**At the start of the year I set a goal to become an above average runner. **
Although I’ve got a long way to go until I can say that, I took one step closer to that goal this week when I ran my first 10km race in 53m 11s. Although Strava seems to think the time was 52m:29s!
The London Vitality 10km was an event that my wife persuaded me to sign up to only 5 or so weeks ago. I was a little apprehensive to sign up as I thought it would come a bit too soon and I only just starting training in February, after recovering from covid. But she’s a persuasive lady and suggested we run for a charity that is very close to our hearts. So we signed up!
A friend who’s been running for years at an above average level taught me about MAF training (Maffetone method), where you run 80% of your training runs easy and watch your heart rate over time, to build up a significant amount of aerobic ability. This method has been a game changer for me. I’ve been able to run consistently bringing my average weekly distance up to around 50km. During a training week I may even have consecutive days of running 10km back to back and remarkably the next day having little to no pain!
I recommend any “fun runner” to investigate this method as the benefits are already starting to show only 3 months later!
Sanding at the start, listening to the music coming out of the loud speakers and the crowd signing ‘you will never walk alone’ released a huge amount of adrenaline. I was amazed to analyse my run later in the day to see within my first 1km my HR hit 178 BPM! It was a funny feeling knowing my HR was high but not being out of breathe at all!
The route took us across London’s landmarks and flew by! I ran the first 5km in 26:58 and then the second 5km in 26:13. The start was super congested with many walkers from earlier waves so the first few kms were all about avoiding collisions (sounds like a F1 start) and trying to stay under 5:30 pace (as I was aiming for a sub 55 minute time!) after reaching the 5km I saw I was running well within my time and my legs felt really good, so I was able to push more going into the second 5km. At the 8K mark there was a lovely downhill split where I was able to run quite quickly for a short period (I think reaching a speed of about 15km per hour).
The end of the race came at the perfect time, at the 400m mark I had nearly pushed a little too hard and had to slow down for the last 200m. But I crossed the line and saw my parents and sister waiting for me. 4 minutes later my wife crossed the line and we hugged each other in excitement, as we both ran personal bests!
**All in all it was a fantastic event, we ran for a very important charity and were able to raise over £4400! **
Stay tuned for more running adventures and progress!
El
