australia.
Oh lol you’re right! Perhaps they ran in Australia before they started this ten-year streak? In that case it could still be true, but not show in the data
Edit: also, they pulled the data from strava. It’s possible they forgot to record their Australian run(s) in strava for some reason
wonder if I know this person, as I've also run on all seven continents, as well as the north pole (which is not a continent).
there aren't that many of us (that have run on antarctica, vs king george island).
I haven’t been to Australia, but I’ve run in Hawaii, which is part of Oceania (broader than just Australia).
Notably not on the tectonic plate Australia is on (which is mostly although not entirely just Australia in terms of land), though, if someone is going by that definition.
Eh, that doesn't really count. Sounds like a good excuse for a trip ;)
Just from stats alone I assume op is from Colorado but ~4 years in a decade were split between NY and CA, that’s impressive level of traveling even ignoring all the rest of the even more impressive international trips. What do you do for living, man on the run:)?
Impressive.
A nice addition would be adding a switch for converting to non-American units though
you seem to be leaking your access token for mapbox.com api?
'pk.eyJ1IjoiZnJpZ2dlcmkiLCJhIjoiY21jbHdmZmZmMGV3dTJpcHR5cWcwOHhzdyJ9.Z-XMMh_nFDjm8FUyB2tZ_w'
pk usually means publishable key - should be fine
Looks fantastic! I run somewhat regularly and enjoy it, but would never make it my primary form of exercise due to the high impact stress on the body and relatively high injury rate compared to other solo forms of exercise. What made you decide to make it your primary form of exercise, and to do it every day?
Do you have longitudinal resting heart rate data? Would love to see how it changed over the years.
I haven’t aggregated the trend over time, but my resting HR has definitely decreased, I’m roughly around 40bpm at the moment, down from ~60bpm 10 years ago.
> I’m roughly around 40bpm at the moment, down from ~60bpm 10 years ago
To put that into perspective for other readers: I've been running for about 10 years also, but typically 2x a week (10k mid-week, 15~20k weekend), I have no real data on my heart rate from when I started, but at rest I'm now typically at 60bpm.
I measure almost daily due to medication and having a minor heart defect, and I have noticed that if I skip a week of running, it'll slowly go up, averaging at ~62bpm, but when I train for a (half) marathon I typically increase my distance a bit and try to train every other day (~3x/week) then my heart rate a rest goes down a bit to be consistently below 60bpm (58bpm avg).
40bpm is very low, for non-athletes this would be considered dangerously low, but I guess daily running at OPs distance would classify OP as an athlete. Also keep in mind that heart rate differs per person, some people just naturally have a low heartbeat.
He might be referring to his sleeping heart rate. Mine's around 40bpm too, and although I'm in shape, I am definitely not an athlete. There is a correlation with height (taller -> slower bpm). If you are young and fit, I don't think you have much to worry about a slow resting heart rate, in the absence of other symptoms.
Having lived in Denver for a decade, I can say it’s definitely a run city. So many run groups. A guy I used to work with did ultra marathons of 100mi+. Insane. Good for you! I saw the flat irons green mountain run and immediately said “Hey, I know that place!!!”
I’m not going to run it but I’ve hiked up in there a bunch of times.
I started walking everyday 1-4km, and then switched to jogging 1-2.5 km everyday. It built up the muscles in my back so I no longer slouch, also fixed constipation issues I was having.
Streak culture is motivating, but I always wonder where the line is between discipline and obsession. Still, there's something powerful about building a routine that becomes part of your identity
Stop treating obsession like a bad thing. That’s the only way how you get at front page of hackernews.
Running every day for ten years is impressive enough on its own. What really stands out to me is how you turned the whole thing into a structured, data-driven project. The way you blended life and tech feels genuinely inspiring. It's not just about running, it's about how you choose to spend your time.
"Running over 30 miles a week for probably my first five, six years on Tour pretty much destroyed my body and my knees,” Tiger Woods said.
So in 4 years it might be really bad? Be careful.
7 miles/week vs. 30. And this doesn't count all the other physical stresses Tiger put on his body, like the insane torque he was able to generate swinging a club.
