100 Runs 100 Days 2017-2018 Challenge Thread: Dec 15-Mar 23

I’m copying last year’s thread to get things rolling as I am kind of swamped at work right now, but will update this with any specifics for this year later. Same rules, same format, same goals. We’re on to year 12

The last few years we have had 500+ athletes from all over the world. Invite your friends and training partners. The more the better. Thanks to Slowman for accommodating us and hosting this virtual training camp on their website at no cost !!!

On Dec 15th we’ll start the 2017-18 edition of the 100 runs in 100 day challenge, commonly known as 100/100. The thing has evolved somewhat over the past few years, due to and contrary to popular demand. The basic unit that counts as a run is 30 minutes.

The goal of this entire challenge is to lay down a solid run base by doing volume through frequency. The goal of the challenge actually is not to randomly be doing a bunch of short runs, although some in the past may have chosen to. The goal really is to increase your overall mileage which will hopefully result in better performances next year as long as you don’t go overboard and injury yourself. Frequency is the carrot to get you overall mileage, but don’t end up using it to get injured!

The runs can be outdoors or on a treadmill, but it must be running (no water running, no elliptical trainer…). Walking does not count…there must be two feet off the ground at some point in every stride (the difference between race walking and running) and there must be forward motion so 30 minutes of jumping jacks will not count either :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :-).

DO’S AND DON’TS

You can take days offYou can do days with more than one run (doubles)You can and likely should take rest daysYou get no credit for going longer than 30 minute wrt number of runs, however it will help your distance totals. Over time, many of your runs will be in excess of 30 minutes.If you go fast, it will show up in your total distance over the challenge in less time and the speedsters get to beat the crap out of each other.You can go as slow as you want provided both feet leave the ground on every strideListen to your body if you need to take a day off. Don’t get too sucked into what the other geeks on the standings are doing (who am I kidding? Talking to a bunch a type A tri geeks)By all means, use the overall standing as a motivator to push you up a level, but don’t put yourself in the injury/hurt locker in the middle of winterDon’t sprint out of the gate in the first 3 weeks…easiest way to get injured…start slow…perhaps take your aggregate mileage over the last 3 years and divide that total by 156 to get a gauge for what your average weeks for the first 4-6 weeks should look like before you ramp upIf you make it through 10 weeks (70 days), pour it on in the final month when your body and mind can take it.WHAT COUNTS AS A DOUBLE RUN?

For a run to count as a double, it must be separated by at least 1 hour. I have to pick a duration to separate 2 runs and it can’t be 1 minute or 5 minutes, and putting 1 hour in between means that I will allow you to count a run-swim-run, run-bike-run, run-wts-run, run-XC ski-run, run-McDonalds-run as 2 sessions as long as the thing in between lasts for at least 1 hour (be it 40K on the bike, or a session at the donut shop).

11 years ago EH, Jana and I put down 100 days in a row of running 30 min or more with ZERO rest days. Not really recommended. The last few years we have had approximately 50 or more hit 100 runs in 100 days, but that’s really not for everyone (nor should it be).

WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS LEVELS

While some might go for 100 runs, the reality is that unless you are already running 4-6 hours per week, this is not a realistic goal. If you did over 2500K of running last year, you’re probably good to go to attack the full 100 (assuming you have no injuries)

For most a realistic goal is to start at Bronze club pace (or less) and then see how things go.

Platinum Club = 100 runs in 100 days (March 24th)Gold Club = 90 runs in 100 runs in daysSilver Club = 80 runs in 100 runs in daysBronze = 70 runs in 100 runs in daysIt is great training for anyone doing a spring marathon or an early season triathlon, and you’ll be shocked by how quickly you accumulate mileage, all without getting injured…because the focus is keeping them short and aerobic. By all means feel free to run longer than 30 minutes, but the main goal here is to get you out the door, 5-7 times per week, especially given that the weather is generally shitty for riding in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

QUESTION ABOUT RUNS SHORTER THAN 30 MINUTES

The goal is to encourage people to run as much as possible. Sometimes, life gets in the way. We have lives outside sport.Something is better than nothing. So if you do 2 runs shorter than 30 minutes in one day (ex 20+15), you can count the total as 1 run, but beyond that, you can’t keep adding up incremental amounts to count for additional runs. For example, a 50 minute run and 10 minute run in one day won’t count as 2 runs and nor will 20+20+20. They will both count as one 60 minute run (you can add your short run amount to your large run amount to get full mileage credit).

