Here's Why It Matters: Most runners focus on mileage. Long runs. Easy pace. And those things matter. But there's one number that quietly determines your ceiling — and most runners either don't know it or aren't training it. Your VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise. It's your engine size. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Research is clear — it's one of the strongest predictors of both race performance and long-term health. Stronger than most other fitness markers combined. Every 1-unit improvement in VO2 max reduces mortality risk by 13–15%. Elites have them in the 70s and 80s. Most club runners sit between 45–60. And here's the part most people miss — it's trainable at any age, with as little as one quality session per week. When I ran my Easter parkrun last weekend, I felt the absence of this work in real time. Into a headwind at km 3, I reached for a gear that wasn't there. That's what happens when you skip the hard stuff for too long. One interval session a week. 20 minutes of real effort. That's where the ceiling starts to move. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Most watches give you an estimate these days. Garmin, Apple, COROS — they all have one. Pull it up right now and drop your number below 👇 No judgement. No comparison. Just a starting point. Because here's the thing — once you know the number, you can move it. And once it starts moving, everything else gets faster. What's your VO2 max score right now? Drop it in the comments.

👋 Welcome back Your weekly dose of what's happening in the running world — with a coaching lens on what we can actually take from it. No world championships this week. No elite drama. Just something that happened to me at Felixstowe Parkrun that I genuinely can't stop thinking about. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🇬🇧 A Fellow Dad Showing Me How It's Done I was running along the seafront. Feeling good. Camera rolling. Normal Saturday morning. Then out of nowhere — a dad pushing a baby in a pram came absolutely flying past me. I'm not exaggerating. The camera caught him hitting 24 km/h. That's 2:28 pace. Pushing a pram. I wanted to get in his slipstream. But even he was too quick for me. Machine dad. 💪 His name's Luke Whitwell — a runner from Felixstowe Road Runners who's been smashing sub-20 parkruns with the buggy week after week. Currently chasing sub-19. With a child in the front seat. The kid must have thought he was at Ferrari World. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why I'm sharing this: Happy Easter Monday to my fellow runners in the UK 🐣 — and Happy Family Day to the members in South Africa 🇿🇦 Either way, today's about the people who matter most. And Luke reminded me of something I think about a lot as a dad and a runner. Running doesn't have to come at the expense of family. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Some of the best runners I coach push prams at parkrun. Run while their kids cycle alongside. Get their miles in at 5am so they're home for breakfast. They don't find time. They make it work. And honestly — watching someone push a pram faster than most people can run without one? That's the most motivating thing I've seen all week. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 😏 Your turn. I want to hear from you on this one:

🏟️ Welcome back Your weekly dose of what's happening in the running world — with a coaching lens on what we can actually take from it. This week, the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń just wrapped up. And Great Britain had a historic one. This one’s performance is worth breaking down. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Keely Hodgkinson — World Indoor Champion On March 2026, she delivered one of the most controlled championship performances we’ve seen. The result: 800m gold. 1:55.30. Championship record. How she did it: She took the lead from the gun. 27.26 through 200m. 56.96 at the bell. Never looked back. Won by 1.34 seconds over Audrey Werro — a gap you almost never see at this level. Why it matters: At 24, she's the Olympic champion, the world record holder (1:54.87), and now the world indoor champion. Every expectation was on her. She didn't force it. She executed a plan and let the race come to her. The coaching takeaway: That 1.34-second winning margin didn't come from going out reckless. It came from years of controlled racing — knowing her splits, trusting her fitness, and not panicking when the pressure was highest. She ran to her plan, not to her limit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🇬🇧 Britain's Biggest Week in Indoor Athletics It wasn't just Keely. → Georgia Hunter Bell — 1500m gold in 3:58.53 (British indoor record, world-leading time). First global title. → Molly Caudery — Pole vault gold, clearing 4.85m. Regained her world indoor title. → Josh Kerr — 3000m gold in 7:35.56 the night before. Second world indoor title. Four athletes. Four world titles. Two nights. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 💬 Be honest with me: What's your niggle? The one you've been ignoring. The one you warm up and it "goes away" so you keep running. The one you haven't told your training partner about.

Last Sunday, Adriaan Wildschutt lined up in New York City for only his second ever half marathon. And he didn’t just show up… He made history. Running 59:30 in near-freezing conditions, he became the first South African ever to win the NYC Half Marathon — joining legends like Hendrick Ramaala and Willie Mtolo as South Africans who’ve crossed the line first in Central Park. But what stood out most wasn’t just the result. It was the execution. The night before the race, his coach gave him one simple instruction: “If you want to win — you need the best last 5km.” So what did he do? He trusted the plan. He stayed patient in the pack.Didn’t panic. Didn’t force it.And when the moment came… he made his move. Decisive. Controlled. Unstoppable. That’s not just racing — that’s mastery. There’s a lesson in that for all of us: Great performances aren’t built on emotion — they’re built on trust, patience, and execution. Incredible run, Adriaan. South Africa is proud. 🇿🇦🔥 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Your turn. The Boom Shakalaka Running Hub is growing fast — and we’ve got a lot of new faces this week. So I want to hear from you: 👉 What’s the toughest running challenge you’ve ever taken on?A race, a training block, a comeback from injury, or a goal you weren’t sure you could hit. Drop it below, introduce yourself, and connect with the community. Let’s build this together.

Last weekend I faced a decision every runner eventually encounters in a race. Stick to the plan… or go with the moment. At the Tokyo Marathon — one of the most special races in the world — that decision came much earlier than expected. Getting into Tokyo is incredibly difficult, so simply standing on that start line already felt like a privilege. But once the gun goes… the mindset changes. You're no longer just happy to be there. You want to race. Early in the race I found myself in a massive pack running much quicker than planned. It felt smooth. It felt effortless. So I rolled with it. But as every marathon runner knows… Those days don’t last forever. Around 14km in, reality kicked in and I backed off the pace. From there I ran almost 28km completely solo, often not seeing another runner ahead of me. Tokyo has a unique racing culture and I got caught up in what I call the “Japanese racing style.” Start fast. Hang on for dear life. Risky for a marathon… But when in Japan 🇯🇵 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here’s the interesting part. As a coach, I normally tell athletes to do the opposite: • Stick to the plan • Control the pace • Respect the distance Yet in Tokyo I did the exact thing I usually warn runners about. I went with the pack. And honestly? Part of me loved it. It’s chaotic. It’s risky. But it’s racing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 💬 Your Turn Imagine you're standing on that start line. Your pacing plan says one thing… But the pack around you is moving faster and it feels comfortable. What would you do in that moment: Would you stick to your pacing plan —or take the risk and go with the pack?