This is Slowtwitch’s twentieth December, and for the last twelve Decembers this month has arrived with a Challenge… literally. We call them Challenges and the first and granddaddy was the 100/100, short for, "Run 100 times in 100 days."
Res ipsa loquitur: The Challenge speaks for itself. It commences on the 15th of December, and we have longtime Slowtwitcher Devashish Paul to thank for this. This was his idea when he started it, as a lark, in 2007.
The Slowtwitch Training Log is here and you can always find it using the “Training” tab in the blue navbar above. One of the menu items is “Challenges.” When you enter a Challenge, the workouts you upload to your Training Log automatically append to the Challenge. Using our Training Log is free, and your regular Slowtwitch Forum credentials get you in.
Do you use a different training log, calendar or software? If it uploads to Strava, the Slowtwitch Training Logs syncs back your workouts. Above is a screenshot of part of the Slowtwitch Training Log’s front page, and you can see the Strava Integration button as well as the Challenges button. Easy as pie! There’s another arrow pointing to another button that’ll bring up specific current Challenges, and if past is prologue participants in the 100/100 will number in the high hundreds by the time it starts.
Challenges are mini competitions, set up to favor a particular metric: time, distance, or sessions or “count.” The 100/100 values sessions. Your spot on the leaderboard is determined by how many sessions you ran, not by how many miles. This table is empty because the Challenge hasn’t started yet as of this writing.
I’ve been planning for this – not just planning for your participation, but mine. I’ve had a dodgy knee for the past 4 years, and haven’t been able to run more than twice-per-week. But, I take my dogs on a 2-mile walk every morning, with no problems. What if I make that walk a very slow run, was my thought. And then 2 and-a-half. Now it’s 3 miles. These morning runs with the dogs (I'm getting myself prepared in the pic below) will be my main entries in the 100/100 Run Challenge session. I’m now running 3 days out of 4, and hope to be ready by game time!
We’ll see how my strategy works out. The most I’ve been able to get in a 100/100 is 60 sessions (several years ago, the last time I participated in this Challenge). You don’t lose or fail if you don’t get 100 sessions in. You try and log however many sessions you safely can, to know when you need a day off, and ultimately to embed a foundational habit of routine and regularity.
Tradition calls for the annual Airing of the Grievances thread, to accommodate your objections, complaints, whines and excuses! Over the years we've had well meaning coaches and others object to the whole idea of this Challenge. That thread is for you.
Above are links to the Training Log and the 100/100 Run Challenge. Rules for the Challenge will go live on the Reader Forum within the week. Yes, treadmill runs are allowed, and as we speak I’m arm wrestling with 2 different treadmill companies for a special Slowtwitch offer. Yes, I had the 100/100 in mind when I conspired with Zwift on our recent foot pod giveaways. My cover is blown.
If you want to join the rest of us, we’d love to have you aboard. I’m not qualified to write you a game plan for this, since there are so many Slowtwitchers, of different ages, abilities, with different goals, who live in different climates. Just, for me, I love this Challenge, because it’s a journey. It’s like a very good, very long book. If I take my time and enjoy it I’ll make it to the end. I tend to do better if I plan in advance: make sure there's time set aside in my schedule; have my routes planned; my equipment and clothes ready. I have ready my set of routes, and think about a gate, and a cadence, a footfall, and a mindset that is focused on tomorrow. My run today has as its goal my ability to run tomorrow. It's 100 days of "live to run another day."
