I was playing golf on the weekend with any old university friend and we were talking about running. He’d mention that he recently ran his best time of 39 minutes for a 10 km run! I said, “wow, that’s really fast”, because my time are closer to 50 minutes on a good day. I asked him if he’s been an athlete in his youth and he said no. I was a little surprised and asked him how he managed to clock his best time at the ripe age of 45.

He said that he had changed his training method. Previously he would run 5-6 times per weeks and try and smash his record time, every single time he ran, with not much though for recovery, but now he trains much smarter. Instead he uses an approach of 1 slow long run (10-20km); 1 5km lot of interval sprints (that’s the one that hurts); and 1 10km at a comfortable pace.

Just with this slight shift in training, he has been able to improve his fitness and reduce his times. Given that most of us are all time poor, it makes sense to train smarter, not harder.

Keep it going!

In Health and Wellness

Ranjit