People have different reasons for doing this challenge; for me, it IS about the speed. Not someone else's, but seeing if I could get my own to be faster over time. I didn't know about this sub-5:00 min/km thing until probably halfway through, so in the beginning my only goal was to see if I could get the 100 runs in. It was not an auspicious beginning - I missed 7 days of the first 15 due to an illness and a banged-up knee (fell hard on a lava rock). I put in some doubles and triples in the second half of December to make up some of the deficit. I didn't care about pace, so I ran some tough courses - rocky shoreline trails, down and up Waipio Valley, etc.
After the first month, I started getting faster, and by January I was routinely running under 8:00 mile pace. Other than a couple of exceptions, my runs are all 30 minutes and some seconds. In the second half of January, I was visiting my old haunts in the Bay Area and happened to coincide with my tri team's "Ultimate Run" - an 18.5-mile trail run in the Santa Cruz Mountains with 2500 ft of climbing/descending. That one definitely hurt my average pace, but the great thing was that it was the easiest effort I'd ever put out for that course, and my endurance was fine. Maybe there is something to this running frequently thing. <grin>
I should mention that I've done minimal swimming and cycling during this time, but I have been doing Pilates 2-3x a week, and I find it really helps me feel stronger in the runs.
It seemed as though I got another mini-spike in late February in which I now consistently average under 7:30 pace unless I force myself to run super easy. I don't seem to notice the difference one way or another the next day.
Some data (I use a Stryd pod for tracking power):
Period # of runs avg dis avg power avg dur avg pace avg cad avg HR
Dec 1-15 9 3.71 227 34:30:04 8:56 85 131
Dec 15-31 19 3.73 234 32:35:54 8:38 87 132
Jan 1-15 17 4.02 259 30:58:17 7:43 89 130
Jan 16-31 16 4.85 254 39:09:31 7:47 88 129
Feb 1-15 18 3.93 254 30:41:32 7:48 89 127
Feb 16-Mar 2 17 4.06 265 30:25:55 7:30 89 129
Generally my pace has gotten faster while heart rate and cadence have remained the same, especially after the first month. The Stryd power numbers correlate very well with pace. What isn't there in these numbers are factors like sleep, stress, etc. I do track those via the Garmin (mostly 935, but I recently switched to a 945). In general I get a decent amount of sleep, and my RHR has come down from the mid 40s to right around 40 (sometimes upper 30s). Living on the Big Island, I also don't get very stressed. :-) What isn't easy to quantify but is also a subjective observation - on most days I just feel very fluid when I start my run. I guess this running economy shows up in the average pace, but maybe there's a component in the various detailed Stryd numbers to look at (e.g., Form Power).
I'm now trying to figure out what to do AFTER the challenge. I've got Boston coming up, and I feel like this was a very good program to get me ready (just need to add a few more longer runs), but I also need to start layering in swimming and cycling again. I always ran decently off of 3-4 runs per week, but now I'm thinking of trying to sustain 5-6 and see if that will carry me through the season better.
Meanwhile, I'm 3 seconds per mile off of that 5:00/km cutoff to make the list...
Ian
After the first month, I started getting faster, and by January I was routinely running under 8:00 mile pace. Other than a couple of exceptions, my runs are all 30 minutes and some seconds. In the second half of January, I was visiting my old haunts in the Bay Area and happened to coincide with my tri team's "Ultimate Run" - an 18.5-mile trail run in the Santa Cruz Mountains with 2500 ft of climbing/descending. That one definitely hurt my average pace, but the great thing was that it was the easiest effort I'd ever put out for that course, and my endurance was fine. Maybe there is something to this running frequently thing. <grin>
I should mention that I've done minimal swimming and cycling during this time, but I have been doing Pilates 2-3x a week, and I find it really helps me feel stronger in the runs.
It seemed as though I got another mini-spike in late February in which I now consistently average under 7:30 pace unless I force myself to run super easy. I don't seem to notice the difference one way or another the next day.
Some data (I use a Stryd pod for tracking power):
Period # of runs avg dis avg power avg dur avg pace avg cad avg HR
Dec 1-15 9 3.71 227 34:30:04 8:56 85 131
Dec 15-31 19 3.73 234 32:35:54 8:38 87 132
Jan 1-15 17 4.02 259 30:58:17 7:43 89 130
Jan 16-31 16 4.85 254 39:09:31 7:47 88 129
Feb 1-15 18 3.93 254 30:41:32 7:48 89 127
Feb 16-Mar 2 17 4.06 265 30:25:55 7:30 89 129
Generally my pace has gotten faster while heart rate and cadence have remained the same, especially after the first month. The Stryd power numbers correlate very well with pace. What isn't there in these numbers are factors like sleep, stress, etc. I do track those via the Garmin (mostly 935, but I recently switched to a 945). In general I get a decent amount of sleep, and my RHR has come down from the mid 40s to right around 40 (sometimes upper 30s). Living on the Big Island, I also don't get very stressed. :-) What isn't easy to quantify but is also a subjective observation - on most days I just feel very fluid when I start my run. I guess this running economy shows up in the average pace, but maybe there's a component in the various detailed Stryd numbers to look at (e.g., Form Power).
I'm now trying to figure out what to do AFTER the challenge. I've got Boston coming up, and I feel like this was a very good program to get me ready (just need to add a few more longer runs), but I also need to start layering in swimming and cycling again. I always ran decently off of 3-4 runs per week, but now I'm thinking of trying to sustain 5-6 and see if that will carry me through the season better.
Meanwhile, I'm 3 seconds per mile off of that 5:00/km cutoff to make the list...
Ian