Rough timing for me nursing a Achilles soreness a week before the start of the challenge but the 100/100 is motivating me to ease back into running and hit the 100 mark...only 2 runs thus far, but looking forward to ramping it up over the next few weeks!

Shit happens. A casualty of 100/100 runs.

Everything was going a along fine until --------

a few days ago, a BIG boulder slipped and pined my foot between "a rock and a hard place" - the boulder and the pavement. Remember that story a few years ago if the hiker in a remote canyon in Utah that had his foot caught between two boulder and he had to cut his foot off with his pocket knife? When I was looking at my stuck foot, that's what I was thinking. Luckily I didn't have to cut my foot off. Recovery, may take a little while. but everything is semi okay, and I think it best if I stop running for a while.

Happy New Year! Our family word for the year is "gratitude." Thanks again to organizers of this because I'm finding it a great challenge. Here's a bit of an update on challenges of the challenge and other stuff.

I find it fun to read everyone's updates! To the Coyote-dude who got hit by a rock....sorry to hear that! Hope it gets better quick! For the other guy running in the snow and ice and cold (in Oregon?), we are one in the same, looking for safe footing and thinking about the summer heat waves.

I ended up doing almost only runs in the past 7-10 days, trying to get past the initial tiredness. I think I turned a corner today; I felt pretty good on a cold but windless beautiful morning. Effort level to pace ratio is much better today, probably much related to the fact the streets cleared off a bit and I could get some traction instead of running in the slush and ice like past few days. It's cold enough today at -1 to remind me of my days running outside for wrestling during high school in North Dakota (chilled just thinking about it!).

I'm arguing with myself about adding bikes/swims this week or adding mileage. Standard work routine begins again tomorrow, and I want to set a foundation for future success. Will start with really easy bike and swim the first week and move on from there based on how I feel.

One reason I'm doing this challenge is to lose weight and get back to where I was last year. I gave up on getting my Fitbit Aria to connect and upload, and my new Garmin Index scale arrived the other day. It will be interesting to see the different data points change, including weight, water, fat, muscle, and bone density. I'm one of the weirdos that gets motivated by data charts. I'm missing the first two weeks of data, but I'm excited about how the charts will look in March.

Interesting to hear I'm not the only person stuck in an "older" body but with a younger mind. I'm 47 stuck in a 24-year old body, with 24 being what I consider my prime year. I swim bike run so I can keep up with my boys now and in the future, and quite frankly when I finally retire in a few years I want to still be active enough and able to enjoy the time skiing, backcountry fishing, and hiking and all that good stuff all day every day,

I've been able to run 17 days in a row mostly because of a relaxed work schedule. The problem became recovery from running in the morning and then family activities in the afternoon. Someone else said they are banking runs to cover ski days. I am trying to keep up with my fourth grade boy, and luckily I get to do a few easier runs with my second grader. Still, a long day on the ski hill causes difficulty the next day.





And then we also like to cross-country ski. Yesterday was some really good active recovery in Harriman State Park in Island Park, ID. Such a beautiful day! It's more like an easy hike on skis then a crushing aerobic activity that some make it.




The truly challenging day will be January 13 when I get back from a backcountry ski weekend at a yurt. I always get back super-tired, and I'll need to run 30 minutes that day after getting home. A few work travel trips have me concerned also about keeping the running consistently.

And as I switched to more frequent shorter and slower runs, I decided to see if our new dog is runnable. I figured with his name "Flash" and being part whippet (and beagle...the kids call him a wheagle), he would want to sprint and not do "longer" runs. Turns out he can trot pretty well for 4 miles, and I'm excited about getting him out for longer runs. After we run together, he follows me around waiting for the next run! Pic below doesn't show it, but he's a pretty buff dude with lots of muscle and low body fat. The boys named him "Flash" because he's so fast on the sprint.




Since it's New Year's Day, why not throw in some aspect of 2019 goals....below is a starter list for me.

1) FInish the Slowtwitch 100/100 with at least 100 runs and preferably 100 days of running in a row (started a day late).
2) Finish a personal challenge 140.6 triathlon (on my own, self-supported local thing).
3) Finish a personal challenge xterra-type olympic distance triathlon in Sawtooth Mountains (Stanley Lake) for fun of doing it in that location.
4) Complete a personal challenge 70.3 triathlon in Yellowstone National Park or Grand Tetons National Park if I can find a weekend to do it. I did one a few years ago and it was really cool.

I joined this year's challenge late but added my runs in from the 15th. I have participated multiple times (can't remember how many) and have been over 100 each year. Last year I used the challenge to build for a spring marathon (my first) and continued to run and use the ST log through May. Failed miserably in my marathon attempt and then took things easy the rest of the year - still running, walking and working out but not logging workouts or training for anything. I find myself fairly out of shape this time around and ready to get back into run training through this challenge.

I usually take this time around the holidays to bank a few extra runs to allow for work travel and other issues in case I need to miss a day. I forgot all about it this year and actually took 3 days off at Christmas to travel and ski. I will be at 18/18 after my second run today. I'm sticking to 30-35 min runs to start on days when I double up with one run outside and another on the treadmill. I don't have a handle on my weekly mileage yet as I wasn't focused on tracking but will see what it is this week and start adding slowly.

In the past I had posted pics of my yellow lab Tony who was my second run slow running partner but he has a torn ACL and is on the injured reserve list. We got a rescue black lab named Dakota earlier this year and she has become my outdoor running and walking partner.

