It’s the third week of the TAKE IT TO THE BRIDGE WINTER SPEED CHALLENGE!!! You've been smashing it out of the park!!!!! Are you ready to do it again???
⭐ Please remember you do not need to post a result every week! If you don’t manage to fit in a fast km (or mile) one week it’s fine - just try again the following week.
Any new results? Tell us all!!
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This Challenge is running for FOUR WEEKS, from Monday November 23rd to Sunday December 20th. Here's a quick reminder of the rules:
★ You will run either 1 km or 1 mile
★ WARM UP! I’ve posted a couple of new videos at the bottom of the post - don’t want you getting bored 😄
★ RUN your chosen distance AS FAST AS YOU CAN - try to beat your previous time!!!!
★ POST THE TIME IT TOOK YOU TO RUN YOUR CHOSEN DISTANCE (in min:sec) HERE ON THIS POST IN THE COMMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your first run of the Challenge gives you your baseline time.
I will publish WEEKLY Monday updates, and put all the results into my spreadsheet (calculating the changes in your running times compared with your baseline run in seconds) which you can view here:
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
149 Replies
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I abstained last week from trying to get another mark on the board roseabi, bit of a calf niggle, so there's no point antagonising it......... Frustrating but sensible 😐
Got my first post-injury short run in yesterday and the ankle felt good, although aching a little this morning. I did 2 x 1k with a walk between. My first 1k was 6.39 (and a bit uphill), and my second (a little more confident and flatter) 6.11. I’m happy with that after 3 weeks of no running.
Hello @roseabi, I wimped out of week 2 of the Speed Challenge 😞. We've had frost, ice, and a weeny bit of snow and hail, and I just didn't fancy trying to run fast on a slippery road 😨. I opted for hills, muddy paths and distance instead, which worked out well, with a new 10k PB 😁. I'm hoping to fit in a Week 3 speed run though!
7:11 this week. I was really pleased. My aim for the final week is to get below 7.00.
I was helped to think about my technique by members on this forum (thank you everyone!) especially Blackberrypie my daughter. I felt I was stuck in first gear. Blackberrypie is much better at the techi stuff than me she looked at my Strava record and pointed out that my cadence was 180 even on a long (16k run). When I tried hard on the speed challenge it went up to over 200 (for a very limited time, I could not keep it up). She suggested that I should lift my feet and knees and increase my stride length. She shared the video link she used on C25kwhich I found matched my issues perfectly. I have started to implement the suggestions (and it is bearing fruit) but I think that I still have a lot to learn. I now watch any runner attentively to see if I can emulate their movement just a little more.
Thank you for organizing this challenge Roseabi it is helping me.
Ah and I did not know you two were mother and daughter, how lovely! 😍
One think I feel I should point out about cadence is that it will be higher for people who are not tall and/or who have short legs. If this is you, you may find that it is natural for you to run with a comparatively high cadence even at slow speeds.
Thank you for joining the challenge! It's great fun for me to see people enjoying it and getting positive results 😊😊😊
Yes I am just 5 ft 3 inches and come into the short leg category! When I lift my legs and feet which is not easy it feels better and more powerful even though I am not very good at it yet.Because of this awful virus it is months since I saw my daughter or grandson (6 years old and running as well) . A virtual run is the best we can do atm ;at least until we can get vaccinated.
Ah yes, then your cadence will probably be relatively high - just something to bear in mind!
It takes time to get used to new things, you'll get there!! Picking up your feet more is great for running. I'd suggest you may find you sometimes need to take an extra day's rest between runs for a while, because you will be using your muscles differently which may make you feel more tired and sore than you have been. Recovery is an important part of building fitness!
It must be very hard for you to be kept away from your family, I am sorry to see that! The news about vaccines is very positive though as you say xxx
I just keep trying to keep going! Not always easy. How are you doing with your Welsh hills? I have found a flat bit through our village for the speed challenge but it is just showing me that I am still slow.
I chose a 4k route that gets the hill from my house out the way (the warm up) and I do the speed bit on 3rd km. Well I thought it was flat but there is actually a slight dip that although isn't much, is right at the end so feels quite a challenge when I'm already flat out!! Takes careful planning doesn't it!!
youtu.be/geOiYjwFLbU If that link doesn't work for you let me know and I will ask my daughter to post. (I tried in reply to Roseabi but it didn't work)
5:57 this week, which is unfortunately 3s slower than last week 😪 but still 3s faster than the baseline 😀 - it all seems to be a pretty consistent time, but as they're all a good half minute faster than my previous PB, I'm pleased overall.
Hi roseabi, my time this week is 5.30 for my 1km (6th km of my run today) have to admit I'm really shocked with that faster time this week I felt like I was going slower
I wasn't really feeling it today, but made myself go out on a "suck it and see" approach
The result was 5.51 - one second slower than last week. Gah! 🤬
By way of consolation prize, Strava awarded me PRs for 400m and 1/2 mile, and my second fastest mile over the entire workout, so I guess I have to be reasonably happy with that.
No change for my time!! 4.59 for my KM. Found it hard getting going this morning as appear to have tennis elbow.... which of course does not affect my running, but does affect my sleep! I did however get some bling in my strava! I'm still getting used to strava as been using map my run but had to join strava for a challenge club....
