Completing One Year Of Running, Every Day, One Mile Or More (Mostly Barefoot) - Why I Did It And The Multitude Of Payoffs From The Process In All Aspects Of My Life
Cody Dakota Wooten, C.B.C. is the Chief Regenerative Design Officer and Founder of The Leadership Guide, Change The World Fitness Apparel, and he is the Category Creator of the Multi-Award-Winning Categories: Sageship Cultivation Legendary Leadership As a Sageship Coach, Daily Digital Writer (800+ Day & Article Streak),... more
Exactly One Year Ago Today...
June 1, 2024...
I made a Decision.
I was going to Start Running Every Single Day...
At Least One Mile...
Period.
Rain, Snow, or Shine.
When Healthy or Sick.
It Does Not Matter "How" You Complete the Run.
It can be Fast or Slow.
Through Hard Hills or On Easy Flats.
Insider on a Treadmill or Outside in the Elements.
As Long as it Gets Done.
I was Inspired after I discovered something called "Run Streaks" where this is the Norm.
Some consider it a Way of Life...
Or a Way to Stay Accountable to Continuing to Work Out.
I saw the Values of These of Course...
But I Saw Further Potential Benefits as Well.
Especially when we Look at Human Psychophysiology.
At Least...
If You Do It Correctly.
When we Look Deep into Our Psychophysiology, we begin to Find Something Fascinating...
We are Designed to Run.
By Nature.
The way our Bodies (Should) Move...
The Hormones Our Bodies Create...
Endorphins, which are Natural Mood Boosters and Pain Relievers...
Endocannabinoids that are also Natural Mood Boosters and Pain Relievers...
But also helps Reduce Inflammation (A Growing Problem in Today's World), influences Metabolism, and also Impacts Neurodevelopment (Part of an Area of Research known as Embodied Cognition).
This Is Not All Though...
If you Stay Consistent within Your Aerobic Zone, it can also Increase your Cells' Abilities to Produce Energy (Mg-ATP) for the Whole Body.
If you Push Yourself from Occasionally into the Anaerobic Zone, it can Increase Your VO2 Max and HRV Max, both Indicators of Overall Health...
And Helping to Reduce Your Biological Age.
Then, if we Look at the Nervous System, Running is an Advanced Form of a "Cross Crawl" which has the Natural Ability to Calm the Nervous System Down...
Which can be Enhanced with Barefoot Running.
Your Feet are One of the Top Three areas in the Body with the Most Nerve Endings, along with Your Hands and Mouth.
Most People "Dull their Nerve Endings in the Feet through Disuse, due to Modern Footwear...
This becomes a Stressor on the Nervous System, and can also Cause the Nerves to become Hypersensitive.
Most People who Report that their Feet "Hurt" are Not Experiencing Real Pain, but Rather Shock from their Feet's Hypersensitivity.
I also Know that, from the Area of Flow State Research...
Flow States are where We Perform and Feel Our Best in "Every" Aspect of Life...
That Flow Begets Flow.
The More Frequently You Get Into Flow States...
The Easier it is to Get Into Future Flow States...
Which is Essential for My Work as Well.
I also have been Competing in Obstacle Course Races since 2019...
Achieving a Trifecta Every Year Since (Six So Far)...
Requiring...
A Sprint, which is a 5k (3.1 mi) Race with 20+ Obstacles...
A Super, which is a 10k (6.2 mi) Race with 25+ Obstacles...
And a Beast, which is 21k (13.1 mi) Race with 30+ Obstacles "Or" an Ultra, which is a 50k (31 mi) Race with 60+ Obstacles.
I've completed Three of these Trifectas with the Ultra.
Two Years Before I started the Run Streak (2022), I had Injured Myself during my Second Ultra...
So I Felt that I could Improve my Body's Ability to Handle the Higher Milage by Adding a Daily Run to my Fitness Plans so that I could get Back to Completing Ultras.
Then, when we look at the Science of Habits...
We also Know that by Dedicating Yourself to a "Single" Habit...
Typically, We as Humans "Also" Naturally Improve Other Parts of Our Lives, and this is Known as the "Halo Effect".
For All of these Reasons...
I Felt Taking On a Run Streak would Be Extremely Beneficial.
Indeed, it was Incredibly Beneficial...
But So Much More than I Imagined.
Did My Health Improve?
Absolutely!
Since I began my Run Streak...
I have Run "Over" 800 Miles.
I "Did" Get Strong Enough to Complete Last Year's Spartan Ultra...
And I'm Looking Great for this Year's Spartan Ultra!
My Endurance Score on Garmin Scores me as an "Expert" in Endurance for my Age Group (30 - 34), which is in the Most Competitive Age Groups (21 - 39)...
And My Score is Growing.
My HRV is Averaging 60 on Garmin and 68 on WHOOP, and Increasing on Both...
