In short, run/walk 1,000 miles in 70 days….. Easy for some, challenge for most!
As per Last year’s attempt, this blog post will be updated weekly with my progress and any other thoughts about the challenge. before we get into the detail there’s a couple of things worth noting, firstly at the bottom of the blog is a “What is it?” section describing what this event is and a “What do you get out of it?” section also. Secondly I’ll be honest I didn’t think Virtual Challenges were for me (even if the bling looks good), but I’ve got a Race in March and already drew up a challenging training regime and then after looking into this One Slam Event if fits perfect in the timescales for my training program (same goes for 2024/25).
So this challenge should keep my training focused and ultimately provide a great spring board into 2025 and another attempt at the Back Yard Ultra format in March. I’ll breakdown each week below on how training has gone with the most recent completed week at the top.
Lesson’s Learned from Last Year
- It’s hard to recover once you lose miles from your plan, so try to stay on track
- Need a recovery week so i’m going with a 120, 120, 80 repeat for the mileage each week
- If your kids get ill, then you’re screwed and probably should admit defeat straight away 😛
- If you get ill, the you’re screwed and probably should admit defeat straight away
Week 1 – Week 5
Such is life and things have not gone to plan with family, work and life in general, in short I’m behind the original plan and have been since week one and once you start falling behind you can’t really catch it up very easily due to time and energy constraints. See dashboard image below, which breakdown my actual mileage completed vs. my latest plan of ~744 miles and vs. the original plan which would take me to the 1,000 miles
Think the challenge is going to bug me a little each year and might have to purposefully plan to achieve this or just get fitter and faster to complete it in the hours i have available to me in normal times. I’ll need to adjust the target with Centurion to the next level down, which is 600. the focus for this week and towards the end of this challenge is the Rasselbock Backyard Ultra at the beginning of March, so currently recovering from the Arc of Attrition 100 and will start to do some walking and maybe slow running later this week.
What is it?
The event takes place over a 10 week/ 70 day period: 25th December 2024 – 4th March 2025. Runners have a choice of distances that they can aim to complete within that time. The option to step up to the next level, or down if it becomes too much – is there at any time, just keep going! The event is for everybody, anywhere in the world. The targets are as follows:
50 Miles (5 miles per week)
100 Miles (10 miles per week)
200 Miles (20 miles per week/ The equivalent of the 50 Mile Grand Slam)
300 Miles (30 miles per week)
400 Miles (40 miles per week/ The equivalent of our 100 Mile Grand Slam)
500 Miles (50 miles per week)
600 Miles (60 miles per week/ The equivalent of our Double Slam)
1000 Miles (100 miles per week)
What do you get out of it?
Six webinars on Zoom
- One Slam Success: Reaching your goals with lessons from last year.
- Training Wisdom: Crafting your own ultra-training plan.
- Mental Grit: Sports Psychology skills for ultra-marathon resilience.
- No such thing as bad weather: Choosing the right kit for your adventures
- Fuelling Excellence: Nutrition strategies for ultra-runners in training and racing.
- Race-Day Mastery: Strategies for ultra success on the big day.
Part of the One Slam focus is helping our Centurion runners start the year on the front foot, but not just by encouraging consistent training, but also good opportunities to learn as well. As part of your One Slam entry you will have access to fortnightly webinars from our coaching team, on subjects such as training, nutrition, kit, racing and more. As well as open time for questions after each.
Medals and a Buckle if your a bit sadistic like myself or just a highly tuned athlete (not like myself)
New for 2024-2025, the ONE UP Week!!
ONE UP week from February 17th – February 23rd. This is optional, free with your One Slam entry and comes with its own set of awards that will be sent out to all finishers. This is a repeat of the event we held in July 2020 and the idea is to accumulate as much vertical as you can during the week with totals ranging from Box Hill at 735ft, up to Olympus Mons at 69,648ft! Further details on entering One Up for free, will be shared with all One Slam entrants nearer the time.
Author: OneStopUltra
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