Even if the poster walked a mile day, that's only 20 minutes and barely hits the recommended exercise time.
I feel like anytime these threads pop up about someone staying physically healthy a bunch of people come out the woodwork to make it sound like they are hurting themselves. I'm not really sure why.
I really appreciate the website, it's amazing!
How do the runs end up on the dashboard? Is that Apple Watch / Strava data that you automatically or manually export? How many different systems did you have to integrate? I assume you don't necessarily used the same app or watch to track your running ten years ago that you use today?
You collected and logged all 3653 days of data through a device or manually by typing/saving it where initially (excel sheet) after each new run?
The details are astonishing.
Can you tell how you managed all of this so gracefully? Were you working on this idea from day 1? When did you buy this domain?
You even saved and displayed a few dozen live map coordinates as well from 2016 onwards.
Most of the well known GPS watches supports GPX exports.
Strava and GPS watches and Apple Watch make this really easy, even back in 2015.
This is brilliant!
I'd like to see your average HR per pace marker to see how your running zones have changed at the same pace over time.
The average HR for a 10k you did at 5,50 per km did 6 years ago compared to now at the same pace.
I'm inspired. I need to start trying for this sort of consistency with resistance training. While I'd never advocate for "no days off", a lifetime of progress is built on a lifetime of participation.
How do you manage to always find the free time for run even though the conditions doesn't allow it? Like for example if you take a flight of 16 hours.
I don't want to speak for the OP, but most people don't take a 16 hour flight ever in their life.
Yeah, 16 hours is crazy long. I would add that I found the best thing to do on both sides of a lengthy flight (say 6-8 hours) is exercise.
This really inspired me. I think I will do one on basketball.
Great work on data collection for 10 years. Quantified self tracking into a universal format is still really hard.
What tracking sensors do you use that input into Strava? (e.g. Garmin, Apple Watch, built in iphone, etc)?
It’s changed over time: I first used MapMyRun with my iPhone, then switched to Strava on the iPhone, then got a garmin, and nowadays an Apple Watch. I’m super grateful for Strava to exist, if only as a repo of all my workouts.
Would be super cool to see a "no days off" streak in a skill-based sport like that
As someone who' just counting steps, I'm genuinely curious what's your average steps per day? And how many steps over 10 years?
I feel very inspired by this, thanks for sharing! Didn't know this Run Streak Association existed but now I want to join. Congratulations on your immense achievement.
Congrats! Why don’t you ever take a day off eg for recuperation or during some of the more serious issues you mention?
Jogging a slow mile is pretty much "a day off" these days
These graphs are gorgeous, visually and otherwise. Really well done display of information.
What shoes do you use? How often do you replace them? How are your knees holding up after ten years?
decade streak is legit impressive. just hit 30 days of 5k myself. some might scoff at the number of 1mile days but dragging yourself out when you're busy or exhausted is rough.
Congrats! How are your knees doing if I may ask and how did you take care of them?
I've only been running for a couple of years and already feeling troubles brewing in.
The idea that running leads to knee damage is a pervasive myth.
The focus is usually on the increased impact during running, but arguably when averaged over the time it is actually somewhat equivalent to walking, the 'air time' of each joint means you are effectively under no load with some form of decompression.
It is effectively a higher load with a lower duty cycle. versus walking with a lower load at about 50% duty cycle.
Joint 'damage' is a misnomer. Joint surfaces are under load/impact and friction while running, that is just biomechanics.
Other mechanical parts like bearings have a load capacity and lifetime. It is not a stretch to model the same for articular surfaces on your hips, knees, ankles.
How so?
Old people often have bad knees. Runners often become old people. People make an association that’s not born out in statistics. Most of the body is “use it or lose it” and running improves blood flow and development of muscles and structures of/around the knee.
I agree, and I've heard the same. In my experience, knee problems always disappeared with moderate running. Of course, you have to allow yourself time to recover after running. But as far as I know, the science is that joint lubrication in your knees needs activity to function properly.
