a couple of days late but if I had posted it on the 1st you'd have assumed it was an April Fool's prank. So this is the Marathon group April challenge, not another madcap Rhomboid Channel escapade.
And it's really simple:
Now that Winter behind us and Spring is finally, hopefully here, it's time to shake off that hibernatory slumber and winter padding behind and put a spring in your step. This month is about getting faster.
There is often a lot of emphasis (a LOT of emphasis) on going slowly. Of being slow but steady. Of slowing down and concentrating on distance. Of not pushing ourselves because dire consequences.
Well this month we are going to go the other way. We are going to push ourselves and we are going to get faster.
Now that doesn't mean you have to start doing your 20 milers at 5k pace or sprinting your recovery runs, do constant interval training or even do all your runs at an increased pace.
Choose one of your regular weekly runs. It can be your long distance run or it can be your midweek 10k or even your active recovery day 1 miler, just make it the same one each week, and do it a bit faster than last week. If you're doing an 18 miler on Sundays in 3:15, try to get it down to 3:10 this week. If you're doing 60 minute 10ks a couple of times a week, shave a couple of minutes off on one of them this week. Then next week do it again, only a little faster. And so on throught the month.
4 weeks, 4 increases in speed.
It doesn't have to be race pace. You're not aiming to to get a new PB, just to progressively increase the speed of one of your training runs (althouh if you want to you can). You don't have to break yourself, but you do have to push yourself a bit.
Record your chosen distance and starting time. Then each week record your new time and the amount you have improved by.
At the end of the month someone who is clever at maths and spreadsheets will work out whose improvement is best, weighted for distance and initial speed ( they may even produce a table of results. I have no idea. I have no idea who that person may be but am sure amongst a community of marathon trainers there is someone who is nerdily inclined in that manner).
The winner may or may not receive a prize but everyone who participates will receive a boost to their performance.
Run, Bullseye, run like the wind!
Written by
Rignold
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This comes at just the right time for me as my Asics HM plan recently started a "Getting faster" phase for 8-12km runs. Thanks! Great idea!
I did some stoopid too fast 5k runs before I learned to slow down, and so, because of that I've never tried to push for a good baseline 10k time, I've just been focussed on increasing my plodding mileage.
Distance = 10k
Starting PB = 01:04:39 (Strava estimated best effort)
All the "getting faster" runs on my Asics HM plan have worked! I was only planning to jog a 10k at 6:00 pace today to get nearer to the sub 1 hr barrier but felt good at 5k so speeded up on the home leg to get in under the hour.
Cheers Rignold! With age against me I'll take a PB at any time a can get one! Having a few glasses of wobble water right now to celebrate! Got a 700 calorie deficit to play with!
Only decided to up the pace after 5k today because I felt good. Might try to run whole 10k below 5:40 next time to try to nibble that 10k PB down closer to a 5:30 pace before my HM in mid May. Plan to run my first HM at a touch under 6:00 pace to try to get as close as I can to a sub 2hr time.
I think I got a lot fitter with Asics only giving me 8km fast runs up until recently. So I never "went for it" on a 10k. This week I have to run 12k at min 5:38! Could be interesting!
Ok so for me it’s my regular 5k which I call The Fang. It’s basically a double mountain of 300 feet climb. strava.com/activities/14791...
It’s hard. So I can do it in 31 minutes at present and I would like to aim for 29 by the end of the month. I will be doing weekly intervals to get my speed up. 🤜🏽
Yup. Bear with 😁 just got to wrap up my current plan, eg three runs. My new plan will show me what distance I shall choose for our fab quest. I might have to lump the three remaining runs together to get them done and dusted. I seem to do nothing but walk dogs! I want to break free, I want to break free. Break free-eeeee
So would you like to repeat your week 1 run of that route, now that you have your base time to beat? Technically you still have time, since the challenge didn't start til Wednesday last week
I did! I went!!!!! Like a blee*in rocket! Music spurred me on. Started with (old) Bat out of Hell, then it was the whole of Audiofuel Second Hour (rolls eyes) then Paranoid (Black Sabbath) and Led Zep's Whole Lotta Love. Nothing like some banging rock tunes to make your shift yer ass.
Ahem. Pin your ears back. My time (and I have taken photos of my stats as I can't quite believe my eyes, tee hee) 00:44:26 for 8.01km = 5:54 min/km
I'm still smiling! Just shows what being challenged does for ya! I really enjoyed though. it was a blast! It's a hillyish route and there's a longish uphill drag at the end The very end is a so**ing mud bath where I get my shoes ruined. Bah!
Oh, yeah! I'm not sure which run to choose though I wondered about re-doing W1 R1 for my runniversary and my start back, but I might just find an easy local run and do that. We'll see (and it depends what the weather is like - if there's any more of that white stuff it will be a very short run!)
