September 13th a few weeks after I started to run again, I joined a group called from sofa to 10km in ten weeks. A local running club runs the group as a way to recruit new members. It worked, both my wife and I loved running in a group and joined the club after just three weeks.

During the ten weeks, we got tips on how to run, to use our arms more, body position, running up hill, running down hill. We ran various types of intervals. 30/15-45/22-60/30, 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 min runs with half the running time as rest and my favorite was two 15 minute periods of running 300m + walking 100m around a track. I was able to keep most of my 300m around 1:30. I also learned that it is easier to run fast up to about 200m, then it get hard 🙂

During these ten weeks my 5km parkrun has gotten easier and easier and my time has dropped from 36:06 (near death experience) to 29:17 (with an average heart rate of 146). On the 22 November it was time to run a full 10km. I bike to the pool to drop off my swim bag and park my bike and the jogged about 2km to the start of our run. Shortly after arriving we started our 10km. I thought I could run in 65 minutes. We ran most of the first 2km as a group around 7:44/km. After a quick stop we were told we could run out own pace for the rest of the 10km. So I picked up the pace. Running 6:50-6:46-6:33-6:19. around the 5th km I realized I could not continue at that pace and slowed down. My heart rate at 5km was 177 bpm. The last 5km were 6:40-6:57-6:54-7:05-6:59 and a 10km time 1:08.52. I felt fine afterwards. A short talk with the others and then I jogged the same 2km back to the pool.

During my 30 minute wait for swim practice to start I decided I would only swim a few hundred meters. I felt ok, but I did not have the energy to swim a 2200m sprint practice.

I have now decided to sign up for a race the 1st of May. 10km. In 2016, the last time I ran a race, I finished in 1:03.48. My goal will be to run under 60 minutes. in 2012 I ran a 10km in 48 minutes and in 2014 a 21km in 1:46. So I know I have a long road a head of me to get back to those time.