Level Up Challenge: Week One

Find your level

Let’s start with a basic premise: Everyone reading this newsletter is at a different point in their running journey. Whether you’re preparing for an ultra or trying to figure out how to make running a habit, no two runners are ever in the exact same place at the exact same time. 

Here’s the second premise: With apologies to Jon Kabat-Zinn, wherever you are is where you are. The underlying philosophy of Running, Probably is if you run, you’re a runner. All are welcome and no one is excluded. 

While we’re all in this together, it would be foolish to discount variables like fitness and experience. Someone who’s been training at a high level for years will clearly have a different focus than a runner who’s looking to establish a routine. 

That’s why we’ve created three different levels for the RP Level Up Challenge ranging from beginner to advanced. While these levels are necessarily broad and inexact, hopefully you see some of yourself in one of them. This is not a training program, per se, but a way to think about the role running plays in your life. 

The Level Up Challenge is a chance to take stock of where you are in the present, and where you might want to go in the future. It’s also an opportunity to look back and reflect on where you’ve been and lessons learned along the way. 

No matter where you are on your journey, our purpose is to gently shake out of our comfort zones and make tangible progress toward a common goal over the course of eight weeks. That’s when we’ll celebrate our collective growth by taking part in a group run during Thanksgiving weekend. 

Obviously, we can’t all be in the same place at the same time. We can, however, all go out and challenge ourselves on our own terms, whether that’s with a local race, a solo adventure, or a run with friends and family.

Before breaking into smaller groups, let’s begin with a shared goal of starting (or resuming) a running journal. Your journal can be written with pen and paper or it can be typed out on a computer. I suppose it could also be tapped out on your phone, but let’s try and make this project a little more intentional by removing potential distractions. 

Our aim is to create a space where you feel comfortable expressing your innermost thoughts about what can be a terribly revealing activity. Very few things have the potential to make us feel both great and horrible about ourselves quite like running. Whether your experiences are good, bad, or indifferent, how you feel running is just as important as how fast or far you run. 

Like running, writing is a skill that must be practiced and developed. No one’s expecting you to write a novel. Try jotting down simple thoughts along with a few specific data points like mileage, time, and weather conditions. If you’re struggling for a prompt, start here: “My run felt …”

Level I: (Re)establishing a running habit 

If you run on occasion, or even semi-regularly, without following a dedicated training plan, this is the spot for you. If you have followed a plan in the past but it’s been a while, this is also where you might like to begin, if only as a refresher. Everyone, no matter how far along they’ve traveled, started here. 

Our Level I goal is to make running a part of your life rather than something you try to fit in around all the other stuff. Over the next eight weeks, we’ll develop routines and rituals that will help make running a habit. We’ll try to eliminate doubt and confusion about whether you should run while building a solid foundation that you can return to time and again. 

Goal for the week: Run three times with at least one rest day between each run. (Examples: M-W-F, Tu-Th-Sa, M-Th-Su.)  

Spend some time thinking about which three days work best for you and your schedule. Are these days consistent or do they change week-to-week? Only you know your calendar and only you can prioritize running. 

Level II: Diversifying your routine 

If running is a regular part of your exercise regimen to the point where it’s a part of your identity, you might be in the right place. That’s an awesome space to inhabit, by the way. You’ve worked hard at developing rhythms and routines that are deeply ingrained within your psyche. Your run is sacred, as are your routes, your pacing, and your mileage. 

Therein lies the Level II challenge. 

If every week you run roughly the same amount of miles at roughly the same pace following a handful of familiar routes, you are definitely in the right place. Our Level II goal is to experiment with different levels of distance, pacing, and effort with the aim of developing a richer running experience. 

This week’s goal: Increase your weekly mileage by 10 percent. Example: if you typically run 25 miles, run 27.5 this week. You can add this extra mileage a little bit at a time or all at once with a long run capped by a 3-mile increase from the previous week. Important caveat: We’re increasing volume, not intensity!

Additional note: There is nothing magical about increasing your mileage by 10 percent. There’s reasonable evidence that a 10 percent increase is too conservative for beginners. For more experienced runners, 10 percent may be just about right. The point is to disrupt our rituals and rhythms without landing on the injured list. 

Level 3: Training mode activated 

Not only do you run regularly, you’re comfortable following a training plan and have completed races of various distances. Some call you a veteran and you have the medals and race t-shirts to back up the claim. Others simply call you committed. 

Your running is more like a practice than a routine, the depths of which no one will ever fully understand except the individual runner themselves. This practice has been honed over years of trial and error and informed by the passage of both miles and time. This is said with all due respect: When’s the last time you really got after it? 

If volume’s your thing but speedwork’s not really your jam, this is the level for you. Over the next few months, we’ll review a variety of workout strategies from tempos to hills to intervals with the goal of making you faster, fitter, and PR-ready. 

This week’s goal: Incorporate 2-4 sets of 30-second strides covering roughly 100 meters into the end of any medium length run where you feel good. (If you don’t feel good at the end of a run, don’t run strides.)   

Strides are the most basic form of speedwork. Rather than focusing on distances or pacing, strides teach your body how it feels to run fast. It’s important to note that strides are NOT sprints. They’re an exercise in gentle acceleration, like you’re merging onto a highway with no traffic. 

Your goal is to build from 70 percent effort to 90 percent (sub-max!), and hold that 90 percent effort for the final 5-10 seconds of each rep before gently decelerating back to regular speed. That’s one rep. Take a 30 second break and try again. While hill strides are an incredibly awesome variation that we’ll get to before this program is finished, start your stride work on level flat ground.  

Questions, concerns, or clarifications? Hit me up in the comments or by replying to this email. For the next eight weeks, you can think of me as your informal running coach.