Parkrun

I’ve been trying to improve my overall fitness for some time. It took about 6 months from birth of our Daughter to the point where I felt there was time to start committing solidly to a exercise schedule and not the ad-hoc approach taken up to that point.

I found that I enjoyed running during the Covid lock-downs where exercise, and time outside the house, were a luxury. I would, however, always get injured. I assumed this was just how things were meant to be. I’d run well for a week before crippling shin splits and I’d have to stop.

Early last year I started to read about slow running. This is where you aim to keep your heart rate in zone 2 and 3. Stopping or slowing down if it creeps up.

This concept baffled me. I had assumed the goal was to head out, reach max heart rate, and try and get your run done at that insane pace.

To be far, this approach works and I did record a 5 km run in 28:26 in early 2021. However, I suspected that slowing down might aid in my injury avoidance.

I was right, slowing down and aiming for heart rate zone 2 was a game changer. For most of the spring I’m averaging two or three 5 km runs a week with no injuries as of yet.

On Saturday I attended my first Parkrun - a free weekly event where people gather in parks around the country and aim to run, walk or crawl 5 km. Our local park run had a solid 200 people attend and it was great to run with people again.

This post is to keep me honest and pointed at my goals. I want to push myself to again attain a sub 30 min 5 km while also pushing for longer distances.

I’ll update here as we continue on this journey.