Do strength training, as in compound leg exercises once or twice a week. Squats, forward lunges, (and many more you can find online for knee strength). The healthiest approach to running is not just running, especially if you're over 30 :)
I’ve been lucky to never have any real knee issues. The only period I ended up with a little knee pain was because of a poor running shoe choice, and it resolved when I got properly fitted and changed shoes. Hope you figure out the source of your troubles!
It might be worth going to a sports physio that specialises in runners. I did this a year ago and fixed my overstriding and increased my cadence and no longer have random soreness or troubles in hips or knees etc.
I’ve always wanted to do this, but I fly to Singapore from the USA about annually. That means that I essentially skip a day (take off on day 1, land on day 3) so can’t qualify for the streak. Also why I couldn’t do the 366 day streak in one year.
I don’t think this is true! Days of your life are (imo) not defined by the date line, but by the 24-hour periods you experience. If you accept my rules, then as long as you always have flights shorter than 24 hours, you can still run on sequential days.
Edit: you could also potentially run on the plane. I admit that would be pretty weird though
I ran on the Queen Mary II, every day, across the Atlantic :)
Much easier than a plane, though.
Will Shortz (NYT crossword editor) had a table tennis streak that was going to be affected in a similar way.
> You cannot fly from New York to Bangalore without missing a day in the calendar. So I flew to Dubai and stopped there for two and a half days, played table tennis at clubs there, and then flew on to Bangalore. I’ve been to China and Japan multiple times, and, because of the time change, the flight leaves New York at, say, 11 a.m. and gets to China or Japan late afternoon the next day. So I play early in the morning, like seven or eight, go directly to the airport, fly to Beijing, get off the plane, and go directly to a club to keep my streak alive.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/w...
A friend of mine is on a 25 year running every day streak. He flew to Australia and landed 2 days after taking off and said that day “never existed for him” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I like your friend's rule. If a guy literally runs every day, through stress fractures, flu, winter snow, thunderstorms, etc, I'm going to cut him a break on an international flight and continue to celebrate his streak with him.
Is it possible to toggle from miles to km?
This is so cool! At what point did you start thinking about this project? Like, were you quietly working on it a year ago after every run, just waiting for this moment?
And hey, great run in Japan! (Tokyo here!) I love the map visualization too.
I thought about it last week, was pretty quick to hack together!
I loved loved running in Japan, such a wonderful country
Love it! How did you stay motivated?
At first it was all about the challenge of doing one more day.
After about two years the streak became part of my identity, which might sound a little unhealthy. It’s easier to just head out and jog a mile or two than to let the number go back to zero.
This being said, it’s made for interesting conversations with medical professionals – I needed a cardiac ablation a couple of years ago and my electrocardiologist came to an “agreement” (as in she didn’t forcefully dissuade me from doing it) that I could jog a slow slow slow mile late in the evening the day after the procedure, as long as I kept my heart rate down and I made sure I was being mindful of my puncture sites.
just want to second this. and realy, antarctica?? how?? i mean, apart from the logistics etc , ... is it runnable? i can hardly picture it in such harshness!
Speaking for the US stations, in the summer you can run outdoors. I don't want to say many people do, but there are always some.
Here's me from a few years ago, to give an idea of the clothing required https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/life-at-the-pole/2021/01/week-...
Even at the South Pole, we have a 5k "Race Around the World" at Christmas, and a marathon shortly after New Year. In 2022, someone did an ultra. It's compacted snow/ice. Not easy terrain, but doable in your average pair of running shoes (with wooly socks). For the race events we normally ask someone to drive round the route a few times to compact it a bit more. On the coast at McMurdo there are routes that are more like traditional trail running - dirt/gravel, hills. I assume other stations are similar.
The more intrepid folks gave up when it got to around -50C and then it's treadmills until sunrise and it warms up again.
There's also a more pay-to-play marathon: https://www.icemarathon.com/ ($22k)
Those might've been some of the treadmill runs. Also looks like they were all one-milers.
