Running

Since 2010 running has been a hobby of mine and my primary form of exercise. In high school I pretty much gave up on all sports and exercise in favour of playing records and drinking beer. But in my late 20s, after a few false starts, I was able to make running a habit. Around 2-3 times a week I’d go for a few kms and doing the Reykjavik half marathon in August every year became something of a tradition.

As the beer drinking and record playing has given way to other duties and interests, the running takes up more time and I’ve become fitter and faster. For the last couple of years I’ve started taking running more seriously and thinking a bit about long term goals and ambitions, though I fear genetics may condemn me to be a middle of the pack runner at best.

Venturing into my forties, I’m now curious about when my age and the related decline in fitness will start cancelling out any improvements I can make through exercise and diet. The introduction of super shoes in recent years also makes me wonder if technical advantages might help me in the inevitable race against aging. On this page I want to gather my thoughts on running and set some milestones for the future.

Data

I don’t think I would have gotten into running if it wasn’t for all the tracking that one can do these days (that and having podcasts to listen to on all the runs). Early on I was using a mapping website, a stopwatch and a spreadsheet to track progress. In 2011 I got my first gps watch and I’ve been tracking my runs ever since.

Strava and the like are good for basic tracking. For extra geekery I’ve recently gotten into Intervals.icu and analyse running my data with some spreadsheets and python scripts. This lets me keep track of some long term charts and more detailed stats that I feel are overlooked by the day to day views provided by the consumer platforms (at least in their free versions).

Goals

When I hear runners talking about their progress, I’m always a bit disheartened when I see people shaving 30 to 40 minutes of more of their marathon times from one year to the next. A decade plus into running I know I’m probably at diminishing returns at this point, but I’ve always had to grind for way more incremental improvements. A minute or two here, 30 seconds there. Still I have a few long term goals I’d love to hit, even if I am quite unsure if I will have the time, discipline and fitness to reach them in the coming years. But I’m making them public for the sake of accountability:

1. A sub 20 minute 5k

   This one definitely feels doable. As of August 2024, I’ve hit a 21:10 in a Parkrun, down around 90 seconds from a year earlier. I think if I shed a kilo or two more, do specific 5k training and keep doing strength work I could hit this sometime in 2025.

   As I enter middle age I know my prospects are probably better in the longer distances, and it might make more sense to focus on those. But I like switching it up and I feels like the 5 and 10ks give me an opportunity to do more races each year.

2. A sub 40 minute 10k

   Doing ten kilometers in less than 40 minutes feels more ambitious. My current pb is 44:21 (albeit on a moderately hilly course). Is shaving more than 10% of my time realistic for someone in my situation? I guess whether or not I can hit the 5k goal will be a good indicator.

3. A 1:35 half marathon

   My current half marathon pb is 1:40:17 (and those 17 seconds sting), again in hilly Oslo. Based on my current 5k best the VDOT running calculator has me at 1:37 for a hm performance. Shaving a couple of minutes of that feels doable on a good day and a flat course. Maybe this is sandbagging? In that case there’s always 1:30 to shoot for after that!

4. A 3:30 Marathon

   A nice number to hit. Downstream of the goals above this maybe doesn’t feel that ambitious. But considering my performances in marathons up until now, it still feels out of reach (see the marathon section below).

5. Running the Laugavegur Ultramarathon (55k) in Iceland (or equivalent)

   At some point I’d like to do an even longer run. The most well known ultra in the fatherland would be an ideal challenge. I enjoy getting out in nature for a run, but I still prefer a good gravel path to a real trail run. Perhaps the trail bug will bite me one of these days, Oslo certainly has the routes and scenery to practice for this.

6. Run around the world

   By some estimates, the longest walk found on Google Maps is 22.387km and takes you from South Africa to Eastern Russia. At the time of writing, my measured total running distance since 2010 comes in at around 13.200km. By my calculations this would put me somewhere in the Saratov Oblast in Russia, having run through all of Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and Georgia in the last 13 years.

   If I manage to keep up at my current pace of around 1.500km a year I should reach my “destination” sometime in 2029 or 2030. After that, maybe I can set course for the Bering Strait, add a bit of rowing to take me from Eurasia to America. Then I have another “run” to do from Alaska to Ushuaia in Argentina, the world’s southernmost city. If I roughly follow the Pan-American Highway this adds up to around 30.000km. This means I have to keep running well into my 60s or 70s. If, god willing, I’m able to keep going longer than that I could always add some laps in Australia or Antarctica. Long term goals are motivating!¹

Training

When I started running, my pace was around 6 min/km. In the first year or two I made some progress, but then quickly plateaued at around a 5 min/km pace for the races I did (mostly 10ks and half marathons). I think even when I followed organized training plans I didn’t put enough time or miles in and whatever small gains I made were quickly lost because of inconsistent training.

