Planning the 2020 Challenge Calendar [Input Needed]

Coach Patrick · January 23, 2020 4:42PM

Folks, we need your help!

Every year we have a set of challenges designed to connect you and boost your fitness. They range from the December Holiday Run Challenge to a Swim TT Challenge in March, etc.

Over the last few years, participation in these challenges have really dwindled...so we have options. Some include:

Ditch the challenges
Find new challenges for the new generation
Reduce challenges to make more achievable.
Take team challenges off the annual schedule and make them "things" that athletes can do on their own...say the Birthday Challenge, etc.

We would love your input on this so we can make sure you are equal parts motivated and supported!!

Thanks,

~ Coach P

Sheila Leard · January 23, 2020 8:14PM

@Coach Patrick I've never been a fan of participating in a challenge because it takes me off track and it's temporary. It's kind of like New Year Resolutions that start and stop. I like to promote a challenge that promotes a long lasting behavior, such as:

Eat more meals at home for ten days
Try a new recipe every week for one month
Shop for fresh food 3 times a week
Sleep at the time every night for two weeks

You get where I'm going? These would fall into your category of individual challenges.

Janyne Kizer · January 23, 2020 8:26PM

I like the holiday run challenge. Please keep that. The only issue is that it not clear if it's an individual challenge or a team challenge when you look at the spreadsheet.

I'm in another group that does a set of challenges for five weeks. It's a choose your own adventure type of spreadsheet. Challenges include:

yoga 3x/week
keep on moving (activity 6 days a week, you decide what "active" means)
good eats (you write down and share what that means to you, servings of fruit/veg, nothing after 7:30pm, bring your lunch to work, etc.)
strength/core 3x/week
distance traveled (set your own goal) - one person changed this to hours slept with a goal of avg hours slept per week
weight loss, which I think that we already have covered.

Al Truscott · January 27, 2020 5:17PM

My thought is...longer-term challenges in the OS may be of value, compared to one day or one week events. Examples:

Run 100 days in a row, minimum 5K or 30 minutes. Or variations on same theme: 200 km in a month, etc.
Swim 50 km in 50 days (I once tried 50 miles in 50 days, and that was a stretch!)
Enter 30 Zwift races in 3 months...

The idea is the use the challenges to build a sense of commitment, consistency, and achievement that can create confidence and habits for the upcoming training/racing season.

Don't know where the accountability should be...GroupMe, Forums, Spreadsheet.

Robert Sabo · February 4, 2020 8:09PM

I Like these ideas. How about a 9 day bike distance/ time / climbing week on Zwift? end of OS? Indoor Bike camp? EN discount on Chamois cream?

Janyne Kizer · February 4, 2020 8:12PM

https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/comment/282706#Comment_282706

Oh! Indoor Bike Camp!

Brian Terwilliger · February 5, 2020 12:57AM

Earn the most badges on UnTappd for the year!

Coach Patrick · February 5, 2020 5:46PM

Ok folks this feedback...yes, even @Brian Terwilliger 's 🤣 has been really valuable. This is where we will end up.

Team Challenges

These are defined by a set time window and encourage friendly competition between individuals. Challenges are posted to the Forums, there is a tracking sheet with results required on Strava for verification purposes (honor code reporting). Winners get prizes, with criteria TBD each year.

[December] Holiday Run Challenge
[March] Indoor Vertical Gain Challenge on Zwift - 7 Days, the Sky is the Limit

Solo Challenges

These are challenges that folks can do on their own time, and should be complementary to their current training and racing focus. No pressure to join in. These will be forum threads linked from a page on the website. Folks can read the rules and participate in the forum thread.

Birthday Challenge - Swim, Bike and Run on Your Big Day. Some flavor of the numbers should reflect your life milestone. Post the the Birthday Challenge with a picture and links to your training with a story about the day.
Core Strength Challenge - Do core strength 3x a week for 4 straight weeks for a total of 12 sessions. Post your "new core" proof to the Team in the Forums.
Fuel Better Challenge - Try a new recipe every week for one month. Post your recipe each week in the Challenge thread.
Run Streak Challenge - How Many Days Can You Run In A Row?
Sleep Challenge - Improve your recovery by trying to go to sleep at the time every night for two weeks. Post your sleep goal in the forum thread, as well as your results. What are your lessons learned?

Remaining Questions

Do we need a means of recognizing the individual challenge folks? Maybe an list of folks who have completed the challenge on the challenge page? What?
Are there any challenges that really really should be included here that we missed?

Please get me your feedback by 2/12 so we can move forward..thanks Team!

~ Coach P

Janyne Kizer · February 5, 2020 7:05PM

For me, part of the challenge is camaraderie and another big part is accountability. Recognition is not as important (but always nice!)

I'm not sure how others feel about it.

Scott Alexander · February 5, 2020 10:34PM

https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/comment/282719#Comment_282719

That's a goal of every year for me!

Coach Patrick · February 13, 2020 12:56AM

This is great folks...stand by...

Paul Hough · February 17, 2020 9:04PM

I'm late to the party as usual, but here's my 2 cents. Like @Sheila Leard , I rarely participate in challenges because they appear to contradict the maxim that the right amount of training (for Ironman) is the maximum training load that you can absorb. So if I'm already doing everything I can physically absorb (and probably more) then a challenge seems to encourage going overboard leading to potentially being overtrained.

However, if a Challenge could be structured within a given plan so that it is more akin to a "volume pop" or a planned "over-reach" instead of "over-train" then it makes sense. The IM training plans already include camp-like weekends so these challenges have to fit in somewhere ... but where?

Planning the 2020 Challenge Calendar [Input Needed]

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