In a nutshell, we are asking you to send us your 1km time as it stands now, follow our four-week training programme, read our expert advice, challenge your friends and send us your stories/videos of your improved times!

Winter is the perfect time to have some fun with your training. You have done the time, put in the distance and seen the rewards throughout the warmer, summer months, now it’s time to shake things up a bit and try something outside of your routine.

Runner’s World introduces the 1Km Challenge! It sounds easy but try running flat-out for 1km and you’ll see just how tough it actually is! We even asked our coach, Lindsey Parry to do it on back-to-back days and he refused, saying it will take a week to recover!

On top of having some fun in the off-season, interval training and speed-work can do wonders for improving your longer distances, so look forward to a faster and stronger you come spring.

To get the ball rolling, some of the Runner’s World staff attempted the challenge, so watch the video, take a look at their times below, and see if you can do better.

How the Challenge Works:
1. Watch the video of the Runner’s World team attempting the challenge.
2. At your next club time trial, or as soon as you can, find a flat, straight piece of road, measure a kilometre and choose a clear, windless day to give it your best shot. Don’t forget to warm-up first
3. Send us your time.
4. Follow Lindsey Parry’s 4 week training programme to try and improve your time
5. At the end of 4 weeks, send us your new and improved time. All the results will be published on the RW website. Feel free to video your run, or write a story about it, send it to us and we will publish them all online.
6. And finally, look forward to a faster you!

The Runner’s World Team’s 1km times:

• Lindsey Parry, 1km Coach: 3:15
• Mike Finch, RW Editor: 3:50
• Ryan Scott, Gear Editor: 2:49
• Allister Arendse, Deputy Editor: 2:51
• Mark Arendse, Designer: 3:44
• Thamar Houlison, Online Content Producer: 3:46
• Narike Lintvelt, Sub-Editor: 5:03
• Mike Baillie, Online Content Co-ordinator: 3:07
• Ryan Otto, Sales Executive: 3:11

View our Readers 1km Challenge times.

They will all be doing the challenge again in 4 weeks so join them in the Challenge!

Think you can do better? Show us! We look forward to seeing your results.

RELATED LINKS:

• 1Km Challenge Training Programme
• Video of the Runner’s World team tackling the challenge