rrheisler wrote:
Yeah, sorry, but count me as somebody who would change the rules of the challenge if he ran it.
Minimum run should be 20 minutes. And the only thing that matters is whether or not you hit that 20 minutes of running per day. All of the other stuff (distance, multiple runs, all that jazz) is noise.
The goal is 100 runs in 100 days. Distance doesn't matter. Time matters. Focus on run consistency and run consistency only. And we just about every year during this have people who drop off hard in the first two weeks after they try to hold to the 30 or 3 mile rule. It's just enough to be an overreach.
In fact, I'm pretty sure at least one of our free training plans on offer on TrainingPeaks has 15 minute run days built into it -- because it's about making it to the end having improved your run durability, not blowing up a couple of days in.
Well that is why it is a challenge and not a cakewalk. 30 min daily is enough to break people who did not prepare going in, but its almost nothing for a well organized well trained athlete.
It's like an Ironman....its not meant to be easy....and you may break yourself getting to the start line or during the race, but that is precisely what makes things a challenge and not a cakewalk and part of the attraction is that it is not really that easy. If it was easy everyone would do it, and as you have not been around for 15 years, part of the reason why it has lasted for that long is because there is a feeling of accomplishment when you get 100 done (I cant remember you doing it, but maybe missed you in the standings).
But also there is a daily feeling of accomplishment getting 30 min done....and 30 min is half of 1 hour. It is basically one meeting slot in business life to carve out for yourself.
Yes, some people will break, or its too hard for some people and that is perfectly OK. No one is forcing anyone to go to the point that they break themselves. Breaking oneself in a challenge is completely voluntary as no one is forcing us into anything. That's actually part of getting faster in any sport...pushing your limit and figuring out when and how to back off.
But really 30 min per day is not that hard either if one is prepared for it. Slowman knows that I was unable to both walk and run for a bunch of years from a couple of bad crashes, so if anyone should be asking for this to be made easier it should be me. But I got to the full 100 the last two years. Two years ago, it was a massive feeling of accomplishment. Last year I got to over 100 because I wanted to do over 1000km (I wanted to run average of 10km per day)....three years before that I was at zero per day and watched from the sidelines.
There have been years that I am shut out of trying to get to platinum because my body can't do it....other years, it has been easy because I was ready. But its not for everyone, but in a way, it is achievable by many many many with sufficient advanced prep.
Right now I am jogging 3.5 -5 hrs per week every week come hell or high water so that I am ready when 100/100 starts. I could go to zero easily given the time management challenges right now, but carving out 30+ minutes daily of easy jogging is like "spring training for the regular season". If I was at 0-1 hrs per week, the challenge just may break me when "regular season" starts.
My main point to slowman is consider the track record of how many people have done this and this beiing the most accessible and highest participation event on ST and that we may only hear in print from those who have never put in the real effort to get ready before and modulate their effort inside the challenge to get it done.
If someone shows up unprepared, they will certainly suffer during 100/100 (as they would in an ironman)