Are you gearing up for your final attempt this week? Any more RESULTS? Tell us all about it!
Our poll suggests that the majority of you are unbearded, which proves scientifically and unequivocally that beards are not in fact necessary for speed😂
I will post WEEKLY (Tuesday) updates, and put all the results into my spreadsheet (calculating the changes in your running/jumping times from Week 1 in seconds) which you can view here:
Best hope Oldfloss doesn't read this or you'll be in trouble 😍. It is amazing. Still, faster than me 🤣🤣🤣.
Out of interest ... 4 out of 5 of your runs have been a PB this time. What would you attribute that to (because you have done speed challenges before) and do you think you can better it?
I ask because I have run way faster than ever before in this challenge (that's because I've never actually tried so hard before), but I feel I am at my absolute limit and can't imagine how I could ever get any faster (well, not without an awful lot of effort anyway because it's already much, much faster than I would normally run).
I actually am not sure I can go any faster than that, but I may have a try at some of Tbae 's track distances and see if that could lead to some faster 1km times.
What I did was, for my first run I genuinely ran as fast as I thought I could, but without any pacing info available. For the other runs, I set up my watch screen to display 'lap pace' so I was able to get an idea of my pace for the km I was running, and push it faster. As you know, I also had some help from the wind, which was why I got quite a big pb between the third and fourth runs. It's not entirely cheating to use a tailwind, because it gives you a chance to practice increasing your leg turnover without so much wind resistance. Also it's good fun! For shorter intervals anyway 😄
Interesting! I haven't checked my time on any of my attempts - I think I would either slow down or trip up! I don't necessarily start at the beginning of a lap either - although I guess I could force a new lap by pressing the button (at least I think that's what would happen if I press the top right button 😀).
Unless it's like childbirrth (where you vaguely remember it's horrible, but not exactly HOW horrible), I don't think I will be in a hurry to try another speed challenge for a while 🤣
Your exchange with Abi and the detail is so useful.
I can empathise with the general problems of being left to record your own time.
I cannot be faffing around,think I would trip also,needs to be simple and enjoyable.Need to be relaxed,no pressure, no expectations, just fun.🤔
Press start,run like the wind and smile,swipe the face and press end.Get home look at your run curve and see where you can improve and if your lucky perhaps you have surprised yourself.
Look forward to seeing you both next Speed Challenge over a shorter distance perhaps.🤔🤣🤣👍
PS. Previous SC’s were 5k, 10k and I think someone chose an HM.🙈🤣
I have been really liking limiting the Challenge to shorter distances 😊
I don't find my recording method to be a faff, I just jog for the first one or two km, and then as soon as I hear the end of lap beep I take off! And as soon as I hear the beep at the end of the fast km I stop and I bend over 🤣🤣🤣
He’s injured himself and ended up with a septic hand, spent two nights in hospital. So his wife has stepped in to do the moves. He fell off his bike, broke his hand, had it wired, and carried on. It went bad though 🤨 Poor guy was in agony
He’s still in front of the world every morning though so soldiering on but not putting his hand in and more danger til it’s healed properly
Going to have to retire hurt roseabi: stupid knee!! On the mend, but going to give it time and build up from dead slow this time. Been fun though, so thanks for organising this 🙂.
I just have to get my hops going again and I will feel ready for a slow 2k. Taking it steady this time though. Pains in the glutes are a pain in the ....!
That made me laugh.Victor Meldrew but as daft as a brush.Bring tears to a glass eye I would .I do enjoy the speed challenge and seeing everyone giving it their best shot.
Feel a bit for Abi though,she is a star⭐️, she is even calculating all our percentage improvements.That’s a lot of work as well as running in her own event.💥
I managed to take a further 4 seconds off my segment time - so that is 16.04 minutes for my final recorded time. Will continue to monitor that segment and see if I can reduce the time going forward anyway. thanks for the challenge and the updates. xx
I’ve got two lots of intervals this week, and I do those in the same place as my fast 1 km. trouble is the intervals are knackering 😤. Oh shut up moaning Wobble 🙄
Well you did 2 more weeks than me R4inbow - and I didn’t even lose motivation. I simply decided running fast simply isn’t my bag and I don’t know why I pretend I might grow to think otherwise! 😅
I am feeling heavy and slow. Might be too many cinnamon buns but trying to train for long distance seems to really take it out of me for speed. Was going to attempt this morn but still a bit sore and heavy legs from the weekend. Don’t think I recovered well from Sunday. Think I will focus on the distance for the moment as October feels much closer now. Sorry, I remember doing this last year too when training for the marathon 🙄
Mrs Decker has been baking nonstop for weeks now. I think it’s finally catching up with me 😁. Thank you, I hope the race goes forward but we’ll just have to see.