I love this! BTW you are selling yourself short on your 5K personal best. The time listed (35:35) is your best 5 mile, whereas your best 5K is a respectable 21:20
Do you have the source/pipeline available? I love the design and would want to do something similar for my own runs.
Congrats on the decade! Did you ever focus on specific metrics or was it always just about the run?
Unfortunately I ended up winging the data processing, so it was mostly a pile of adhoc scripts. The incremental update pulling from the Strava API is a little cleaner, but would require significant work to open source.
The only thing I ever really cared about was keeping the streak going, everything else has come second. I dropped out of a trail running trip after a fall because I felt that even though I could continue, putting too much mileage on my knee would jeopardize the streak.
I don't have the tenacity to run strictly _everyday_, so as a middle ground I don't run when it rains at anytime during daylight.
Of course the effectiveness of this rule depends on where you live :P
In particular, the access to indoor treadmills.
This is beautiful. I wish you lifted 10 years ago!
do you have code it on github ?
both the endeavor and the site are super cool - congrats on 10 years. interaction on the graphics would be a nice touch to select into a specific run. went looking for the code on your GH! https://github.com/friggeri
I admire your persistence and it's something I should learn from.
(oh no this was on the wrong comment and alas past the delete window ha).
I don't understand how this is related, can you explain?
Hah oh my this was on the wrong HN article I had open. Thank you so much for kindly pointing that out.
Developer version of Forest Grump.
SVGs? So, some of the staistics graphs do not update, or have you made them dynamic by hand?
I envy all runners. I tried running many times, on consecutive days as well. After running for a minute or so, I start getting a burning sensation in the chest and I gasp for breath. I must stop and sit. After resting for a few minutes, I can repeat the same. However I can do fast walking for an hour. I suspect this is some condition that I have, rather than lack of practice. So I don't push it. Anyone thinks this is normal? Also I'm not sure if running for longer time is so much needed if I do walking.
Take a much more gradual increase in intensity. Start walking for 5 minutes, then speed walking for 5 minutes, then light jogging, etc.
Alternatively, try cadio exercise on a machine. Personally I like the elliptical machine way more than running. Mostly since I can watch Netflix and other videos while I do it. But it also lets you regulate and monitor intensity more effectively than running.
It took me at least a couple of months of regular running before I could run consistently on flat terrain without taking walking breaks (and almost a year to consistently manage long up-hill sections).
Consider taking it much slower and do intervals between walking and jogging (I'd do it by feel instead of timing exactly). Over time increase the proportion you jog.
You need a angular histogram (like WORKOUT ACTIVITY BY TIME) but for miles per direction ran. Doesn't really need to be more granular than 3 cardnals long to be pretty interesting.
beautifullllllll—both the streak and the stack. Love how lightweight the architecture is for something so personal and long-term. Curious if you noticed any patterns in the data that surprised you once you visualized it?
Love it!
I will hit one year mark in a couple of weeks. Currently maintaining stats in a Google spreadsheet :)
https://vijaykillu.com/
Congrats, that’s an amazing milestone!
I love streaks like this.
My current bests are: 686 days for completing the New York Times Crossword and 582 days of 20+ minutes of Apple Fitness+ classes.
Plus 15,344 days without driving a car (I never learned) and without having alcohol or soda (just never had the interest). And 5,123 days since I've taken Ecstasy (tried it once).
Around 6,000 days since I last intentionally ate meat, but I couldn't tell you the exact date.
> Around 6,000 days since I last intentionally ate meat
What does "intentionally" mean? Are you sometimes accidentally tricked into eating meat?
I was pre-empting the ultra-clever HN commenter who might question whether I’d accidentally eaten meat as a byproduct of food production.
Love how you laid (layed?) everything out. Super clean site.
Reminds me of this one guys site from way back on HN that had tons of biometric data hooked up into a futuristic live panel. Wish I could remember the URL.
That's awesome! any tips for people who are just starting out?
Not OP but I've been consistently running for ~4 years (consistent := >=200K every month). The #1 advice I'd give is start short, start slow, e.g. start with 1 mile and as long as you're not walking you can consider yourself running. It's about finishing, not about speed.
