March Running Challenge

1|3:59|
2|3:55|-4
3|3:51|-4
4|3:48|-3
5|3:45|-3
6|3:44|-1
7|3:40|-4
8|3:39|-1
9|3:34|-5
10|3:31|-3

The above table shows the times for laps 5-14 on my Strava activity.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4919909993/laps

This challenge suits my current training a little bit better than the February challenge did. I've no idea the total number of points I got. So shotgun you'll have to tot it uo.

A progression run wasn't in my schedule (a 13km run was), but if I could increase my pace by only 1-2 seconds per kilometre, I'd still be able to stick with my original plan for the 13 kilometres and stay within my desired pace range. This wasn't as easy as I was hoping though, and a not insignificant wind made it even harder to meter out the effort. After a 1km warm up, I was hoping to get the challenge neatly wrapped up in the first 10km of the 13km run, but a 5 second difference between kilometres 2 and 3 scuppered those plans. I'd successfully increased the pace for those first 10km, but I thought I'd be able to nullify the 5 second gap if I kept going and submitted a 10km stint after that aberration. There was another 5 second drop thereafter though, and unfortunately there's no workaround.

This will be my one and only effort for March, so no matter how many points it gets me, it can go into the table as my final tally.

dna_leri wrote: »

Made a first attempt at this tonight and almost ran into one of our medal hopes for Torun this weekend, also running in the woods after dark.

Got the progression bit right but don't think I qualified for any bonus, though I still don't understand the medium bonus.
The 1K progressions were -11,-3,-4,-7,-7,-8,-11,-10,-10.

Started off nice and slow and increased the pace a little. Floundered a bit as I hit hills in the middle section. Came back on target towards the end and had to work on the 9th one and finished strong. I can probably make multiple attempts at this but if it's like previous challenges, my first attempt will be my best one.

Had another go at this last night.
Conditions were not great and did relatively better but still no bonus points.
On my Polar watch my progressions were -9,-7,-10,-12,-9,-11,-10,-9,-12.
Strava was a bit more generous with the roundings: -9,-8,-9,-12,-10,-10,-10,-10,-11 but still not enough.
That's as good as my watch accuracy will allow but I might still roll the dice once more next week as it fits well with my training at the moment. Keeps those Tuesday runs from being boring and sets me up for a few short hill reps at the end.

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Thank for participating. Your total is as follows

10 points for progression
-5 points for not stopping on 10.00
+2 for the 2x 1 sec drops
Total 7 points

Don't worry I won't throw a strop over this, and I guess you made it clear in the OP, but I would have thought I was entitled to a warm up and cool down surely? The challenge wasn't the main goal of the run, so I wasn't going to save the 10km as one activity; no more than I needed to have a 35 minute run saved for February's Challenge, or how some people continued running after they thought an hour had gone by in January.

High risk mess. 5 outta 10 , I have no idea if i get more or less points! Had a GPS disaster at the end of the 8k, was at 4:18 at .98k, it jumped to 04:15 at .99k and then back to 4.20 at 1k, fook!


1 00:04:23
2 00:04:23
3 00:04:23
4 00:04:22
5 00:04:21
6 00:04:20
7 00:04:19
8 00:04:20
9 00:04:18
10 00:04:17

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Need the link dude, thanks :cool: But provisionally thats some effort at the high risk.

10 pts for the progression (once 10.00 validated)
5 pts for 5/9
-6 pts for missing 3 splits (such is the high risk)
Provisional Total 9 points

Edit: No real need for validation as you have 10 point on the table already. Goes to show that a simple progression is 10 points but the high risk is high risk!
I'd recommend folk try the -5 or so first and bank 10 points. The bonuses are not easy.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4923546409/laps

Am i on for the bonus bonus now?

In the spirit of posting poor efforts too... went for the high risk option this morning.

Didn’t go so well, lol.

Drops were (-1.6, -0.7, -1.8, -0.9, +1.1, +1.2, -1.0, -1.1, -1.4, -0.8). Also forgot to stop the watch at end and ran 10.06.

So ended up with about -5 for the run. No need to check shotgun!

What’s interesting is those times above are from garmin. But Strava shows a bonkers 5th km split for me. It’s about 6 seconds quicker than any of my other splits.

Think that was my last effort with this challenge. My running pace is just not smooth enough to hit splits to 1 second resolution. And I need to see a physio about my left shoulder now.

Must be the day that's in it but i went for the high risk one today too.
Mile 1- 7:49
Mile 2- 7:49, ah flip
Mile 3- 7:47, ah here
Mile 4- 7:46
Mile 5- 7:45
Mile 6- 7:44
Mile 7- 7:43
Mile 8- 7:42
Mile 9- 7:41 I'm thinking this is a pure doddle!
Mile10- 7:42 FFS!

I was slightly too fast towards the end of the last mile so slowed way down and then forgot that my Garmin doesn't beep for a full 2 seconds after the lap goes from 0.99 to 1.00 and a mad 10 metre sprint couldn't save me!
Amd then to cap it all my car was just up the road a small bit so never thought of stopping tye watch and ended up doing 10.05 miles.

