- Ultimately, find out if I got a personality.
As the tractor goes past, for them.
(electric static)
- Hi, and welcome to the Running Channel.
I'm Ana, and today I'm introducing you to
a guest presenter here on the Running Channel.
So Andy Baddeley is an Olympian.
He competed for team GB in the 1,500 meters,
but you might also recognize the name as the
park run world record holder.
Well Andy's not really been running much recently,
so we sent him out with a bit of a task:
go and run a park run and see what times you can get
without having that regular training behind you.
While you're here, don't forget to subscribe to
the Running Channel.
We upload new videos every week all about running,
and if you tap the bell icon,
you get notified when we do.
- Big thanks to the Running Channel for having me on.
I'm here to take on the challenge
and find out exactly how fit I am at the moment.
But in the meantime, I thought it'll be best
for me to tell you a little bit more about me,
hopefully undoing ten years worth of
terrible media training which made me incredibly dull.
I'm trying to unearth whether or not
I actually have a personality worth watching.
I competed in two Olympic games, in 2008 and 2012
in the 1,500 meters.
I have a mile PB of 3:49,
and in 2012 I ran Bushy parkrun in 13:48.
Which, if you believe such a thing exists,
is the current parkrun world record.
That meant I was a full-time athlete
training 12 to 14 times a week,
and running close to 100 miles every week.
But I had four years of injury problems post 2012,
major knee surgery and ultimately what was an
unsuccessful attempted comeback for the 2016 Olympics.
So after that, I realized that I really couldn't
compete at the highest level anymore and
I wasn't enjoying running at all.
Throughout that period, I suffered from
depression and anxiety.
One of the things that has always been so
positive for my mental health, running,
was something that I hated.
So at the end of 2016, I decided to retire
and actually for nearly what was a 12 month period,
I hardly ran at all.
I just didn't want to and I didn't have to, so I didn't.
More recently, I've been able to get out and run,
probably about once a week on average.
And I definitely feel like I've reconnected
with what I've loved about running in the first place,
which was the people, chatting in the community,
and seeing small improvements in
fitness and in health and enjoyment.
And out of a big part of that,
I've been popping down to parkrun
probably at the end of 2018, so about six months ago.
And that definitely gave me the boost to start again
little by little.
So now I'm a father of two beautiful children,
and I work full time so it's a long way from
the days way back when I was living a full time
athlete's lifestyle, how things have changed.
So the team at the Running Channel are planning
on setting me a ten week challenge,
of which this is the first part.
So I'm here today to find out at the parkrun
exactly where I'm at right now.
I'm here at Great Denham parkrun
which is a flat two lap course,
both of which should help with my pacing,
which is something that has gone completely out the window
since I've stopped training seriously.
And as we all know, parkrun is a run a race,
so just like thousands of other parkrunners
around the world today,
I'm going to be testing myself against myself really.
Just to see how fast I can go and
exactly where I'm at.
So I'm at my warm up.
I have about another 15-20 minutes to go
until the start of the run.
Just for your reference, my warm up's
usually around two miles.
It definitely would've been closer to three miles
when I was training really seriously.
And I'm at a pretty steady pace,
so between seven and eight minutes
getting a little bit quicker towards the end.
Then I'll add in some strides, maybe three or four.
Strides are closer to the kind of pace that I want to
run the actual parkrun in.
And then head out there and enjoy the run.
So I finished my warm up jog,
just heading back to the car to get a quick drink.
It's pretty humid this morning.
I thought I should probably say what my
approximate targets are this morning,
because it's always a good idea to have a target
even when you don't really know where you're at.
My A target would be as close to 16 minutes
as I can possibly get.
And I'll be pretty happy with anything under 16:30.
And if I'm honest, I'll be a little disappointed
with anything outside 16:30.
But that's not really based on any science
so we'll have to see how it goes.
(music)
I'm warming up and it's embarrassing how nervous I am
because not necessarily about the performance,
but just whether or not I can push myself
in the same way that I know that I used to be able to do it,
that I prided myself in being able to dig deep
to find my absolute limits.
And that's something that I didn't really think
I'd be as nervous as I am about.
But I guess we're going to find out
so I'll get stuck in and we'll see how it goes.
(energetic music)
(crowd clapping)
- Well that was disgusting.
Ugh, just outside 16 minutes but I was worn out.
The pacing was okay when I tried to push on
from dropping to 17:20 pace in the second mile.
There's not much there,
so I'm right against my red line.
And I can definitely push myself,
but I just finished hard so I can probably dig
a bit deeper in the middle.
But that was pretty brutal, especially
there was one guy who was way ahead of me and
didn't even look like coming back.
He's great.
Good job.
- Well done mate
- [Andy] I thought he's coming back, he's coming back.
But you weren't coming back.
- Good job.
- [Andy] Yeah, good job.
So just heading out on the warm down after the parkrun.
Just about recovering I think.
I came in second in roundabout 16:03.
Obviously I'll get the official time
by text message from parkrun and we'll
put it up on the screen.
I felt like I got it about right today in terms of pacing.
I was definitely all done at the end.
It is a nice fast flat parkrun.
I'll make no sort of bones about choosing it
for that exact reason.
And I think that gives me a really good
idea of where I'm at.
I was definitely struggling in the middle
and that's something I'll need to work on if
I'm going to do a little bit more training.
It's that my pace flagged in the second mile
and I managed to pick it up a little bit towards the end,
but I just felt that the pace I was running at
was at my absolute red line.
I had nowhere to go, I had no headroom at all.
I wasn't able to push even for a short amount of time
to kind of pick the pace back up.
So I guess that's where I'm at right now.
We're heading out for two laps of the course again
so I'm basically doing the parkrun as my warmdown.
So an easy 5k.
Pretty nice weather so it's quite pleasant
running conditions now.
And I'll check in again when I've finished the warm down.
Okay, that's me finished for the day.
Warmdown finished, parkrun finished.
Marker, or you know line in the sand,
that I know exactly where I'm at right now
which is right around 16 minutes for 5k.
I'm really pleased with that,
I feel like I've got the bug for running again
and parkrun is definitely a big part of the
thing that's responsible for that,
that and the running community and
the encouragement I've had and the enjoyment
I'm getting from being out there and running again.
I'm putting myself on the line actually,
I'm finding out where I'm at.
Whether I can still hurt myself.
I definitely felt like I've hurt myself today.
And just, you know, enjoying running,
which for a long time I really didn't.
So it's nice to be doing it.
Now I think the team is going to send me a challenge
and actually that's over to you as well.
So if you've got something that you'd like to
see me attempt,
I think we're going to do a ten week challenge
if I can train four days a week,
which is a lot more than I'm doing at the moment,
to see just how fit I can get.
So if you've got an idea for that challenge,
please do comment below.
Let us know what you'd like to see me do.
And in the meantime, please do hit subscribe.
Hit the bell icon so you'll be notified
every time we upload a video.
And we'll see you next time on the Running Channel.
(energetic music)