Pic of Dakota posted below from today's walk/run/walk 90+ mins in 50 degree weather in Westchester County NY.

I almost recorded my first zero yesterday, but then slipped out for a quick run at 9:30pm. We had a bunch of people over, but it was very casual and nobody even noticed that I disappeared. What does that say about me?

I guess the punchline for me is that you can [virtually] always find time for a 30 minute run. And said run usually has multiple benefits - last night it helped keep me awake until the ball dropped, it kept me away from drinking, it helped me skip the late snacking, and it got me out for some fresh air on a crisp SoCal night.

Thanks again, Challenge.

happy new year!

i got off to a good start, then really tweaked my back. stretching, massage etc. helped but i am not quite back to normal yet. lost 5 days of running.

did a short trail run today and it felt great. back on the horse.

The challenge helped push me to hit 2,000 miles for the year. Started a pretty much zero after an injury and took most of Nov. off after a brutal 100k.

Taking it easier this week to recover a bit before a 50k training run/race on Saturday. First 100 miler coming in April.

Happy Running everyone.

We have a Dec 31st winner for upholding the true spirit of the challenge (best image I could find on the internet):



This is really the way to roll...when everyone is wasting your time you just put running as top priority and:

TAKE BACK THOSE 1800 SECONDS OF YOUR LIFE

19km in the morning for 20'19.... then another 30 min with a polar bear plunge 2 hours later.... 16.5mi total.

Water was 58*, i went in with just speedos. 300 people come out to this, with a chili cook off potluck waiting for you after

My beef-lentil-fig-port wine reduction chili was a hit. My family from the east coast also was there to experience it.



Some of you may recognize lady on left from a certain movie.

At 4 PM I was drinking coffee by the fire (no run done for the day) when I checked this thread.

We're at Big Bear. Elevation 7,000. Temp is 21*, 7* windchill. There are 3-4 inches of crusty, uneven snow.



I ran slowly on the golf course near us. I had on 2 pairs of running tights, 2 running shirts, a heavy cycling jacket, a windproof cycling vest, mittens, hat, running shoes, treads. I wasn't too hot. I wasn't too cold. It was pretty okay.

go XC skiing @ nordic rim!!

I missed my first day yesterday, and it's not because I didn't want to run. While on a super easy run Monday, I tweaked my lower back when I ducked under some low hanging branches. Had to walk back after that, luckily only a half mile from being done when it happened. I was able to cycle comfortably yesterday, but didn't want to add impact stress of running. Luckily it's not near as bad as the last time this happened and I think I'll be able to at least do an easy 30 min today. Will go for the treadmill for the first time of the challenge so I can quit at anytime.

Can two columns be added to the 100/100 Challenge table to show km/run and average pace?

what's up there are the categories that we use as gauges that monitor production, for the purpose of rank. in other words, we might have chosen distance as the metric by which you all are ranked in this challenge. but we didn't.

i don't mind putting up more metrics, but i'd have to think what issues this triggers that we'd have to deal with that i don't yet foresee, my morning coffee not having yet kicked in.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Enjoy your coffee first then;)

I had a great Christmas - one of the best yet now that the littlest one is old enough to enjoy it. After 50 runs in 9 days I was only able to log 5 runs the next 9 days. Mostly due to planned rest and recovery that coincided with hosting family and travel over the holidays. I renewed my Zwift membership and I am back riding now after 3 months off. I am going to ease back into a more heavy volume, but nothing like the first week. My priorities right now are healthy eating / weight loss for my first 50k race, keeping my active streak going, 2,000 running miles in 2019, run commuting to work more often, and of course as many runs as I can do in 100 days. Fortunately all of those goals pretty much compliment each other.


2018 was my most active year yet, I increased swim, bike, run hours from 386 hours in 2017 to 463 hours in 2018 and increased run volume from 1,000 miles to 1,500 miles. I am looking forward to a strong 2019 and this challenge will help with that.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

nice to see you got up off the mat. you're one of my 2018 stories. i tried to imagine what it was like getting 9 runs in on the first day.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I did the opposite. I tried NOT to even think about what that would be like. Especially, getting up and doing it AGAIN on Sunday.

Looks like HVP is about to run down the bluestack!

All he needs to do is 10 a day for the next 3 days, and its his! (well, and bluestack has to sleep on the couch).

I was thinking about this the other day, especially considering that the km/run metric would be veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery favorable to me this year. It's totally possible. I'd like to find a way to have it be optional, especially based on screen size, so I don't think we'd want them on mobile, but on desktop, why not? There's a ton of real estate there.

-Eric

It doesn't seem like many people are excited by badges or little icons to add flair, but I thought to honor those tough ones running in the darkest depths of wintery weather, they could have a snowflake by their name. For us weenies running in summery places, we could have a scorpion. I don't know about indoor running-- those mentally tough treadmillers could maybe have a chicken because they are loco, like pollo loco. Will these little icons add zest and increase happiness and satisfaction? Look, it's just an idea.

That's right, we're TAKING SNOWFLAKE BACK. From now on, it means badass :-)

-Eric

Which does Austin get? It's theoretically "warm", but I raised a bunch of eyebrows over in the AH thread for saying I run in <40* and raining shirtless with gloves. Getting a snowflake would be fun. There'll be hot days before March whateverth arrives, though.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Make Snowflakes Great Again (MSGA)