Evening all! Week 3 kilometre completed - 6:04 (a PR). This week's soundtrack- Firestarter by the Prodigy 🔥😀. I think the last run next week might finish me - the engines canny take it Captain! Need to get some banging techno to help...
Strava had the audacity to tell me it was lower than average effort. Excuse me, what? 😩😅
I had to circle before starting because there was a group of 4 people walking abreast on the path about as wide as they could make themselves. I felt like a racehorse chomping at the bit! 🤣 🐎
Anyway, that was awesome and now I’ve achieved my sub 5:00 1km I’m happy. No idea if I’ll be able to better it next week ..... but I’ll try! 😀
Hi roseabi, after thinking I’d not run today on account of the rain and fog I decided to do some yoga instead, ...did one of Adriene’s runners sessions, a stretchy one and my oh my I found some tight stiff places! I moved onto the runners warm up session, at the end (you may know it) Adriene jogs off her mat and says she’s off for a run, it had stopped raining and a small break in the clouds had appeared so I decided to get my kit on and do this weeks speed challenge. I made a lot more effort this week and after a 15 min warm up I didn’t 1 k in 5:52 yay 😀🤗
Hi Roseabi, didn’t do the speed challenge last week as I wasn’t feeling too well so wasn’t expecting much this week. I surprised myself and ran my 1K in 6:56 my first ever sub 7 min 1K. Really thrilled with that and doubt if I can improve on it next week but I will give it my best. Thanks for doing this challenge, it really does motivate me 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
So to tick off a square on the Advent bingo I sang O Holy Night aloud on my gentle warm up. Now my rendition of my favourite carol is pretty bad when I’m standing still but when running it was really awful 😂😂. Still one more square complete ✅
1k this week was 6:49 😳
I can’t believe how my aerobic fitness has improved in just 3 weeks! I ran flat out today and don’t think I could run any faster but I’ve said that every week 😉
Hi roseabi, Tried sooooo hard last week to improve on my Wk1 time and - looking back at it - realise I did OK really as I did get out and run 3 times, and did my longest run too, but was gutted that I couldn't go faster... so felt I'd failed. Childishly couldn't bear to submit a slower time when 'everyone' else was getting PBs.
But a stern talking-to by my son tonight (why do you have to be so competitive?? why can't you just enjoy getting out and running??) has made me see the light! So if possible please can you record my best Wk2 time of 6:39 and I will go out tomorrow and try to improve on that and send you another time for Wk3!
Thanks!
PS Wise son did also point out that I was unlikely to run my fastest 1km in my longest run! Doh.... I have so much to learn!
Well that was hard and not altogether satisfying... but I did manage to improve on last week by doing 1km in 6:30. So I was faster than last week ...but not up to my ‘baseline’ yet. Hey Ho.... a few more gremlins need their marching orders!
Looking forward to long slow Sunday run with no Speed Challenge pressure... 🤞🏻🤔🤣
Hi RoseabiIt's Week 3, and I tried interval runs for the 1st time. My fastest split was 6.17 which I'm so chuffed about! But feeling stiff and achy in my groin today, so I know I pushed it as far as I could.
Your Speed Challenge is certainly putting smiles on faces 😀😀😀
Hi Roseabi, I’ve done my week 3 Speed Run this afternoon🏃♂️ You might remember I’m using the 5th km of a 5K run for the challenge? Today’s effort was 5:08 which I’m ridiculously pleased with!😀 I’d really like to get under 5:00 before the end of the challenge if I can😊🤞
No wind assistance today 🙄and not really on it myself either. Too fast at the start (first 250m under a minute!) but speed already tailing off out to 1k, then more or less flat until I managed to raise the game a smidge for the last 100m. Quarter splits roughly 1'40", 1'54", 1'53", 1'51" to give me a mile in 7'18", against my original marker of 7'16" and last week's 7'09". Not bad, but need to ease my speed off the mark down a tad.
Hello Roseabi, I decided to give speed a rest this week after 2 weeks of PBs at (not) parkrun and the speed challenge. So my fastest km on Monday was 7:07, my first km of the week. Hopefully I will be back to the race track again next week and see if I can shave a bit off. Thanks for organising this.
Hi roseabi and all! Head wind this morning so a little more tricky. I seem to be planning it better each week though so I only felt like I was dying in the last 100 metres or so!
Haha. Should have gone slower in week one. It seems to be very dependant on my health issues and I was feeling completely well during week 1. Here's hoping week 4 is a good one.
6.23 today , which is a big jump ( for me anyway) . Last week I missed my ‘start’ for the speed 1km ( was judging 1.2 to 2.2k 🙄🙄) so I put in a ‘conservative’ figure as I wasn't sure.Today I pretty much went for it tho’ 😂😂 . Pleased I started this challenge ,
I think in general it’s shown me what I can do . Think my report would be ‘‘must try harder’ 😂😂 which I will do now 🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻♀️👌
Hello Abi, I did my 5K run earlier today. I ran 4K at a steady 6:30 min/km pace and then took a quick break. I used the final Kilometre as my speed challenge with a time of 4:44. Somewhere between my first and second attempts.
Hi roseabi, week 3 best KM 7.03. Not as fast as last week but quicker than week 1. Tired legs today following first 9KM few days ago. Average pace improving on all my runs as well 🤗🏃🏽♀️ Will get a PB next week 😉
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