Funny enough I started this on my run this morning before I saw your post. I have been training to run a HM over the winter, and as a result of pacing myself for longer runs my 5k runs have become slower. I want to build that up, at least to where it was.
Not only do we do Parkrun on Saturdays but my daughter has volunteered our services for junior Parkrun on Sundays as well so early starts both days!!! To be fair, since I am normally up at 6:15 on weekdays it is still a two hour lie in!
Dang,I wish this was last month’s challenge as I’ve already been doing something like this for the last month and have improved quite a lot over where I was, so I fear I might be maxed for the moment, plus I don’t want to injure anything in the next few weeks before my race. I am still looking to get a little bit faster in 10 tho. 🙂
I’m also up for a bit of speed, I’m using good old Laura and the plan from the C25K speed podcast, e.g 60 second fast then rest at steady pace. Going to see what I can fit in at parkrun.....maybe one or two sets to begin with - then hopefully my overall pace will improve a little......
Well.....my actual PB at parkrun, a fair while ago was 32:37....( a year ago...actually) recently I’ve been sitting around the 35 min mark, very consistent! And all the way through my HM training.....so, if I can use 35:00 as my benchmark......i’ll be grateful for any improvement! 😂
Hummmm I'm thinking about it. Last time I tried speeding up I hurt my knee, but I could always try incorporating w1r1 into my longer runs, jogging the walk bits and sprinting the run bits. Last time I did that it paid dividends....
Just looked at your amazing graph and read the associated article - can't believe the improvement the participants (and indeed you) made. Perhaps I really do need to do some speed work.......
I spent many a happy day doing hospital corners in my nursing days. There is something very pleasing about the neatness of it, and this reminds me I bust buy more pillows as mine are very unfloofy.
I shall be continuing my quest to keep chipping away at my 5k time. This is my focus until HM training later in the summer. 30s off would be great but that is getting harder each month 🙂
😀 thanks hehe - I was pleased to hit 23:00 last month, which was a whole 30s off my previous time, so I thought I’d keep on aiming to improve it until I plateau. This week, I had to run a different 5k route which was muddy and more hilly, so I actually got a slower time of 23:26.
No need to apologise, it's just that your week 1 result doesn't look so good, possibly because the route was more hilly etc. But I think the later results will be more interesting anyway
I am keen to join the challenge, my local 5.3km route fastest so far sitting at 36:12 (two big hills on the route) I would like to shave off at least two minutes on this time
Not sure if there is a new weekly post for this challenge
Adding my time for this week - ran the same route on Tues very slowly not feeling 100% (in Afrikaans - Ek was n bietjie pap...) and with a swollen arm (grew new arm muscle overnight after my flu shot, must have been an allergic reaction).
But I did manage to improve my 5k time at my running club weekly time trial yesterday with relatively the same hills (60m elevation gain compared to 56m elevation on my 5.2k route) to 33:08.
Now for two rest days before my next HM on Sat
Next week I will be in Port Elizabeth so I will not be able to compare times as the route I run while I am there is almost completely flat. So maybe I should aim for a 30min...
So I'll record that you're running 5.3k, and your base run was 36:12, week 1 was 34:46, and week 2 was 33:08 (5.03k - I'm using average pace so it doesn't make any real difference). We'll leave out the April 10th run. OK?
I got there about 5 mins before the start, but I walked from home which is about 4k away, so I must have left before 5am! It was lovely though, the weather was beautiful and it was fun. They gave us a very pretty medal, and some fruit and Parmesan cheese (which was a bit weird, but nice). Also we all wore matching t-shirts, so it was all rather glamorous
Sounds like a lot of fun! (random cheese?) If its nearby then why not and a great way to get some of your friends to start running. Although not sure mine would be keen to wake up that early.
I did have to get up at 3:30 for the HM but that just because its a nightmare to find parking, its a 30 min drive to the venue and the start was at 6.
We will probably leave at 5am on Sat for the next HM. Also 30 min drive and parking issues!
We don't seem to have many races here that start at crack of dawn, 9.30-ish is probably the norm. I've noticed that quite a few American ones, for example, start MUCH earlier than that!
In Summer most races start between 06:30/07:00 and you are home before 9 (depending on the distance and how far the race is from you home). Then you have the whole Sat/ Sun for yourself. We do have mid week evening races in summer which are quite warm (28-30 degrees at 7pm...)
I am lucky that most races are about a 30 min in any direction. Sometimes there are some closer but I always get there early to get parking and avoid the long loo queues!
Thanks , my plan to work towards a time for 7k about 54.00 mins got smashed today 🤷♀️I don’t know how but I did it in 53.48 (3 mins quicker) Do I get a prize for hitting my target so quick 😂 I went out with the aim to get a faster 5k and then slowly do the last 2k but although my 5k wasn’t fast, overall it worked quite well . Wonder if I will be able to do it again 🤞
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And I'm like Curlygurly2 , I can't help but get faster 
