Two months ago, I decided to go for a run, something I&#39;ve been doing during most of the pandemic. What I didn&#39;t know was that this run would be the start of what would become a 2+ month running streak.
Since March when everything shut down due to the Coronovirus pandemic, running became one of the only physical activities I felt comfortable doing. I was doing a pretty good job running 4-5 times per week and staying active which has definitely been important for keeping my spirits up. I have no idea what made me start this running streak, but five or so days into it, I decided to just keep it going to see how long I could go. My only rule was that a run had to be 1 mile for it to count. So far, this hasn&#39;t been an issue, my shortest run was 1.28 miles which was the day after my first legs workout with my <a href="https://kpwags.com/2020/08/04/so-i-finally-built-a-home-gym.html">home gym</a> which killed my legs and made running quite a challenge for a few days while I was dealing with the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). On average, I&#39;m hitting 3.12 miles per run, right around a 5k.
Every week, I&#39;ve been proud of myself for keeping it going. I&#39;ve never taxed my legs like this, even when I was training for the 2015 Philadelphia Marathon. Given that I&#39;ve generally maxed out at 5, maybe 6 runs a week, I wasn&#39;t sure how I&#39;d handle the load. Today I hit 9 weeks and so far, my legs are holding up. Some days are better than others and I&#39;ve limited my distance per run as to try to not overdo it. I ended up starting this at the end of June and given my distaste for the heat, I&#39;m actually surprised I&#39;ve been able to keep it up even with temperatures in the 90s. Early morning runs have certainly helped with the heat, but even in the morning, I come back drenched in sweat. I am also hoping the weather holds up. I&#39;ve had to time some of my runs trying to avoid the rain. I don&#39;t have access to a treadmill so if I want to run, it has to be outside. I&#39;ve done a few runs while it&#39;s been drizzling which haven&#39;t been the most fun. Not sure I&#39;m hardcore enough to run if it&#39;s a downpour.
Let&#39;s see how far I can take this...I&#39;m not planning on stopping anytime soon!

Two Month Running Streak

Four months into the COVID-19 Pandemic, I finally broke down and built a gym in my basement.
Back in March when the country shut down because of the Coronavirus, my trips to the gym were one of the first things to go. I didn&#39;t feel comfortable going and it didn&#39;t matter because LA Fitness closed their gyms anyway. My wife was even awesome enough to give me the OK to buy and build a home gym setup since she knew it was important to me. But back in March, I hesitated to spend the money on it since I knew it wouldn&#39;t be cheap and I wasn&#39;t sure how long this lock down would last. Foolish me, I thought we would be out of it in a month or two. I ended up switching to running over the last 4 months. I&#39;ve logged more miles than I have in just about any year other than 2015 when I was training for my marathon. As I write this, I&#39;m currently on a 44 day running streak after putting up over 100 miles in July. Suffice it to say, that&#39;s kept me occupied.
At the end of June however, LA Fitness notified me that they were planning on opening back up and would resume charging me my monthly rate. I still don&#39;t feel comfortable going back to the gym so I looked into freezing or suspending my membership. Well that didn&#39;t work as I expected and LA Fitness wanted to charge me $10 a month to &quot;suspend&quot; my membership. Basically I&#39;d have to pay them $10 a month, and I wouldn&#39;t be able to go to the gym either. That was a raw deal, so I opted to cancel my membership instead. After confirming that I was still able to make the purchases neccesary to build a home gym, I set out to price things out.
I was hoping to buy things used to save some money, but the selection on Craigslist was minimal and the stuff that was there was the cheap stuff marked up 300+%. I kept an eye on Craigslist, but in the end I ended up buying everything new. The hardest part was finding what I needed and wanted in stock. It seems that I&#39;m not the only person looking to build a home gym. Finding barbells, plates, and other equipment in stock was a challenge in an of itself. Thankfully I found the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/homegym">Home Gym Subreddit</a>. It has a regular In Stock Thread where users are awesome enough to announce when the various different shops have gear in stock. Sorting by new, I was able to find when barbells and plates came in stock on the various different shops. After about 2 weeks of scouring the web, I managed to purchase all the gear I needed.
I&#39;m quite happy with what my setup. The only think I&#39;ll need is a better mat for deadlifting. The flooring is a basic rubber mat from Amazon and won&#39;t hold up to deadlifting 300+ lbs. I&#39;ll definitely need to better protect the concrete floor of my basement.
<h2>My Setup</h2>
<PostImage
 src="/images/posts/2020-08-04-so-i-finally-built-a-home-gym/homegym.jpg"
 alt="My Home Gym Setup"
 width={1140}
 height={1920}
 shadowed
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/>
Rack: <a href="https://www.roguefitness.com/sml-1-rogue-70-monster-lite-squat-stand">Rogue SML-1</a>
Barbells: <a href="https://www.xmarkfitness.com/voodoo-commercial-7-olympic-bar/">XMark Fitness Voodoo Bar</a> &amp; <a href="https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-curl-bar">Rogue Curl Bar</a>
Bench: <a href="https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-flat-utility-bench">Rogue Flat Utility Bench</a>
Plate Stand: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/CAP-Barbell-Olympic-2-Inch-Plate/dp/B0013SZC8S">CAP Barbell Plate Rack</a>
Plates: Ironmaster &amp; York Plates
<h2>Tips for Building Your Own</h2>
Here are a few tips for building your own setup.
<ol>
<li>Plan: Determine your budget and what exercises you want to be able perform. Decide what you want for your gym and make a list.</li>
<li>Plate Prices: For basic plates, the ideal cost is no more than $2/lb.</li>
<li>Scour Craigslist &amp; Facebook Marketplace: I wasn&#39;t able to find any good deals with Craigslist, and don&#39;t have a Facebook account. Hopefully you&#39;d have better luck.</li>
<li>Home Gym Subreddit In Stock Thread: Every Friday they start a new thread, but constantly posted to throughout the week. Sort the comments by new and you can keep track of what comes into stock.</li>
<li>In Stock Bots &amp; Email Subscriptions: As I don&#39;t have a Facebook account, I couldn&#39;t use these tools. <a href="https://www.roguefitness">Rogue Fitness</a> has the <a href="https://roguestockbot.com/">Rogue Stock Bot</a> that allows you to tell it what you&#39;re looking for and it will message you on Facebook when it comes in stock. Rogue &amp; <a href="https://www.repfitness.com/">Rep Fitness</a> also allow you to enter your email and will email you when items are back in stock. The downside to the email is that it&#39;s not as instantaneous as the stock bot, which means that the items could go out of stock before it ever notifies you.</li>
</ol>

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Posts in August 2020

Two Month Running Streak

So I Finally Just Built a Home Gym