Lately I’ve gone from 2-3 runs a week to 3-4, going from 20-30km/week to 40-50. According to what I read this is still suboptimal for making serious improvements after the initial gains one of a new runner, even as a hobbyist. But I don’t understand how people with jobs and families find the time to get 6-7 runs in and manage 60km weeks consistently, let alone getting into the 80k or 100k territory. Even when running takes up so much of my head space my body and my schedule still only seem to let me do 4-5 runs.

I’ve tried a variety of training plans in my time. Early on I used FIRST training plans, with 3 runs a week plus some cross-training, because I felt my knees giving out if I ran more. As I’ve lost weight I’ve added more milage, but tried to do more of it at an easy pace (some homebrew version of the 80/20 plans). I try to get one or two workouts in a week and one longer run (somewhere between 15-25k most weeks).

As a casual observer I’ve seen different fads in running training regimens reach hype levels: high intensity intervals, cross-train, low heart rate training, 80/20 plans etc etc have all been talked up as a silver bullet. Living in Norway now currently you can not escape discussion about lactate measurements and double threshold days, which seems pretty extreme for people who don’t run for a living. Does all of this really matter for an amateur hobby runner? Probably not but it is still fun to geek out on it.

Genetically, I don’t have the lanky long distance running build, there is more meat on my bones. I probably should have gotten into some entirely different sport! Additionally for most of the past decade I’ve probably been anywhere between 5-15 kg too heavy, but now am getting to what seems like a healthy weight (80-85kg / 1.80m). I’ve read all sorts of scary stats about how much muscle mass you loose after 40, which has inspired me to do some more strength training as well. Finding a balance here is tricky, especially when time is the main constraint. I’m often weighing (pun intended) if I should go for a run or get a session in the gym.

Lastly I don’t feel like I have a good hold on the seasonality of running in Norway. Maybe I can do more strength training in the winters, when it is dark, cold and icy outside. The treadmill bores me to tears, but I still want to try to keep up some base milage in the darkest months. The weather and infrastructure for cross country skiing are incredible here but I don’t feel like I’m getting a good workout when I do it, but I guess it would still apply to aerobic fitness. I’m also unsure what is the best way to structure the spring and summer seasons if I want to try to get in a few races in the different distances. Should you have a 10k and half marathon be part of the build up to a marathon at the end of the season? Or lead with the marathon and do shorter races later in the season?

Marathons

I did my first marathon in 2015, in Paris. As this was my first time, finishing was my primary goal, sub 4 hour was my secondary stretch goal. I stuck to a pretty low milage training plan, running three times a week and doing some cross training on the side. At the time I was worried about increasing milage because doing so had previously caused injuries, pain and fatigue. But the training seemed to suffice, the run wasn’t too painful and it was a beautiful route in a lovely city. Eventually I finished in 3:54 near the Arc de Triomphe. Not bad!

The next year, in 2016, I did the Stockholm marathon. This time I was more ambitious, shooting for 3:40-3:45. My training was similar as the year before but centered around a faster pace. But around 32ks into the race I totally bonked, my pace slowed down to 6-7 min/km and I finished in 4 hours and 18 minutes. I think low milage in training was a factor again, so was poor sleep and a cold a week prior to the run. This bummed me out and I didn’t do another marathon for a while.

In 2023 I did the Prague marathon with my siblings. I went into training thinking I might shoot for 3:40 again. But turned out training for a spring marathon in Oslo was a fools errand. I found myself sliding around on the ice outside in freezing temperatures and doing many boring runs on the treadmill. Thus my milage could probably have been better and I was in no shape do go for 3:40. Prague was another beautiful city to run in and I ran the entire thing with my sister, finishing hand in hand in 3:58 (her first sub 4 hour marathon, but to be honest she probably had more left in the tank for the last miles than I did!).

But 2023 really got me into running in a more serious way. Though I didn’t manage to get a marathon in for 2024, I want to do one next year (apt for my 42nd year on the planet). Suggestions for good autumn marathons in Northern Europe appreciated!