Mayday Mile Challenge

This May I took part in the RNLI Mayday Mile challenge to help raise funds for the RNLI crews dotted all around the Cornish (and beyond!) coastline. I needed something to focus on to get fit again and I have done things similar to this in the past, where I attempt to exercise at a much more intense pace to get my fitness back up... before letting it slide slowly back down again.

The official challenge was to run 1 mile a day in May. Now I'm reasonably fit and can manage regular 5k runs and the odd 10k, so I thought 1 mile a day was a bit easy. The main challenges for me would be a) finding the time each day with two young kids and a full time job to actually run and b) managing wear and tear on my knees (the left one specifically, in case you were interested).

I decided that if I was going to find the time each day to get changed, run, shower etc. that I might as well make it worthwhile and attempt to run a bit further, so I settled on attempting a 5km run every day in may. It also made for a good hashtag, so there's that too, I guess #5kADayInMay.

There were a couple of reasons for choosing this challenge, the first one was the charity itself. Living down here and taking day trips to various little harbours, beaches, coastal villages you always see stands for the RNLI. We signed up a little while ago for monthly donations, but a little more never hurts. Plus as I get a bit more adventurous and venture out into the sea to snorkel, paddle board... I want to make sure there is someone there to help when I inevitably get stuck!

The other reason is that I find challenges like this a good way to jumpstart my fitness. My fitness tends to peak and troughs quite regularly, it does not take much to break the routine; life just gets in the way with kids, work, DIY on the house... not to mention knee injuries, colds and various other diseases coming back from the kids school / nursery.

Results

Well, I'm posting this on June 4th and I'm pleased to say that I completed the challenge! Some key stats for the month:

• £338 raised for the RNLI. Huge thanks to those of you who donated your hard earned cash so generously.
• 155km covered
• 2.5kg lost
• 2500% fitter than I was 2 years ago (according to Strava)

Most surprisingly of all, I managed to do it all without any knee pain whatsoever. In the past if I had run for any more than 2 or 3 days in a row, I would have felt something but not this time; it held up very well.

Over the course of the month I did a mix of treadmill running, treadmill intervals and outdoor running through some of the amazing scenery I am so lucky to have on my doorstep. To be honest, logistically it was easier to run on the treadmill most of the time as I work from home and its just the easy option, I didn't have to think or plan a route, I just sat my iPad on the treadmill and got on with it.

I tried to get out into the real world on weekends. I had a couple of trails that I have done before that have become staples: a loop from home to Charlestown Harbour and back and the beautiful Pentewan Valley trail.

The Charlestown loop is good for hill work. There is a gentle-ish upward slope from home to Porthpean Road, and then you plummet down through the wooded lanes until you get to the sea and then you have a slow climb back out of Charlestown to head home. That climb can be a killer but by the end of the month I was coping with it... just about.

Results

My plan worked! Based on Strava's relative fitness score, I started the month on 9 and ended the month on 27, which is about where I was in November 2023 before I injured my knee attempting a 15k run to the sea.

I completed 31 5K runs in total and managed 1 a day, which with two young kids and full time job was the hardest part. I thought I may have to throw a couple of 10Ks into the mix to make up for days where I hadn't managed to run, but I managed to find a routine that worked and stuck with it.

The RNLI fundraising page is not great for recording runs, and it didn't connect to Strava, so I had to manually enter all the activities but I made sure to post a Story on Instagram every day with a picture of the treadmill as some kind of proof for my sponsors.

I managed to drop 2.5kgs, took a good 5+ mins off my average 5K time, my averages for all of my Apple Health stats have improved no end AND I raised money for a good cause.

The last run of the challenge was the Charlestown loop I do regularly. It felt fitting to the do the last run outdoors and by the sea. I recorded my fastest time doing that loop, and probably my fastest recorded outdoor 5k so I finished the whole thing on a high note.

I'd call that a result!

Now I just need to find another challenge to keep my motivation up.... more news on that soon.