2015 January Miles Running Challenge

Nathan Freeburg January 1, 2015 Challenge, january challenge, January Miles Challenge

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great holiday season, and are ready to get back into regular training. If you’re like me, running after Christmas and New Years can be brutal. Over eating, lots of time with family and an irregular schedule make sticking to a consistent training plan hard.

While the new year ushers in a sense of excitement and hope, you may find yourself skipping workouts and putting off building your base until next month…

Not this year!

Join the 2015 January Miles Challenge on your way to making 2015 your best year ever!

Why Another Running Challenge?

If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile, you may have participated in one of our community running challenges this past year. We’ve tried several. The challenges that consistently get you to participate are the simple ones where you log your miles.

Also, January is a great month to begin building those all important base miles for whatever goals you have this year. Because misery loves company, be inspired by like minded runners as you run through the beginning of winter.

What’s Different?

In addition to logging your miles, I would also like to invite you to try the plank challenge that Jessie from The Right Fits issued. As you know, strength training for runners is vitally important. For most runners, it continues to be something difficult to do regularly.

Planks are a gateway core exercise. Once you see some progress there, you are more likely to strengthen other aspects of your running core.

How we Can Motivate a Community

We have seen a lot of growth this year on the blog. I would like us to use that momentum to encourage each other (both virtually and in person) to start 2015 right! This could go beyond running into multiple areas of life.

Like last year, in the January miles running challenge you’ll be trying to hit, 50, 100 or 150 miles in the next 31 days. Each time you run, simply enter your miles and track your progress. It’s a great way to motivate yourself internally, and externally by seeing what others are doing.

A Simple Plan

If you’ve taken some time off, or are new to running, you can easily run at least 50 miles this month. Follow this simple plan.

Week 1: 9 miles
Week 2: 11 miles
Week 3: 14 miles
Week 4: 16 miles
Total = 50

(double this if you’re going for 100 miles).

By slowly increasing your mileage, you are less likely to get injured. Doing too much too soon is the quickest way to get injured.

If you’re considering the 100 or 150 mile challenge, you’re probably already running a bit. Ramping up slow is still a good idea. Shoot for 10 – 15% more each week.

Will there be Prizes?

No… yes… well maybe. As I get ready to announce the winners of the 2014 Holiday Challenge, it is interesting to see how little prizes seem to motivate people. It would seem that seeing your name inch closer and closer to the various miles markers is more of an incentive.

That being said, prizes are always awesome, and I will work with the team to figure out some great things we can do to incentivize and reward your hard work.

How To Join The Challenge

Simply use this link to enter your miles and see your progress. Make sure you use the same email address each time you enter your miles.

Join Now!

Join The Minneapolis Running Community

If you’d like to get regular updates about the January Challenge, and receive our latest blog posts, signup for our FREE newsletter. We’ll send you an easy to use, 2015 Google Doc Training log template.