I won't even bother uploading a screenshot this time round, will have another go next Monday!

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Had a go. Stopped on 10.00km

Km1 5:12
Km2 5:10 (-2)
Km3 5:09 (-1)
Km4 5:08 (-1)
Km5 5:07 (-1)
Km6 5:06 (-1)
Km7 5:05 (-1)
Km8 5:02 (-3)
Km9 5:00 (-2)
Km10 4:07 (-53)

Full progression (10pts) +5 bonus pts = 15pts total

What was the last km all about? :D

Points on the board. Nice hilly route I wasn't within an asses roar of getting any bonus. I've done better progressions with less mental strain in the past. I was only going for the 10 second increments too.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4956321827

1. 5:43 - missed my 5:40 planned start
2. 5:30 (-13) - okay I'll get into the swing of this. Steady now.
3. 5:13 (-17) - NOOOOO! Need to reign in or I'll be into 10 k pace by the end.
4. 5:02 (-11) - So close
5. 4:53 (-9) - So close again
6. 4:43 (-10) - Finally
7. 4:29 (-14) - Useless. you got cocky kid.
8. 4:23 (-6) - YES 10 seconds I thought. NO when I realised I was working off the wrong number when I got home.
9: 4:09 (-14) - It really is a nice day to be out
10. 4:00 (-9) - Just make sure it's a progression at least.

PS - I now hate my watch. The lying b*****d.

dna_leri wrote: »

Had another go at this last night.
Conditions were not great and did relatively better but still no bonus points.
On my Polar watch my progressions were -9,-7,-10,-12,-9,-11,-10,-9,-12.
Strava was a bit more generous with the roundings: -9,-8,-9,-12,-10,-10,-10,-10,-11 but still not enough.
That's as good as my watch accuracy will allow but I might still roll the dice once more next week as it fits well with my training at the moment. Keeps those Tuesday runs from being boring and sets me up for a few short hill reps at the end.

Attempt #3 on Progression Tuesday.
Can't complain about the conditions this time.
Started out at recovery pace 5:23 /km and ended at tempo pace 3:50.
In between the increments were: -8,-9,-10,-10,-12,-12,-11,-11,-10 - only 3 on target so no bonus. Strava was no better. Did 12x hill sprints after again.
There are 2 more Tuesdays left in the month

Mid Risk attempt, 7 points, I think. Should have a bonus bonus point by now.

1 00:05:16 10
2 00:05:14 -2
3 00:04:51 -23
4 00:04:50 -1 1
5 00:04:27 -23
6 00:04:26 -1 1
7 00:04:04 -22 1
8 00:04:03 -1 1
9 00:03:42 -21
10 00:03:43 1 -2
10.01 00:00:09 -5

Total 7


https://www.strava.com/activities/4967322782/laps

axe2grind wrote: »

Since I was last here, I moved my attempts to flat location with no trees, put on my glasses so I can read my watch...and switched to manual lap rather than auto. First 2 attempts with this approach failed as some laps ended up at 1.01 (and the following 0.99)and the odd time the watch skips a beat when I press the lap button.

The same happened today with the watch sluggish when I press lap button. Some of the times were very tight, but it all worked out today for 20pts?

This confuses me, I thought it was the rounded times? not the decimals...not that it made a difference to me, but I was rounding to nearest second on each split.

axe2grind wrote: »

I was going by the following


so either way works...whichever works best.

That made a big difference to my terrible effort of last week, it went from -5 to 7 points. So if I had actually stopped on 10km, I'd have improved my score by a whole point. hahaha

I tried this today - it didn't quite go according to plan.

I was planning to start at 6.10, increasing by 10-seconds and finishing at 4:40. The actual times were:-
6.07
6.01
6.00
5.36
5.33
5.19
5.06
5.00 <== The only km on schedule!
4.55
4.52

It was a full progression run according to Strava ... but Strava also has the distance as 9.98 as against 10.02 on Garmin

https://www.strava.com/activities/4984458063

I think i'm missing a midlife risk attempt from earlier but i done it again for the craic

I think i managed 11 points with 1 1sec (2 *22 is not good enough!)

Laps Avg Pace
1 05:31
2 05:29
3 05:07
4 05:07
5 04:46
6 04:46
7 04:24
8 04:22
9 04:01
10 04:00


https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/6477856970

It was too nice a day. I had to ruin it with another bash at this. I'd no plan but to try and run as narrow increments as possible without going the wrong side of the split. I'll need to speak to the judge on this one.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5039259470/overview

1 - 4:53
2 - 4:51 -2
3 - 4:50 -1
4 - 4:46 -4
5 - 4:46 -0.3 according to Garmin
6 - 4:45 -1
7 - 4:39 -6
8 - 4:33 -3
9 - 4:29 -4
10 - 4:21 -8

I kind of lost my bottle after the apparent even split on the 5th km but Garmin gave says it was 0.3 seconds quicker (attached). Is it 0 points or is it 10 plus some bonuses? Or worse a -2 for an even split?

Also, were some folk using manual laps as opposed to autolaps?

Fair play for taking it this far. Gave me a bit of a laugh anyway.