*So basically let’s say you do a 15 minute run covering 3K. You can’t enter this as a “complete run” for your “club status”, however, if you do many of these over the winter, they all add up to more base, so what you CAN do is add these 15 minutes in your entry for your previous run…so if your previous run was 45 minutes, and 9K, just put it in as 60 minutes and 12K and take some partial credit for it. *

However, we just added a fairly major change to this for 2015-16 to encourage people a bit more. What we will allow is twice per week have two days where 15 min counts provided you make up the time the NEXT day…read below:

New in 2015-16 was an allowance for 2x per week minimum run of 15 minutes which must be followed up by 45 run the next day. A 15 min run earlier in the day, followed by a 45 min run later in the day does not count for 2 runs in that day, it still counts as the usual 1 run of 60 minutes. The reason for this is that the minimum on 2 days per week of 15 min run is being instituted to assist people in not over doing mileage on days when perhaps a short jog or transition run off the bike or swim is all they should really be doing in the context of an overall triathlon program"
SIGN UP AND USING THE SLOWTWITCH.COM TRAINING LOG

  1. Go to log.slowtwitch.com
  2. Sign up for a training log account if you don’t already have one
  3. Then go to http://log.slowtwitch.com/challenges/list
  4. Look for the 2017-18 100 runs/100 days challenge and sign up for it, by clicking “enroll”
  5. Now start entering your runs in the slowtwitch log. Make sure you only enter runs =>30 minutes as one entity. If you have a 20+15 day, enter it as one workout of 35 minute or it will not get rolled into the results sheet
  6. Please ensure that you log a distance along with the time. If you don’t know the distance, please try to estimate…this will also get you finely tuned to your pace at various times/distances…great for racing
  7. Your runs will automatically get entered into the challenge results sheet with everyone else
  8. From the challenges home page, click on the link to go to the 100/100 challenge, which will allow you to view the results
  9. Once click on this link you will end up at the results page. You can click on any of the column headers, and it will sort the sheet based on that category (frequency, time, distance, aerobic points.
  10. Please note that you must be logged in to actually enter your data. You can’t enter data without logging into your account (seems obvious…)
  11. You should be able to sync to the ST log via Stava. Ericthebiking will brief us on that.

I’ll update this post as other questions come up.

And as was the case in previous years, there is lots of tough love around here, but everyone means well. If you think I/we might be hard nosed, let me just say, that offline, I get beaten up by even more hard core guys accusing me of making the challenge too “soft”. So the rules are the rules (we had a discussion thread about that every year) They’ve been refined over the past few years and love them or hate them, they kind of work and out of respect to previous years’ finishers, let’s stick with what works OK.

Please put any questions on this thread. Better to put them here than send me PM’s or emails, because they may not be answered n real time if sent directly to me, but if you post on this thread there are a bunch of guys and girls who will likely answer questions for your immediately. It’s like being in a big training camp with a bunch of veterans. You don’t need to ask the organizers all the questions. There are a bunch of vets who probably can provide much better insights than I can.

FINALLY: GOOD LUCK, PLAY SMART, TAKE REST, COME OUT THE OTHER SIDE INJURY FREE AND READY TO HAVE A PB YEAR IN 2018.

On my side, I am awaiting a disc surgery (some complications resulting in a crash at IM Switzerland 2011 affecting my walking, biking and running), but until the surgery, will be doing some shuffling around on my Woodway and hopefully some snowshoe running to compliment my daily dolphin tank swims.

Please post stories about your workouts, pictures from running days and chime in to motivate each other on this thread. Don’t just log workouts and disappear. The community engagement is what its all about to keep one another motivated

What if my 30 minutes of running includes some physio mandated walk-breaks?

I want to use my 100 days to get back to running after not really running since March 2016 due to a knee injury. At 3/7 I’ll get to around 40 and that will be my goal :slight_smile:

What if my 30 minutes of running includes some physio mandated walk-breaks?

I want to use my 100 days to get back to running after not really running since March 2016 due to a knee injury. At 3/7 I’ll get to around 40 and that will be my goal :slight_smile:

I hear what you are saying. Time the running part and if it adds up to 30 minutes, then that’s 30 minutes of running. Read the rules above. Unfortunately walking does not count. If you get over 30 min, then great. If it is under 30 minutes the challenge results table won’t pull in that run.

IN!!
Gonna be cooolddd… out there for Day 1 tomorrow!!!

IN!!
Gonna be cooolddd… out there for Day 1 tomorrow!!!

