A Brief History of Outside 365: A Story of Obstacles and Pain

Mt. Elwell, California. Photo: Marcel Slootheer

Part of this blog's purpose is to serve as an exhortation to leave the confines of buildings behind and to head out in nature every single day, for 365 days in a row. Throughout many of these posts I refer to Outside 365 as a challenging goal that's worthy of your interest and effort. But when I mention that I've personally covered 873 days consecutively, 365 might sound diminutive or unimportant.

While I'm on a roll right now, it hasn't always been this way.

Attempt #1

First outdoor ride after my first ACL surgery.

The concept of Outside 365 first pressed itself on my consciousness way back in 2016. In May of that year, I penned an installment in my weekly Over a Beer column in which I committed to getting outside and being active every day for 366 days straight (as it was a leap year).

Spoiler alert: that didn't last. While I gave it a good college try, ongoing complications from knee surgery derailed me. Between fits and starts as I tried to heal from surgery, I put Outside 365 on the shelf as a nice idea that I'd like to get to someday.

Attempt #2

First hike after my second knee surgery.

After my second knee surgery in November 2017, I decided that I was finally ready to give this goal another shot. Unfortunately, I dove into anther attempt at Outside 365 within a few months of surgery, apparently not having learned my lesson from before. I thought I had a good plan in place this time to actualize my goal, but I only made it 67 days before pain and recovery challenges again stopped the streak.

Attempt #3

Day 2 of my current streak. Photo: Marcel Slootheer

I decided to wise up and focus on getting as healthy, strong, and as pain-free as possible. After months of training, I hit July 2018 relatively strong. Summer is always go-time for my work in the mountain bike industry, and mountain bike trips for both work and play started piling up. While still being mindful of my limitations and challenges, towards the end of the month I realized that I had unintentionally been outside and active for about three weeks straight. Between mountain biking, hiking, and dog  walking, I had been extremely active and on the move, especially compared to the preceding years.

While I could have jumped straight back into the Outside 365 challenge, I thought I would try to learn from my previous mistakes. After realizing I'd been on a great roll and had gained incredible momentum, I took a few days to rest, and then tested my knee out again. After taking these steps and feeling strong and healthy after my knee test, I felt even more confident that I was finally at a place physically where I could give my goal of being outside and active every day for 365 days a good, honest effort.

That day was July 27, 2018, and I've been active outside every day since.

Not so fast...

The story doesn't end there, and the past 843 days haven't all been smooth sailing. During my first 365 days I had to overcome a bevy of challenges. First up, just over a month in, I was hit with an episode of intense vertigo, to the point that I couldn't even ride a mountain bike for a couple of months. It took weeks of PT to retrain my eyes and brain to focus properly and stop the world from spinning.

Then, in early 2019, I had to face an entirely different kind of challenge that could have easily derailed my goal: my marriage at the time unexpectedly blew up in my face, beginning the ugly process of getting divorced. While some people I've talked to sunk into depressive states and stopped riding—stopped exercising completely—in response to their own divorces, I chose the opposite course: embracing the one thing that I knew was good and inherently valuable in my life.

Consequently, I may have overtrained a bit as I wrapped up my first 365 days, leading to another round of physical therapy in August and September to treat yet another nagging injury. Throughout the rest of the fall, I had to deal with an old shoulder injury that eventually took me off the bike during the winter. I also beat up my hand in a crash, and am still dealing with the ramifications of that crash over a year later.

Ok, enough already

The point is, setting these kinds of goals—especially a goal that mandates you do something every single day without fail—is incredibly challenging. In order to succeed, you have to eliminate excuses and find creative ways to overcome or subvert the various obstacles that inevitably block your path. Even when you beat one obstacle, another one will invariably arise later. The only question is, how are you going to deal with them?