Unbroken streaks are overrated. [day#4]

Just two days ago, a friend boasted about his 500-day language learning streak on Duolingo. My first reaction was to congratulate him because doing something consistently for so many days is impressive, right? But then came the question: well, have you actually learned anything? Not really… and that’s what I wanted to address. Discipline and regularity are incredibly important, especially when preparing for an event or competition. If we want to achieve a fitness goal or improve performance, this systematic approach is crucial. However, it can’t be the goal itself, and all those apps that constantly nag us and warn against losing our “streak” don’t really care about our condition on a given day or whether maintaining the streak actually makes sense (beyond the dopamine rush). Does a low-quality workout make sense? Does ticking something off just to satisfy an artificially generated need make sense? Training and progress planning is a very complex mechanism. Discipline is a part of it, but above all is reason, quality, and how we feel (not just good or bad – but the ability to sense our body’s condition and what we can allow ourselves to do). Every structured training plan is additional stress for the body; putting aside the nonsense about “endorphins,” we’re adding another stimulus that requires regeneration. Let all these plans, apps, and resolutions be for us, and not us for them, and everything will be fine. Think and adapt to your abilities and circumstances, modify and test. That’s the path to progress.
Today is the second of three running workouts I’ve planned for this week (and the entire microcycle is a two-week introduction). There’s also recreational swimming in the afternoon – but I’ll see how it all fits in with the daily tasks.