I just broke my #runstreak when I reached 60 days. After two months of running every single day, I learned a lot of lessons, but the primary one that stuck with me is that I don’t need to run that much.

Because I burn out. I get tired of it. I ran 9 miles this past weekend, and it was hard. Not that running 9 miles is every easy, but I know what it should feel like.

And this wasn’t it. On top of being physically hard, I wasn’t mentally there.

So I broke my streak and decided that maybe my 1-mile filler runs weren’t the way to go. I decided that maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t be worried about marathon training, either.

The way I see it, I run for fun. Sure, it’s about fitness and health, but mostly, I run to keep myself entertained and mentally stable, though it might not always be in that order.

By the end of this #runstreak, I was not having fun anymore. I had discipline and determination, but I wasn’t having fun. A 9-miler may not be fun by most people’s standards, but I was looking forward to it.

And it sucked.

In fact, the whole few weeks before that run had sucked. Looking back, I think I was doing too much, too soon. I was coming off an injury and immediately started to increase milage to get going before the summer and make sure I could hit a marathon in October.

I overshot my ability with my goal, and now I’m paying for it. Not physically, mind you, but mentally. I haven’t injured myself, but I’m in that phase of training where I dread running.

That’s not like me.

So I’m taking a step back, moving my runs from daily to 3-4x a week. I enjoy running a 10k 4x a week. That’s the most fun I’ve ever had running. It wasn’t overbearing, and it wasn’t physically hard to get that as my base.

Sometimes, you just have to take a look at where you are and where you want to be. More than anything, I want to not dread running and love it again. So I’m training for that at the moment.

I think I can get there in just a few weeks of trying.