Health and the ability to do a wide range of things with our bodies is one of the biggest gifts in our lives! As I am getting older I appreciate health more and more. But if you want your body to be strong and capable you need to maintain it. And I failed to do that properly in the past few years. It is time for a change! Do you want to change too? If yes, read on and join me in this challenge!

Artwork by @eve

The Goal

My first step in this endeavor is running. Why running? Because you don't need any equipment for running and you can break a sweat in just 15 minutes. And breaking a sweat, in my opinion, is the moment of magic! After you've done that, you feel better, you sleep better, you are more productive and focused!

My goal is to run the Vilnius Marathon (which will be held on the 8th of September 2019) in 3:22:32. Why marathon? Because it is hard and you need consistency preparing for it. Why 3:22:32? Because I ran 3:22:33 marathon in 2009 and that would be my PB :)

My Path

My October Stats

I know that there are many various programs and training plans, but I am a simple man and I believe in consistency, numbers and listening to your body. So I will be slowly increasing my total number of kilometers per month and at the same time will try to improve my average pace for the month at least 7 seconds per kilometer.

My goals for the run of the month (left) and for the totals of the month (right)
My best effort in the month of October

Also, once a month I will do my run of the month where I will try to reach for the limit of my abilities at that particular time. In each month from now till the marathon's day, I am planning to add at least 10th of the marathon's distance, i.e. 4.2 kilometers each month.

In October I set my benchmarks. And calculated how much I have to improve each month on average to reach my goal. Tables above will be my beacon.

Contest


I know that there are many fit runners to whom my current numbers will look silly. But I also know, that there are people among you who are looking for something to get you motivated to start moving and get in shape! This is your chance! I had an idea about this contest about 5 weeks ago. And only the idea that I will be writing this post pushed me forward during October even through rain and snow! Imagine what it will do to me when this post will be live :) You can join me on this journey and share the excitement with me!

My requirements:

  1. Run at least 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) in the month of November with an average pace for the month of at least 07:00/km (~11:14/mile).
  2. Follow me on Strava (or write your Strava name in the comments so that I could follow you and see your progress). I am Tadas K on Strava.

If you will decide to join me, November will be a month where you will set your benchmark as I did in October. Everyone who will meet my 2 requirements, will receive 5 SCR in the first week of December. And December will be a month when the fun will begin :)

From December I will have a prize pool of at least 50 SCR every month for the top 3 improvements of the month. I want to reward improvement and not the performance so that everyone would have an equal chance to claim that top. But I will be aiming for that top 3 too, so be prepared to do your best, because I am not giving up my hard earned SCR that easily! ;) I will write exact details on how I will be measuring that improvement on December 1st's post.

*If you want to use a treadmill for this challenge, you can, but it has to be non-motorized :) I know, that I probably will have to use one in the months of winter because we could have snow up to my knees :)

I hope you will join me and there's some wisdom for me and you from uncle Joe: