Two new personal bests. Four if you count the fastest kilometre, and fastest mile, set during the five kilometre Parkrun as well. None of them are mine. Yet, I can’t be prouder.
For the last couple of months, I’ve been training with Sara and Matteo. Although, training with are big words. They run, I just make their schedules. Both have a big goal. Sara wants to set a new personal best in the 10 kilometres. October 19, in Antwerp, Belgium, it has to happen. Matteo wants to run 5 kilometres in 20 minutes. He picked the 33rd Camminata della Quercia, Italy, on October 5 to do it.
10k in one hour
For Sara, a new personal best means running faster than one hour, six minutes and 16 seconds. I know she has that in her. For Matteo, it’s going to be a super big challenge. He’s fast, but 20 minutes? That’s really fast.
To be fair, Sara and I have been running together. She’s my wife. We live in the same house. That makes it easy to keep an eye on what she does. Matteo, I coach remotely. He lives in Italy. We use Training Peaks to share his running schedule. We talk on WhatsApp. Every day I check in to see how he’s doing. A couple of times a week, we message. It’s funny. His English is getting better, but it’s not super yet. My Italian is non-existent. Yet, we make it work.
Running together
This weekend was a weekend together. Matteo isn’t just one of my athletes – better said one of my guinea pig as a novice running coach – he’s a friend as well. And he’s Giulia’s husband. Gulia is Sara’s friend. What better way to spend a weekend together than with a run? A speed test.
I’ve done only one Parkrun so far. Yet, I like the concept. No matter where you are in the world, no matter what week it is, there is always a Parkrun close by. No registration, just become a member, show up and run. Perfect for a speed test. Perfect to see if you’re on schedule.
RELATED: I finally ran my first Parkrun
Nerves
To be honest, I wasn’t that nervous. I expected to be, but I wasn’t. Matteo and Sara were. There was something at stake for them. For me too, but I had faith. They’ve been putting in the work. All stats looked good. I knew they could do it.
Plus, there is still time. The Parkrun was just a test. Sometimes it’s good to see if a plan is working. Sometimes it’s good for athletes to see that running slowly can make you fast. It’s easy to say ‘trust the process’; it’s better to see that the process works.
Specific training
The other thing they had to keep in mind was that it wasn’t race day yet. They are not as good as they will be. There is still a lot of work to do. The most important work. Specific training.
For Matteo, that meant for this Parkrun running between four minutes and 4:30 per kilometre. For Sara, the goal was 5:30 to six. Matteo stuck to the plan. Struggled with breathing in the last kilometre, but clocked a beautiful 21:25, crossing the finish line in ninth place.
Flying Sara
Sara was flying from the start. Struggling to contain herself. But soon finding her rhythm and having enough in the tank to sprint the last hundred metres to the finish. Crossing the line in an astonishing 26:59. More than three minutes faster than her old Personal Best on the five kilometres. Plus, running her fastest kilometre and fastest mile ever. And for her, it also counts; we haven’t done a lot of tempo intervals yet.
And I? I ran with Sara. So no personal best for me. But the smile of two happy runners was a better feeling than any personal best I have run so far.
Keep on Running
PS: Sara never managed to become a runner. Now she runs one PB after the other. Thanks to the Building a Habit of Running Schedule.
