We went on a mini parkrun adventure this morning with a local mate of ours. He likes to collect random stats and, when we're home, we tag along with him for some fun company. It was our first parkrun since arriving home, and the usual banter was happening as if we'd never left. When Brad and our mate were jogging along, "cruising" as they put it, they were 100-200 metres ahead of me for most of the way. Our mate was trying to stay in his Zone 2 but I felt like I was working HARD just keeping them within sight. He had the hide to tell me to work a bit harder when they crossed my path at a turnaround. I just screwed my face up in response. When we got back to the cafe afterwards, I showed him my heart rate graph (pictured here as a screenshot from Garmin Connect). ![](https://usermedia.actifit.io/ab5b1719-3555-4c20-9f43-e6f593489839.jpg) He was shocked. We ended up finishing together and yet his average HR was 131 bpm (beats per min) with a high of 141. He couldn't understand how, on a sprint session, I can run faster than almost every single one of our running friends. But at a "cruise" 5 km parkrun where we slid in just under 30 mins, I'm struggling. Tbh, I wonder the same! Is it just a lack of consistent training? Is it my notoriously broken sleep? Is it stressing about some of the things that have happened since we got home? Or a combination of all of these? If you know a lot more than me about exercise and training principles, and you have any ideas, I'd love to know!! 👇
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28/03/2026

19568

Running

I Can Be Fast