October 8, 2023, was a quiet turning point in my life. For the first time in nearly 20 years, I ran more than 400 meters. It wasn’t much by most standards, but for someone who hadn’t run in so long, it felt like a meaningful step forward.

By that time, I was into both cycling and swimming. But for me, running felt different. It was much more intense on the body than cycling and swimming, and it gave me the feeling that I can progress faster.

So I started going on 2 KM runs at least 2-3 times a week. I was lucky to have this beautiful stadium close to my home, which was almost empty every morning and running 5, rounds here became a habit.

When I first started, I focused on 2 km runs, which usually took me about 11 and a half minutes. I wasn’t aiming for speed—just trying to build a habit and see what I could manage. Over time, without really pushing too hard, I started to notice small improvements. My pace got a bit better, and the runs began to feel a little less challenging. It was slow progress, but encouraging nonetheless.

Running the (Running) Tests on me

This running track was my test ground. The only significant variable factor was the temperature, which ranged from -5°C to 30°C. Even though I did most of my runs here, I went for longer road runs as well, occasionally.

First, let’s take a look at the data on my 2 KM and 5 KM runs.

For 2k runs, my average pace has seen a notable improvement of approximately 1.42 minutes/km, dropping from around 5.83 min/km in October 2023 to 4.42 min/km by April 2025.

Similarly, my 5k runs show a nice progression, with pace improving by roughly 1.58 minutes/km, from about 6.17 min/km in February 2024 to 4.58 min/km in April 2025, alongside a cadence increase of approximately 24.0 steps/min, nearing 199.0 steps/min.

Running Farther by Running Smarter

After completing my first 2k, it took me more than 3 months to build up sufficient endurance and stamina to complete a 5k run. After this, my main goal was to keep improving my 5k phase, and I kept using 2k runs as a way to test how fast I am getting.

One thing that helped is adding some weight training for improving leg strength to my routine. On the days I’m not running, I was doing some simple workouts focusing on my legs and glutes, like this one.

Evening out the Effort

With 5k, my biggest weakness was getting too slow after the first half of the run. So I started distributing my energy evenly throughout the whole distance. If my goal was to finish a 5k in 25 minutes, I usually started running at a phase of 4:50 min/km and finished around 5:10 min/km.

This added some improvements to the overall timing, but I had the feeling that there is some tweak I can do to my running form to improve the speed further.

Finding My Stride – Literally

Then, one day, when going for a long run, I’ve realized, it becomes much easier to stay without being exhausted for longer if I reduce my stride length.

So I’ve applied this to my 2k and 5k runs, which I intentionally keep reducing my stride length as much as possible while keeping the same pace. This obviously increased the cadence (steps per minute) and I felt I had more energy in store to finish the second half of the run.

Improving the cadence might not work for every runner, but it’s definitely something to try.

Still Holding the Crown… Until a Teen Shows Up

I know there won’t be many people running on this track and record their stats on Strava. But I’m still happy to stay on the top of the leaderboard for 400 and 200 meters on this track. Even though it’s not a big deal for a high school kid to break it, I hope it won’t happen soon 😃.

200m and 400m leaderboards as of today (01/06/2025)

Saying goodbye to my test ground

June 2023 will be my last month running on this beautiful track before I move 16,000 kilometers across the globe to the Southern Hemisphere. I had quietly hoped to break the 20-minute barrier for the 5K here, but that goal still feels a long way off. Even so, I’m genuinely grateful for the progress I’ve made over the past 20 months—going from a 33-minute 5K to 23 minutes is something I never imagined possible just a year ago.

From all the efforts on this track, this 22 minute 5k, the fastest 5k for me so far is the most pleasing effort for me. It came at a stressful time at work, and probably that stress added some extra adrenaline to the run 😃.

In a few weeks, I won’t be in Germany, but I guess I’ll keep running … 🏃‍♂️