On day 1 of the 100/100 I will be closing off my 1200 km swim objective for the year…so at least it will be warm there. Will try to shuffle out 30 min either before or after the main dolphin set which is a planned 1000m swim TT of 50% fly 50% free. That’s my main event for the year. Was hoping to get it done before 100/100 and gradually convert over to land mammal status, but I think I’ll mainly be in dolphin mode this winter and shout at you guys from the sidelines.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4690/38189672024_3dc3c9d909.jpg
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I think I’m in. I’ve run just enough that 30min doesn’t scare me anymore (oh that’s painful to say/admit).

I’m aiming for 45 runs. I have goals and this might just be the accountability I need to FINALLY get back the semblance of fitness I used to have.

SO I have a 5k race saturday and sunday which both will be under 30 minutes but I plan to warm up long enough to crack 30 total will this still count? (it seems yes)

SO I have a 5k race saturday and sunday which both will be under 30 minutes but I plan to warm up long enough to crack 30 total will this still count? (it seems yes)

Yes, but only as one run per day.

IN! Just added up my 100 days prior to Dec 15th and looks like I was 89/100 for 709 miles.

After this next 100 days I will be unstoppable!

https://media1.tenor.com/images/f0baca047a09af4fbd4419c52af05871/tenor.gif?itemid=4482837

Dev,
Super impressed w your (forced) swimming you have been doing. VERY NICE INDEED BROTHA… keep it up.
Im in on this 100 run BS and got a couple of my athletes in too. Run is always my weakness from a confidence standpoint and hopefully this will help. While I know it doesnt count, I ran yesterday and logged a track workout today! So I am two up already. HA.
Bring on the xmas cookies!
Merry Christmas Dev.
daved

Thanks Dev for supporting this challenge, again. Two years ago I was around 50-ish Runs? Caught the flu at the end. Last year I nailed 70. This year I’ve run pretty consistently, closing in on around 1,000 miles, and shooting for high 80’s.

If anyone is interested, I’m coupling this to my own personal weight loss challenge. I’ll post my weight tomorrow.

New to the ST log. Can you sync it to Strava or TP?

Thanks Dev for supporting this challenge, again. Two years ago I was around 50-ish Runs? Caught the flu at the end. Last year I nailed 70. This year I’ve run pretty consistently, closing in on around 1,000 miles, and shooting for high 80’s.

If anyone is interested, I’m coupling this to my own personal weight loss challenge. I’ll post my weight tomorrow.

Amazingly enough, I have been on the Rob Gray Ultraman World Champion high fat diet. This year is the least amount of total training I have done in around 20 years in terms of hours, but I have done a ton of swimming. Swimmers are “fat” right? Well that’s what I thought, but with all the swimming and calories from good fats vs sugar, I am down to my 2006 Kona race weight which is my high school grad weight and have a better six pack at 52 vs at 18 or 19. I think this high fat stuff works…and probably the other thing that really helps is no really super long training…all my training days are in the 1-2.5 hour range. None of the 3-7 hour range stuff after which you invariably eat too much.

In any case back to the thread at hand. If I can remind you guys that it’s 14ish weeks of grinding and pacing it out. Don’t start with a virtual sprint in the next 10 days please.

You didn’t list the prizes for making it to each level.

You didn’t list the prizes for making it to each level.

This should have been covered in the airing of the grievances so that slowman could scrape up some sponsors…for now I suggest that slowman allocated 5% of ST subscription $$$ to the platinum club, Randmart will deliver a fistful for 100/100 challenge bills to the gold club, silver club can get a kick in the behind from their spouse/partner for blowing off family events, and bronze club well you’re stuck wtih a virtual pat on the back from me, but only if you post on this thread after 50% of your workouts! That’s about all we go around this challenge poorhouse.

Thanks Dev.

First time participant, from the sunny shores of Sydney, Australia. Aiming for a Bronze milestone, mainly through my daily commute to work (mix of bike and run from day to day). Got cracking this morning with 7kms into the city, a leisurely stroll to be honest after a torrid week at work. Can’t wait to see what the next 99 days have in store for me!

Good luck everyone!

Hey Dev — I was able to log today’s workout by following a link to the log-in page. But I’m not seeing a link to get to the workout log-in page from, say, the home page, or the run page. Is there one?

Thanks for organizing, I got 1/100, so I’m gunning for platinum.

First year participating, platinum or bust! Going out for a tempo now, it’s raining and below 0. Gonna be a long winter!

Good grief - that is the longest instruction sheet I have actually read in awhile. Is it OK if i just run?