Also unlike many people I know, I don't listen to anything while running. Running is a time for me to think about stuff that I'm too busy to think about during the day (e.g. contemplating life issues or is 1*0=0 because of 1 or 0)
I would say that starting slow is more important than starting short. And the important part of starting slow is having a full acceptance of slow running as valid running.
I used to think anything slower than 10:00/mile is jogging and doesn't qualify as running. This harmed motivation since when I was just starting I couldn't actually get faster than that every single run.
When you exercise try to stay in heartrate zone 2/3. This may mean walking up a hill as many people cannot start running and keep their heart rate down. Many who try to run get discouraged as they go too hard and blow up their heartrate which makes for a unpleasant experience.
Over time the speed and duration you can run will get better but your heart rate will stay the same.
I would recommend trail running as it is much more dynamic and you are less likely to get overuse injuries like people who run on concrete for many miles get stress fractures. Bonus points you get out in nature.
Don't buy into the "couch to 5k" hype. Instead, try "none to run" and don't be afraid to take it even slower than the programme suggests.
When I started out (3y into my streak now), the magic happened in some more or less distinct stages.
On week four "I am really doing this". And on week 12 "impossible to stop now".
Aim for those and you will be unstoppable.
Like others said: take it slow, invest in the long term, and most importantly learn to listen to your body. Best of luck in your journey!
Is this healthy?
This is so cool. Congrats on ten years!
Honest question. Why is it imperative you run everyday? What would it mean for you to not run for day or everyday?
Congratulations. I just have one question; how do you run one day in each, Porto Rico, Hawaii, Austria, Sweden, let alone China?
In other words; what led to being in each of those places for only one day? I don’t understand how you, e.g., found yourself in Puerto Rico for only one day.
Unfortunately my treadmill runs don’t have GPS data associated with them. Austria, PR and Hawaii were places where I ran mostly in the gym.
This being said, Sweden is a fun one: I was in Copenhagen for a few weeks and I thought it’d be fun to take the train to Malmo, do my long run, and then take the train back. All that to say, I’ve spent 3h30 in Sweden, 3h05 of which I was running.
Shanghai was an overnight layover.
Very cool. I can’t run (bad knees) but I’ve been making a habit of walking at least 30 min a day, and goal of 90 minutes.
I’m happy to have hit that goal this past week, and your post inspired me to make every week a successful one in that regard. Thanks!
Cheers, best with everything!
Damn. I want to try this, now.
Well you can go out and set a one day streak right now!
> heart procedures
Do you have AFib, by any chance? Congratulations on your streak, regardless.
EDIT: in another comment, you mentioned:
> I needed a cardiac ablation a couple of years ago
So I guess that's a yes? Was that when you were averaging 5.3 miles daily that one year? For those unaware, there's a well-established link between excessive endurance exercise and AFib.
Not AFib thankfully, I had a few sporadic SVTs while running (it’s however unclear whether exercise was the original cause, or if it was congenital and started manifesting while running).
Thankfully the ablation took care of them and I haven’t had an episode in a few years.
amazing
> every. single. day.
No logs for May 1st, 2021, what happened that day?
I think fitness fanatics should disclosed their BMI when they started the craze. At least around me, the only people really into compulsive running either have serious body weight problems they want to tackle, or were told by their doc that they need to move to avoid some cardiovascular problem. I don't know many slim people into compulsive running.
This is such an odd statement to me. It almost sounds like you're claiming running is a scam propagated by the fats.
Anyway as a to counter your annecdote: I ran every day for a decade before some injuries. I was in quite a few clubs and I genuinely cannot think of a single person from those groups who wasn't "slim."
Counter point based on my own experience: in Europe the median runner is actually quite slimer than the median non-runner. And I'm surprised to learn it's different anywhere else.
> 1 mile / day ... for months. in 2022, 2023, 2024
cmon. that's barely a run
can't say if you are kidding? or if you are someone who runs 10+ km daily and looks down on others.
OP is doing this as a hobby, no need to criticize it in my opinion.
try 10km+ a day. then we will talk
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