Varberg half

After running Helsingborg in early September, Anna and I wanted to give the half marathon distance another shot, so today we ran Varberg Half Marathon in brilliant autumn sunshine together with about five hundred other runners.

Following a crowded start which led to a slow first kilometre, Anna was running strong, pacing around 5:20 min/km for the following six kilometres along Apelviken and the sea. Climbing up Hästhagaberget however, the hopes of running in under two hours quickly faded. With a certified total climb of 235 meters, the rest of the course was undulating and took us out to the eastern parts of Varberg through Furubergsskogen and Håstensskogen before finishing at Friskusstugan 2 hours and 9 minutes after we started, rendering Anna a solid new PR.

As the weather could not have been any better, I was a bit sad to see that the picture above is the only one that the race has posted. Like in Helsingborg, my own goal was to keep my heart rate in Z2 (around 135 bpm) and to finish the race without feeling tired. Despite being my third half marathon this week, I met these goals, and with five months left until the Bandolerita mountain ultra, I believe that doing a higher number of such longer runs, while also taking more rest days, may hold the key to further macro-level endurance development.