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Daily Stride # 25 - Renovating my run - lessons from home improvement.

Writer's picture: Dylan BellesDylan Belles

In December, my fiancé Megan and I bought our first home outside St. Louis, Missouri.


The house is close to her parents and conveniently located for easy access to A+ places to run and bike.


Our town isn't Flagstaff, but for the sake of training and quickly getting to softer surfaces running routes or road loops with zero traffic for faster, uninterrupted training, it's great!


On to the house.


We bought a newly built home with a 4 car garage. We only have one car. But, what we envisioned with the four-car garage was to block off one section and make it a home gym. Sounds like a great idea, right? We thought so, too.


We're now nearly 3 months in and we're almost finished! The rubber flooring is down, the wall is up, the door is in place, and we just laid a coat of primer yesterday.


We're on our way to finally move our equipment into the gym. As of today, our treadmill, bike, elliptical, and future rowing machine (in transit) are sitting in the garage, making our 4-car garage, barely a 1-car garage.


Needless to say the amount of time and work this required was more than expected.


Silly us to think this could be done in a handful of days!


But, we're glad that we're nearing the finish line - it's almost that time that I can stop procrastinating my strength training regimen.


For today's "stride," I'd like to take a few things I have learned from home improvement and how I've found that relatable to running! There are surprisingly, a lot of similarities.


  • Get help

    • There was no way I was doing this job by myself. I had NO CLUE how to put up a wall and no YouTube video was ever going to save me. I had a ton of help from friends of Megan's family. Without them, that room wouldn't exist. I didn't touch that wall. I also learned a few things from them during the process which I would've never gained on my own. Just like in running, it's important to ask for help when you need it.

  • It takes more time than you think

    • Great things take time. I want an awesome home gym, but to have that requires a lot of patience and tedious but meaningful work. Running is no different. To make something of yourself, you've got to be invested. 

  • If you do it wrong it hurts

    • I cut myself with a saw and had to get a tetanus shot the next day. Not my brightest moment. In running, I've made many mistakes. From tripping and falling to completely abandoning my training plan and getting myself hurt. When you do the wrong things, you pay for it!

  • Expect it to be messy 

    • You're going to make a lot of mistakes! Be prepared to spend a lot of time cleaning up your messes. We all make mistakes, but it's how we react that matters.

  • Perfection ain’t happening

    • If you're trying to be Mr. or Mrs. Perfectionist.....good luck!

  • You’ll be proud of what you did

    • As much work as it takes, when it's all said and done, you'll be happy that you put the time in. There's nothing better than seeing what you've accomplished.


There's a ton of crossover between what we do in our daily lives and what we do as runners. I believe our daily approach and actions directly impact how we approach and act on what occurs when running. The same behaviors and attitudes bleed and feed into one another.


Anyways....those are my thoughts today.


Happy Friday!





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