Thank you so much Decker, I hope I can do them Justice, otherwise I’ll be requesting Red Cross parcels 🤣🤣
I shall think of skiing in Whistler when I eat them as that’s where we discovered them. No raisins there either. I’d better leave until I’m running again though, so that I use up all those calories.
I was thinking about cinnamon buns yesterday! I had them in the US, and cinammon bread rolls, it was even in the butter. Delicious I was making chilli and I was going to add some cinammon to that -as they do in Cincinatti - but decided to stick to the plan 😁
Confession time: I did week one, which was going well until the bouncing dog incident - and that’s where my speed challenge ended! Oops. 🤦♀️
I love reading about all you gazelles running your little hearts and legs off, and enjoying it, but it’s not for me! Conversational pace all the way is how I roll. 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
You guys are epic, huge well done to all of you! 👍👏👏👍👏❤️
Thanks for doing this Roseabi, it's been really interesting, a different kind of challenge and I've enjoyed it. I didn't realise I could run faster as I've always been pacing myself to finish at least 5K.
I think I'll carry on doing this on occasion as I've still ran 5K...I've just done 3K 1st without pushing too hard, then stopped and stretched out, a fast 1K with a much needed breather afterwards, then the final 1K and a cool down walk home.
Maybe I'll up the distance a little and try to carry on to find out what my 1 mile PB would be...or maybe not, lol 😅
I’ve really enjoyed this challenge in so many ways. Not least because, after the year from hell, almost to the week, I’m finally starting to recover some fitness both mentally and physically. I haven’t really been posting here very much over the year but I’ve been lurking and it’s helped me a lot reading the posts and staying in touch with this community.
The challenge has provided me with a few weeks of focus in my training and made me realise how lucky I am to be fit enough to even do this running thing.
It’s also brought back memories of when I used to run for the county athletics team in the 70s. I never ran again after that till C25K a couple of years ago. And it would seem that a few fast twitch muscle fibres must have stood the test of time! I do hope there’s a shorter distance challenge at some point as I’ve never tested myself under 1km since I started again, and I wonder how I’d do back at my old distances. Plus I love a challenge. 😀 Maybe I’ll try a 200m soon just to put a marker down anyway.
Thank you Abi for spending your time organising this. It’s been a lot of fun. 👍👏
I’m going to do a final interval session tomorrow before my final run on Saturday or Sunday. I doubt I’ll get faster as the winds won’t be favourable 😂 but I’ll give it all I’ve got,
Just looking back at the earlier conversation in this thread, Does anyone know how I might use my Garmin to use the lap timer? At the moment I either wait for the end of the previous km or start a whole new run for just the 1km which isn’t very convenient,
Good luck to all who are attempting their final speed challenge run this week. 😃👍💪
This is lovely, thank you, Brian!!! It's been great having you in the Challenge xxx
The lap button on the Garmin during runs (I think for most models anyway) is the one at bottom right, which is the 'back' button before you start a run. I haven't used it myself for running (for swimming I have), but I gather that manual laps on the Garmin do not translate to Strava unless you have Strava premium.
I always go on the beep at the end of the previous, usually 2nd, k (well actually I start accelerating at about 1.95) and take whatever it gives me for the 3rd k as my time. I couldn't maintain pace while pressing watch buttons, and I wouldn't know where to press "stop" unless I was running on a properly marked track anyway.
Well. I just did my last run. Put it off til there was no wind forecast (the wind is never behind on this segment).
I just ran my 1k segment in ... wait for it .... honest, the evidence exists in strava .... 4:36 🔥🔥🔥. What's more (I know it doesn't count for the challenge, but it definitely counts) I actually ran my fastest ever 1k in 4:32 according to strava and garmin.
I'm blown away. I never want to do it again, but thank you roseabi for doing all this (it's a lot of work for you); there is no chance my strava stats would include this had I not joined your challenge 🙏
Thank you for organising this Abi (I think 😂) Went and did my challenge as part of this week’s virtual parkrun again (imagining I was on the Isle of Skye, which is where I should have been today 😢). Far too warm so only 5.31 this week. 5 seconds quicker than last week but week 2 still my best shot. I set off when Strava says I’ve reached 2k and stop when she says 3k and just use that 1k time (unless it’s a top 3 run and I get an actual fastest 1k time). Have a great weekend!
