Bengaluru 10K Challenge 2019

Race Category: 10K
Timing: 58:27

Feels simply awesome to announce I smashed my PB in 10K run today with a timing of 58:27 at Bengaluru 10K challenge. More happy that I could do this on this tough course on NICE road; it has stretches with high elevation which was, needless to say, the most challenging part.

I have registered a sub-60 10K during one of the practice runs last year, however this is the first time I've done it in an official event. Last month has been a steady one having some good runs with a little change in running form, which clearly has helped me to achieve a better result i.e. an improvement by ~4 minutes in my PB done way back in 2012 in TCS event.

I intend to continue this fine form towards the much awaited Full Marathon that I have signed up for, scheduled in Oct'19.

Getting back to rhythm

Since my half marathon done in last October, I haven't been running much due to a certification program which I signed up for, which I completed in this February. And post that, I got occupied with my holiday season and my Sarpass trek in May.
In short, I lost my running rhythm and gained around 4 kilos of weight in this interval. Gaining extra kilos isn't much of concern to me, but surely losing up on running mileage was.

In order to get things back in place, immediately after coming back from my trek in May, I signed up for Shriram Properties Bengaluru 10K run which is scheduled on July 7th and full marathon by again Shriram Properties in the month of October. Yes, a full marathon this year is a target.
And fortunately this has brought me back to my routine of 3-4 runs in a week since then.

Last week, I was reading up on few running efficiency articles and found some contents which suggest to maintain a good running cadence of about 180 spm in order to run efficiently with good form and to avoid any injuries which happen due to longer strides. I checked my running history only to realize I have an average cadence of ~160. And that's when I decided to make changes in my strides to improve it by 5-10 spm.

Now, due to this change, I am seeing some good results in terms of how relaxed I am post long runs and also w.r.t. my pace. 
As part of preparation process for the FM, the organizers conduct some practice runs every month or so before the final date, and I happened to participate in one of these runs i.e. 10K run yesterday. I decided to take this opportunity to test my new running form considering a cadence of ~170.
And yippee! this indeed gave me impressive results. I had a relaxed 10K and completed it in 61 minutes, well better than my expectations of 62:30 minutes. 

This of course is a welcome change and would like to take it forward during my Bengaluru 10K run next week. Hoping to achieve a result of sub-60 minutes on that tough track. Wish me luck. :)