bluestacks867 wrote:
Going to try to explain my current run volume and goals the best I can. Last November I was coming off a 70.3, everesting, and marathon all very close together. I shut down all activity for a full month to recover. Starting December I challenged myself to do 90 swim, bike, or runs for 90 days straight. The 90 for 90 streak was my own personal challenge, very similar to how Dev started the 100/100 runs - and pretty much for the same reasons. I wanted motivation to get back out there after a month off and string together 3 months of activity in the dead of winter.
Fast forward to today and the 90 for 90 streak is now up to 384 days in a row. I do take rest days, but they are minimum 1 mile on the treadmill to keep my personal streak going.
After my first IM two months ago, I took 2 weeks of recovery where I decreased volume a ton. During that time, I got the urge to run. Running would be my focus all winter. I started run commuting to work 8 miles each way on Mondays and Fridays. I averaged 7 miles per day over 50 days, the majority being outdoor pavement runs. My run volume was increasing a lot and I was having fun. For me (given my personal situation and schedules) it is the best most efficient way to increase fitness without taking away from family time too much. Coming off IM training last year I needed to decrease volume (time) a lot for my family.
I stumbled upon the Slowtwitch 100/100 thread a couple weeks ago and I thought to myself, well I am already running a shit ton and this challenge very closely aligns with my current goals... so why not enter it and throw down hard.
One of my favorite ST advice of all time - I was asking for advice regarding racing Savageman 12 days before my first full. One dude’s advice: “throw down hard, do epic shit. If it costs you 30 minutes and Maryland, so what?”. I loved it.
Anyway, I'm not hiding it - I am doing the absolute bare minimum so far. All but two of my runs have been on a $300 craig's list treadmill in my garage. It is very low impact for me given that I am used to running on pavement. I have only been logging 30-minute runs and doing nothing extra.
Leading up to the start of the challenge I knew I wanted to throw down hard and do 10 runs on day one. I also knew I wanted to follow it up with 4 or 5 runs on day two. I was surprised how well my body reacted to 37 miles on day one so on day two I did the maximum possible and cranked out 9 more runs. My family had plans in the morning of day two with travel so that is why I couldn't get in the full 10 and it is also why I did two of the runs outside in freezing rain. There are three things that I want to stick to.
1. I value my sleep and I know how important it is for recovery - so I’ll never have a run end after 9 pm.
2. I am being extremely productive during 1-hour breaks.
3. when my wife says don’t run, I don’t run.
I have a full-time job, young kids, and my wife works evenings three days a week so
any thoughts of 100 in 10 are completely not there. I'm having a good time, working on my form, getting good sleep, focusing on short recoveries and monitoring my body. My current pace won't last all 100 days. My goals shifted quite a bit yesterday morning when I learned I was moved from the Hyner 50k wait list to the registered list. I wasn’t expecting to be able to race Hyner until April 2020 but now yesterday morning I learned I’ll be racing it in 123 days. Before that I knew I would do 200/100. I was locked in for that. 300/100 was a possibility if I stuck to the bare minimum. But priorities will change soon, and I’ll be doing longer runs, huge elevation, more travel to trails etc to prepare for Hyner. I only race a couple times each year and when I lock into a race I train correctly to the best of my ability. Ten 30-minute treadmill runs spaced 1 hour 1 minute apart is obviously not great physical training. But like Dev had mentioned somewhere in this thread, the hardest part is getting back up and starting the next run after a break. And the next one. And the next one. And the next one. And the next one. I would argue that is good mental training.
At the end of the day I’m in the mood to run, so I run. My total number can’t be compared to others correctly because I am doing the absolute bare minimum. Others are doing more efficient training and usually swimming and biking as well. I remember mile 9 of my IM run a couple months ago - hearing the leaders finishing hours ahead of me. I still had a personal victory that day because I was racing myself and my own time goals – pretty much in line with another post Dev made in this thread about being the best you and controlling you. Anyone who is chasing their own results in this 100/100 keep it up and post your runs / recaps and let us know how you are doing.
OK OK OK....to the part in bold up there about 100/10 being out.....we're only 4 days into this challenge....that leaves 6 days to catch up to out Kenyan the Kenyans to 100/10.....all kidding aside most elite marathoners will likey end up at 185/100. if you end up doing 365/100 you'll double most Kenyan marathoners and do a year of daily runs into roughly a quarter.....Not that we're laying any pressure on you or anything, but hey, someone has to do a double Kenyan/100....you're the best we got.
On my end, I was having a discussion with slowman today and said it was funny that I am a recipient of this challenge now, using it as a rehab motivation tool, rather than trying to use it for me to motivate others to get out and run.
I did 34 minutes on the treadmill today with a bunch of stretching breaks such that I actually ran for 30 minutes. Eventually my target will be to run continuously for 30 min outside without having to stop to stretch to avoid disc compression related nerve spasms. Thanks to slowman, I did several 15 minute jogs/shuffles in the 2 week lead up to "spring train" for this challenge. As I mentioned elswhere I am on year three of a injury induced swim focus on track for my third 1200km year in 3 years. First year was mainly all free, second year was learning all 4 strokes and doing a decent amount of fly. This year, around half has been the other 3 strokes and training like 'real swimmer'. Its a different world away from when I was a track guy, but running is my native sport. Swimming is taking its place, but I enjoy watching all of you really feel the freedom of what running allows in life.
Keep pushing all of you.
Dev