Whoop! Whoop! Smashed it this morning: 5.02 for my usual km. Not the fastest I’ve done in the challenges but Strava told me that in amongst the 5km I did that I’d done my fastest ever 1km! Very happy to finish with that 💪💪💪😀
Thanks roseabi! And thank you so much for organising it. Like the others, I hate it whilst I’m doing it but it gives you such a buzz when you do a good one it’s well worth it 😀
For me, this has been an excellent challenge. This has, also, for me been a huge challenge.
It has been very hard; not the running itself, ( although inactivity meant a very slow start), but the simple act of leaving the safety and security of my home and garden.
Encouraged by you, to run the route outside, the same route... I knew I had to do it.
I am not completely relaxed out there, but by getting out earlier...( I am steadily heading back to my 6 a.m. runs which I did all through C25K), it is becoming more relaxed.
I have a 5K route planned for Tuesday.
This morning was a run that was almost as relaxed as usual... and for that I thank you x
Hi Oldfloss , Looking for the next challenge already You are a glutton for punishment. I admire your enthusiasm. I need to follow you lead and get my old routine back as my running is getting very hit and miss and when I do go it feels harder than it should 😊
We can run together..I have, as you see, found it hard... mentally not physically. But.. we are runners, we are strong, we can and we will get through this x
Hi roseabi Sorry I left this to last minute I’ve been putting it off all week. Surprisingly just managed a time of 4:43. Wow!!! I’m just going to have a breather then I’m going back to find my eyeballs that fell out Somewhere on the final 400m. 🥵 Thanks for running and collating this challenge its given me something to aim at during this strange period of no races👍
I did my final run and it was 5’33”. Quite pleased but yes, I did peak too early. Thanks for the challenge. It’s helped to focus me on trying different things.
I’m afraid I pulled out of my run after 500 metres. 😢 My HR reached max really quickly and I just didn’t feel right or well enough to carry on. I seem to get these “bad” runs quite often. I think the weather and sheer number of people out and about didn’t help. Anyway I’m going to go for a leisurely jog along the cliff tops soon to make things better.
Thanks for setting up the challenge Abi I really enjoyed it. 😀
Shame about the run but next time hopefully it will just flow. Never can tell with running sometimes the ones that feel shockingly bad to start end up being the best. Keep going and enjoy your leisurely jog 👍😊
Thanks runsome. Yes It’s quite frustrating when it happens which seems to be more often than not but I’m nowhere near as bad as before so I’m just happy to be out there regardless.
It took two attempts again. Yesterday’s wasn’t too bad, but not an overall improvement. Today I managed 6:00. I’m pleased with that, especially considering the weather. It was sleeting when I got up, merely raining when I left, and the rain stopped before my 1 km section!
Hi Abi, unfortunately I won't be able to finish the final run. With it being Ramadan and fasting I have found it hard enough going out for a run and not being able to have any water afterwards so will be delaying it for another two weeks.
Thank you for setting up the challenge I have really enjoyed it and has pushed me to go faster 😊
I am very emotional reading all the accounts from the amazing folks on here.Just catching up.
Cannot improve on 38 secs for the Billy No Mates 200m🙈😂
I am pleased I did a 38 on Frid evening, Saturday morning and week 4.
I thought this morning I was going to get a tailwind turned out to be against.🙈😂
Never mind my total and weekly 7 run average is 280 seconds and 40 seconds.
Pleased with that.Thats a 200 second 1km with 5 standing starts.I am determined to experience that EK pace of 2:49 / 2:50 min/ km over as long a distance that perhaps maybe possible for me.If the great man can do it for 42.2 km and he wants his legacy to be no limitations,then that’s a good plan.
If not now when.🤔
That’s an idea Abi for a future challenge 🤔, see who can sustain the quickest pace for the longest distance.🙈Perhaps not.🙈
Sorry to be long winded, you give me such a kick out of setting this challenge up.
Always have problems letting it go.
Like Floss asks,what and when is the next one.Lot of work for you,and calculating it all in % seconds improvement.
Hi Tbae, I use the “how long can I keep this up for” idea (no sniggering at the back please 🙄) for my Bridge quests, I’ve got up to 7.5k at 5’00”/k, hopefully en route to 10k eventually. And I got up to 3k at 4’36” pace (13 kph) before lockdown, but that requires a treadmill (can’t judge that pace on the road) so is on hold for now.
I do think stretching a distance at the required pace is a good approach. So much easier on a gym-standard treadmill though, as this takes away the pace judgement issue …….
After having a week off running due to cycling more I got back out for a final attempt at this segment... I struggled for a lot of my run as my lower legs felt very heavy but as I approached the start of my segment I felt strong.
My final weeks time is 5:55 for my 1km segment. I am really pleased that I managed to improve each week but it has confirmed that I prefer slow and steady
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