Zack Telander, a singer-songwriter from Texas and a father, took on a challenge: to run one mile (1.6 kilometers) every day for 100 days and see if his body will change during that time. And in just three months, his body changed dramatically – he became more sculpted and stronger, and his endurance and recovery improved greatly. But the transformation was much more than physical.
No matter how funny this sounds, Telander got his idea while using the restroom (you have to admit, we all do get these ideas).
“I decided to start running because I was actually on the toilet and thought, ‘Man, it would be really cool to run a mile in 10 minutes today, and then try a mile in 9 minutes and 50 seconds tomorrow, 9 minutes and 40 seconds the following day,” he said in a conversation with Men’s Health.
“I’m basically cutting 10 seconds every day till I’m unable to continue. After an hour [of that notion], I was running at the track.”
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Even though he occasionally had to drag himself to the starting line, Telander rapidly accumulated 22 straight days after starting on June 1 and he says that he was feeling better every day.
“There were days definitely where I didn’t want to run. And the one thing I kept saying was ‘You know you didn’t run’; I could be like, ah, well no one’s going to know if I didn’t do one of the days here – I could still say that I did the streak, but I would know. And I just remember saying that, it was really effective – I immediately put my shoes on and was like, alright, let’s go.”
After completing 100 days of running, the US influencer witnessed some notable improvements in his body and was able to significantly increase his pace.
Despite his experience with weight lifting, he shifted his focus to running while during the challenge. Also, lifting became less important to him because he really loved the challenge and running.
“As far as the effects on lifts, I’m not trying to be very very strong,” says Telander. “I think it can just potentially negatively impact my overall energy towards physical fitness.”
“I come from a background of being strong and spending a lot of time in the gym. And I think there’s no way I can be that strong and run the way that I want to. But, I don’t think it’s negating my lifting that much – I just don’t care as much as I once did about lifting.”
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After 100 days, Telander said he feels great and plans to keep going because he worked hard to gain this ability. When he first started, he explained, he couldn’t maintain his current pace for longer than a mile and a half or two miles. Now, however, he feels like he can keep going and going.
“It would suck if I just said, ‘Alright, I’m done,’ and then lost that ability,” he noted. While he isn’t sure how much longer he’ll continue, he doesn’t see himself stopping anytime soon.
Image credit @zack_telander instagram
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