If you would like to join in please comment below. We will begin on Monday, October 28th and the Challenge will run for five weeks throughout November, finishing on Sunday, December 1st.
★★ THE CHALLENGE! ★★
★ Choose a distance (e.g. 1 km, 1 mile, 5 km etc.) OR a time interval (e.g. 20 minutes). This should be the same each week, and run over the same route each week, or at least very similar routes.
★ WARM UP before each Speed Challenge run. This is very important and you should spend at least 30 minutes doing it if possible - and the shorter the run, the longer the warm up should be. Please read through the article linked below:
★ RUN your chosen distance or interval fast - and enjoy!
★ PLEASE POST NO MORE THAN ONE CHALLENGE RUN PER WEEK OVER THE FIVE WEEKS!!!
★★ YOU DO NOT NEED TO RUN EVERY WEEK! IN FACT I WOULD BE HAPPIER IF YOU TOOK BREAKS TO HELP GUARD AGAINST INJURY 😊😊😊 ★★
★ I will post each Monday to collect your data.
★ Please give me your result as your AVERAGE PACE IN MINUTES PER KILOMETRE for each run.
★ I will be calculating the results as the number of seconds per km improvement (or otherwise) each week, based upon the results you post for your first run of the Challenge. Because of the differences between you the results will not be directly comparable, but I hope that the improvements will be appreciable!
Hi Roseabii and co... good timing! As my focus over the winter months is going to be speed, I'm up for this one! Just looked at my profile stats on Strava and it looks like the easiest one for me to improve on will be the mile. My PB is currently 9m 17s (I know, it's hardly Roger Bannister, is it?!). Based on my 5k time, it looks like I should be able to get that mile time down to circa 8m 45s... we'll see
So I'll time myself over a mile at least once a week and report back.
Stick me down for 5k please Abi. Need to pull my finger out at parkrun - equalled my PB about 6 months ago but haven't actually run a PB for well over a year and I do it pretty much every week! This will hopefully get me motivated to actually push myself a bit - maybe?!? 😂🤣
Right. I’m in. (Whaaaaat?) I have no distance runs planned until after Christmas when I’ll be ramping up again in time for the Bath Half in March, so I need to get my act together and push myself out of my comfort zone. I think I’ll aim low and try to better my pace over a single km for starters. You probably know I hate speed work - but maybe this will make me love it (or hate it even more!)
Whatever, sign me up. 😩😩😩😅 Can’t wait! (That last bit was a lie!)
Imperfect timing, I'd say, given the state of my muscles after yesterday. However, as the two cafes Dexy5 and I tend to finish our runs at are exactly 1k apart, I guess I'm in. Dexy will have to speak for herself …… but having noted cheekychipmunks post ….. Can I change the direction (east-west or west-east) as the mood (or possibly wind ) takes me?
Only if I'm still allowed on here of course, having sworn an oath yesterday never to go beyond 10k again
Meeeeee please, for 5k! I'm rubbish right now, my pace has dropped way below where it should be, but I have an event early November so I hope it'll give me the kick in the pants I need to get over my inertia.
I find it really hard to focus on longer distances, so I am going to focus on just 1 km. That should be doable right? My 1k speed ranges from 8.09 to 9.45 depending on the total distance I cover. I will aim for 7.45
Still got calf issues but I will let you know on Monday. I have a benchmark Run today and a looooooong run on Sunday. by then i’ll Know one way or the other 😁
I had to comment, you have my sympathy big time. Calf issues are the worst, I have some annoying sciatic nerve thing going on which causes my right soleus to get really tight all the time. It's much better than it was, but take it easy, eh?
Gosh I hope you’re ok for then. I’m sure you must already be doing some gentle stretching, rolling etc. I found a spikey massage ball really helped mine, just under my leg when I was lying on the floor. Also in my case releasing tension in my glutes somehow also helped, possibly because it took pressure of the sciatic nerve. Just guessing at that. Hope you get it sorted though!
Ok Abi, I too need to pull my finger out and try speeding up a bit before I too start working towards that elusive HM! So I would like to work towards another 5k pb early next year (as my last one was in March 😱) but I don’t want to do it over a 5k stretch yet. Please put me down for 1k, Not sure if that may be too far for now but I’ll give it a go 😬 I’ve never measured it like this before so it should be a bit of an eye opener!
I’d like to participate for 10k please Abi. I’ve now recovered from the mara and have a couple of shorter goals I’d like to hit by December that I’ve been holding off on.
Kinda threw it all at the wall today and got my sub 50 10k PB I was shooting for since January at 49:43. The temps were perfect today. Not sure I can improve on it, but I will try again next week.
Ok everyone... I think I'm going to have to give this a try. I may not have a starting time to post for a few days, it all depends on the weather, but as my PT would like to see me do some more speed work, I'd better try I suppose! Pretty sure my distance will be 400m. Is that still OK?
Thanks! Lurking as usual really, too much social media confuses me, I hang out on Strava more these days, keep forgetting to check on here. I am due an update post though 😀
Thanks roseabi ! I went out and did my first run this lunch time... after a decent warm up jog of course. Strava tells me I got a 400m PR of 1:49 which Strava also tells me was a pace of 4:38/km. So that's my base line I think!
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