Last saturday was Malmömilen. A 10km race in and around the city of Malmö.

When I signed up I had some thoughts of doing it sub 40 minutes. But ever since I bombed hard in Trelleborgs sprint triathlon I’ve felt tired in my body and heavy in the legs.

So my plan was try to go sub 40 and if it felt bad I would just go for sub 43 which I thought were realistic.

I was to run with a couple of team members which I knew would go below 40min, like Richard (see his website HERE).

But after 1-2km I immediately felt going below 40min was a no go. So I reduced my pace to what felt comfortably while the others disappeared in front of me.

I did not look at the watch, just ran the race enjoying the crowd which was cheering along the streets. And listening to the many musicians that played alongside the course.

Somewhere around 5km I passed some teammates carrying a huge tire. If they would carry it pass the finish line they would win a free set of tires, which of course they did.

Another race within the race was the final 100m. If you sprinted the last 100m you could win something (don’t know what). I actually came in a good place which was 61 out of 7226 participants, running the last 100m in 14.5s.

I passed the finish line at 42:22 minutes not feeling tired due to the race. A nice thing to know that even when my body says no, I have a pretty fast pace I can keep.

Not as fast as many others (the winner ran the 10km at a whopping 29.54min!), but who cares. It’s still pretty fast!

However entering these races has their drawbacks.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I must not let races interfere with my training. Tapering (cutting down on raining due to a race) takes valuable time from my endurance sessions.

And If I get muscle soreness the next day I loose more valuable training time.

Example, It does me no good to run 10km as fast as I can when I must endure a marathon after 180km cycling and 3.8km swimming.

For me it’s better to continue training the way I’ve been doing and the upcoming races should just reflect a fun break.

My next race is “SM Milen” (10km as well) at the 12th of July. However I will probably do the tapering and prepare for this race and there is a reason for it.

The company I work for, ATEA, is sponsoring the race and I have challenged a lot of my coworkers.

There is no way I will be beaten easy.

If my colleagues want to be crowned the fastest at our office, they will have to work hard for it!

Fun Fact: I was pictured in the local e-newspaper with a fellow team member. You can see the picture HERE 🙂