How I Broke All of My Running PRs in a Single Year
These changes broke me out of my running funk
My Ambitious New Year’s Resolution
At the start of this year, I set a massive goal for myself: to break every single personal best that I had run on Strava. Within a one-year span, I wanted to set new personal records at every distance from the 400 meter to the half-marathon.
Why would I set such a wild goal? Because my running was in a funk.
I started running in 2017, shortly after quitting a decade-long drinking habit. Originally, the hobby was just a tool to help me stay sober, but now, seven years later, running has become one of my favorite ways to spend my free time.
When I first began, I couldn’t even run a mile without stopping, but I improved fairly quickly, as many beginners do. Soon I was able to run a 5k, and after another few months, I brought my 5k time down to under 30 minutes. I still remember how thrilled I was with that milestone — it made me feel like I was a “real” runner for the first time.
The crazy thing about those first couple of years running is that I was still a cigarette smoker at the time. Often I’d get back from a run and immediately reach for a cigarette. However, in 2019, I managed to quit that bad…
