I Challenge You to a Challenge
Fun, friendly leader boards and a great way for some accountability
Here’s a really fun and easy way to hold yourself accountable to maintaining your speed, while also working on power and running form.
I found this website, Challenge Hound, about 2 years ago when I wanted to challenge myself and hold myself accountable. It does a decent job of pulling our running data from the apps we already use (Strava, Garmin, etc) and strips out the info that the challenge relates to.
In July, I’m challenging you all to a few friendly challenges. The first one is related to running elevation: in the 31 days of July, the winner will be determined by the person who climbs the most amount of vertical feet.
The second Challenge is the person who can record the fastest 1 mile in the month. You do not have to specifically run a mile fast - it can be any segment within your run - so even if you’re doing a recovery run - it’ll pull your fastest segmented mile and use that as your first data point. As you get more runs in, it’ll only keep your fastest 1-mile segment.
Challenge Hound allows for 10 free runners per Challenge, but I’m hoping that way more than 10 of us decide to join. To offset the cost of the event and to keep you accountable, I put a $5 fee on each Challenge. The winner of each will win 75% of the pot and 2nd place will win 25% of the pot. You can do one of them, both of them, or (womp womp) none of them. If you decide to join late, don’t worry, Challenge Hound will pull your data from July 1st through when you decide to join.
Here’s the link to join the Elevation Challenge.
And here’s the link to join the Mile Challenge.
Friday’s Action Plan:
Join one or both challenges to help keep you accountable in July.
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Thanks for following along on the journey! Have something you’d like to add? Have suggestions or comments? Email me: TrainwithMarc@gmail.com
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Marc is a middle school teacher and coach but also works with distance runners online. I help distance runners around the globe by providing support, writing customized training plans, and designing workouts to help them reach their racing goals. I write for my blog every Wednesday morning and newsletter every Friday morning.