(These Companies' Scores and Equations are Calculated slightly Differently, so I'll Include Both where Applicable)
My RHR is Averaging 49 on Garmin and 50 on WHOOP, and Decreasing on Both.
My VO2 Max is Averaging 62 on Garmin and 58 on WHOOP, and Increasing on Both.
On Garmin, I have Maxed Out my "Fitness Age", their version of Biological Age, at 21.5 Years Old (9.5 Years Younger than my Chronological Age of 31.5+).
WHOOP's Version of Biological is Newer and at least "Appears" More Nuanced, putting me at a "WHOOP Age" of 27.3 (4.4 Years Younger)...
And my "Pace of Aging" is 0.5x (I'm Aging 1/2 the Chronological Pace).
Both of these Numbers are also Decreasing on WHOOP, meaning that my Biological Age is Decreasing.
With these, I've found that My Body is Both able to Perform Better and Recover More Quickly.
My Fastest Mile Pace was 6:15 on a Flat Course...
But Just Today, I Ran 2.19 Miles, Barefoot, at a 6:56 Pace with some Hills.
My Average Stress Level over the Past Year has been 24 on a Scale of 100 According to WHOOP...
Despite some Extreme Stressors that I Faced.
This Past Week, I have Averaged 19 on a Scale of 100.
All of this to say that My Health has been Incredible, and it is Trending Even Better!
However, it is Not Just in my Health where things have become Interesting.
During all of this, I was Selected to Participate in a Major Health and Fitness Competition.
I Did Not Win...
Partially due Extreme Levels of Cheating that I Faced, and Discovered that "Many" Other Competitors Experienced with "No" Accountability from the Judges...
But I Did Not Allow this to Reduce My Impact.
I used my Platform to Speak Against the Culture of Sickness that Exists in Most "Fitness" Cultures and Societies' Ideas of "Health" (Which I Saw Highlighted During the Competition)...
Then, I Defined a New and Better form of Health and Fitness.
I also Used My Platform to Launch a Fitness Apparel Brand...
With this, I Decided to Lean into the Concept of "Regenerative Legacy Design", which has Evolved to become an Important Aspect of Sageship in Business...
And I Began the "Change The World Impact Project #1".
Through that Project, We Raised Nearly $2,000 for the B+ Foundation, which Helps Children Fight Cancer.
We Then Went to a World Impact...
- 58 Baby Corals were Planted, which completed 3 Coral Stars that Support Marine Life & Tourism, and Further Provided Employment for Victims of Sex Trafficking
- 365 Square Meters of Microhabitats were Protected which provides Enough Land for over 200 Critically Endangered Pseudophilautus Amboli (Baby Frogs) and over 80 Critically Endangered Buceros Bicornis (Baby Birds)
- 197 kg of Plastic were Collected from our Oceans, which is Equivalent to 10,000 Plastic Bottles
- 117 Mangrove Trees were Planted which can Reverse 146,000 Miles Worth of Carbon Emissions
But it went further...
Through Everything that I Did...
I also became a Semi-Professional Athlete.
Companies began to want to Work With Me, Sponsor Me, and Affiliate with Me based on My Passion for Pushing People to Attain Psychophysiological Mastery...
Even though they Understood that my Primary Profession was as a Sageship Coach working with Business Leaders, C-Suite Executives, and Entrepreneurs.
I am Fueled By @thefeedme as a The Feed 1st Member, which provides me with Different Nutrition and Gear for my Races...
I'm a Big Fan of UnTapped Energy Gels and USWE Hydration Packs, which I get through The Feed.
I was Accepted as a WHOOP Affiliate, which is Exciting because I'm nearly a Diamond Level WHOOP Athlete and have been Using WHOOP Bands since 2019.
I was also Accepted into the League of Garmin, and I Love Using my Garmin Watch to Help me Pace My Runs.
These were all Additions to Companies that I had been working with Previously due to their Psychophysiological Impacts they have had on Myself and Clients.
For Supplements, there are Three Companies I Highly Recommend:
Then...
As of Today...
I have Officially Been Accepted as a Lifetime Member of Streak Runners International and the United States Running Streak Association.
The Official List of Individuals who have Maintained a Year or More of Running Daily.
Less than 3100 Individuals are Active on the List, and I am Now One of Them.
It is an Honor to Share that Achievement, and I'm Excited to Continue this Streak into the Higher Levels on the List.
Now, all of this is to Say Something Very Simple...
Your Health Is Important.
Even Running as Little as One Mile Per Day...
Which Most People can Do in Under 20 Minutes...
Can have Dramatic Impacts on Your Life.
Not "Just" on Your Health...
But Also "Every" Other Aspect of Your Life.
Your Potential Is Within Your Reach...
But You Have to Start Working Toward It.
You've Got This, and I Believe in You.
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Are You Ready to Go Beyond Leadership?
Tired of Broken Algorithms and AI Slop?
Excited to Dive Deeper into Psychophysiological Mastery?
Want to Change The World?
