Many thank yous to damienair for hosting the February Quest!
Spring is in the air, so it's time for a silly made up word to herald the beginning of the MARCH QUEST!!! 😊😊😊
I heard a whisper last week that I may be able to run in the Lake District race I entered in 2019 for 2020 - it's now scheduled for August 2021!!! So I thought to myself, gosh I'd better start doing some running on some hills!
So starting.... today! I am going to take all my long runs up onto the South Downs. What will be YOUR Quest this month??
What is the Quest?
The aim of the Quest is to help you find a focus or goal that you would like to achieve by the end of the Quest period.
The Quest takes one calendar month. You can join at any point during that time.
Some popular goals are:
★ To run three times a week
★ To slowly increase distance
★ To train for a specific race
★ To add Stretch and Strength exercises to your weekly routine
This is a personal challenge, so it's completely up to you! If you want to join, all you have to do is COMMENT BELOW with something like:
I would like to join the Quest, or, count me in! I want to ..............
Every week I will put up a new post and we can all chat about how we are doing.
NEED SOME INSPIRATION?
⭐ Here's Iannodatruffe's post about what to do next after graduating Couch to 5K:
I went with the Paradigm 5 to start with. Still waiting for it to arrive. Depending on how I get on with the zero drop the plan would be to move to Altra’s Olympus for trail and Escalante 2.5 for faster runs. I’ve just ordered Born to Run so going to try and resist the urge to start running in sandals 🤣
Will let you know how they are once they arrive. I ordered my Hoka Size in the old model 4.5 and they were tiny. Altra swapped them out for the new model for no extra cost. They’ve won me on Customer service ❤️🏃♀️
Nice one, yes please! I had to put my HM training on hold because of injury and I'm now slowly coming back after my spell on the IC. So my quest this month will be to run 3 times a week and to steadily increase distance. Aiming for 10k sometime in April all going well 🤞Good luck everyone 🍀
Hi Roseabi I’m booked on for a physio session tomorrow. I won’t be running for a while I reckon. I don’t want this ankle thing to get worse but hopefully the physio will have some good news on how long I’ll be out for. Have a great time up there on the downs it’s really beautiful right now.
Good question. I'm not talking about the usual scrapes and bruises from tripping up, but the internal stuff like sprains.
I try to listen to what my body's telling me. I will stop runs because something doesn't feel right. That little twinge that doesn't fade away in less than a minute might be a sign of something going wrong. Things always feel a bit off during the "toxic ten" but if that feeling persists, something's wrong.
Also, I've reduced the planned level of activity this week because I'm concerned that I might have overdone it last week. I control the timetable; it doesn't control me.
I'm in the same boat as Beatlesforever trying to work up my distances and keep my knee happy 😊
So this month's quest will be -
#run twice a week (I think the 3 times a week is too much for me and my knee) steadily increasing distance
# for the long run to be mainly on the flat, use the shorter one to work on hills and fartleks
#Find ways to incorporate strength work into my daily routine. So far I'm working on push ups (last months quest) which I do as soon as I'm dressed, squats single leg and double leg while cleaning my teeth and more squats while waiting for the kettle to boil 🤣
Great plans! Careful with the knee on hills, listen to your body xxx
Put on your shoes standing on one leg - targets your core, balance, coordination, glutes and overall lower body strength. instagram.com/p/-CLSKsxe4K/...
Oh thanks for the link 👍 I'll have a go at that, no way could I lace up my shoes in mid air though.
I've just re read what I'd written, it's meant to say longer run using the (slightly) hilly route, short run fartleks on the flat. I've been run walking so then I can walk on any any steep downhill sections.
I managed a couple of sub-25 (not) parkruns in January but apart from them my competitive spirit seems to have gone missing. I finally put some effort in last Thursday but could only manage 27'46", going backwards at the end, and given the good-to-excellent conditions that counts as ppp. I could perhaps claim post-jab side effects as an excuse, but that's 3 weeks behind me now, so I need the Quest to set some marginal gain goals to try to prove I have not embarked on my terminal decline!
So, 4 weeks (not) parkrun targets: 27'00", 26'30", 26'00", 25'30" (with a stretch target for week 4 of 25'00")
plus maintaining 5'30"/k pace for at least 7k by the end of the month (last May I managed 8k at better than 5'00"/k pace, and I would normally expect to be able to knock off 10k at 5'30" without too much difficulty.
Well, we'll have to see, won't we? Onwards and upwards (but slowly!) And good luck with your hills!
It's Spring. There will be a spring in your step very soon, and you will be expected to deliver the 25 minute time on the gang of 5 returns to (not) parkrunning date of 29th March.
Been a bit stuck at 5 to 8k lately and am completely off my 10k in under an hour regular run of the past so my quest this month will be to get back to distance and run the distance at least twice. Pace can come later
Nothing like a monthly Quest to keep us on our running toes (or mid-foots)! Thanks for hosting ... and infinite admiration for your hill work quest.
I’ve enjoyed my January and February quests so far. They’re all geared towards practising a mindful approach. Just letting things evolve. Here’s my March version:
Run x2/3 pw. Still a newbie to running (grad c25k in November). Focus is on enjoying myself, which I’m finding is really supported by thinking about relaxed form, ‘lightness’, cadence and breathing. (I have been practising gentle nasal breathing since new year and, as result of monitoring that, an informal jeffing. Most recently, the walk intervals are decreasing or turning into extra-slow jogs.) Not fretting remotely about pace at this point, but it seems to be improving of its own accord, and I’m monitoring out of interest. Occasionally putting on a little spurt at the end just for the fun. My distances have also grown naturally. I’ve already gained my 60-minute badge and am currently up to 9k. I’ve loosely segued into the JuJu Magic Plan to help manage distribution of longer and shorter runs. I think I can comfortably add 10k to my March quest, but this will be an added bonus; my real focus remains the first things mentioned. (And while I might not be target driven, I’ll still go wild celebrating them!)
I’m following up on some basic experience of Qigong, which was introduced in the running workshops I attended in January; it is now key to my running pre-warmup walk warmup. I’m signed up for an online course over the coming weeks, getting to know some of the underlying principles of qigong. I have homework between classes, which can sub for/ complement sessions in yoga/Pilates. I like the relaxed no-stress approach, as well as the new mind-body challenges (such as, coordinating arms and hands to do opposite moves simultaneously). I think my balance is already improving.
Maintain my new daily meditation practice, even if just for a few minutes. Started this in the new year and am finding it really valuable - in itself, in daily life and on runs.
I had a month off Quest in February after getting Covid and giving myself time to fully recover. I’m fighting fit again now and raring to go 🏃♀️
I’m excited to be part of the Cape of Good Hope Ultra Marathon group although that’s not going to be completed in a month 😂
I am planning to finish my virtual Hadrian’s Walk run though. I’m nearly at 80%
I’ve also signed up to run 50k this month with This Girl Runs.
I might build back up to 10k again. I was at 9k before Covid but I’m not sure longer distances are for me as I wasn’t enjoying the extended running time. I might change my mind though if I can run somewhere nice.
I’m looking forward to getting out to run somewhere nice once the travel restrictions are lifted 🌲 🌳. As a Midlander running on the South Downs sounds amazing 😊
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May The Quest be with you - Week 1
February Quest - Final few days
