Intro Part 1: Starting to Run

Hi, thanks for visiting my blog and reading my first entry.  I’ve decided to keep a blog of my training in preparation for the London Marathon on 21^st April 2013 and other triathlon, cycle and running events I have planned for 2013. 

For anyone reading this, I hope it gives an interesting insight into the life of a “normal” (if any person who voluntarily submits to running 26.2 miles several times a year can be considered normal, that is), non-professional runner and beginner triathlete who is basically aiming to get round the events in a decent time, have some great experiences, push myself to achieve better goals, receive some shiny medals and hit a few personal bests along the way. Even if this sits here on the internet unread by anyone but me, I still want to record my training to see how I progress, talk about the challenges and difficulties that I have been facing, and most importantly the joy and sense of achievement when it all goes well.  Although I have been running for several years, and have run one marathon in 2012, I barely kept a record of my experiences other than a large, impersonal spreadsheet with my training runs logged, and a stream of brief twitter/facebook updates. I also use and share my runs on Map My Run, although there is little room for one to write much of a report with the entries.  So I thought that this year, I would go a step further and keep a regular blog, as I have read others by friends and found them fascinating and a lovely record of what they did and how they felt after each race or session.

So a bit of a background, and then I will crack on with the normal entries.

I started running in early 2009, as I had been feeling like a needed a very different challenge away from my normal hobby of skydiving (which I have been doing since 2005), with different people – preferably something I could do by myself in my free time, as cheaply as possible.  I had finally managed to call it a day with a rather unproductive on-off relationship that was clearly going nowhere, which was somewhat depressing but created the perfect environment to try something new and have something to which I could aspire. I had also just been baptized as a Christian, and felt God wanted to change me in different ways - firstly spiritually, and now physically as well.  Getting fit seemed to be an obvious change.  I had always wanted to be able to run – even a mile, without stopping – but had never been able to.  I had tried, over the years but I never quite found the motivation.  At Uni I had joined the OTC and did Tae Kwon Do - my fitness improved, but still I could not stand running.  I would go out for a jog, run as far as I could, get out of breath, then give up.  I just let it stick in my mind that running was not “for me” and I should focus on other sports, like martial arts or general working out at the gym. I didn't realise that this was not the way to learn to run. 

I downloaded a beginner’s running plan off the internet – a “Couch-to-5k” plan, with the idea is that you go from having never run a mile in your life to completing a 5k (3.1 miles).  There were 3-4 runs a week, starting off by mostly walking a mile or so, with gentle, slow jogs for about 30-60 seconds followed by a walking rest.  I mapped out a simple route around the neighbourhood and gave it a shot.  It was very different to what I had tried to do in the past – walking so much of the route even felt like cheating at first – but as the weeks went by the time spent walking became shorter and the jogging became longer.  I progressed quite quickly which was very motivating – week by week I saw progress.  It was not easy, to be honest I didn’t really enjoy the actual running itself as it was exhausting and I did feel pushed to my limits at time (memories of being forced to run the 2 mile cross country races at school and feeling sick at the end came to mind) but the feeling afterwards was great. I started to take my iPod which made the running more run and meant I did not have to listen to my breathing!  After a month or so I could run most of a mile with just a short walking break halfway through.  After three months, I could run the full 5k – slowly, but completely.  Hitting this milestone felt fantastic!  I knew I could do more – so 5 miles became my next milestone.  I also started going to a circuits class at the gym to get better all-round fitness.  Over the next 2 ½ years, until late 2011, I was running fairly regularly – usually twice a week, of distances of 6-8 miles.  But my training was stalling; having hit a reasonable distance I did not know what to do next.  I tried running faster, or further, but I did not have a real plan to know how to achieve this and so ended plodding along doing the same route week in week out on whatever day of the week I could be bothered.  I did more running when I need to get my fitness up (I did the Inca Trail in May 2011 and a charity walking marathon in September 2011) but less when I had no need.  If I was on holiday, or had the slightest blister or injury then I might not run for weeks at a time.  I lost some fitness, and would be annoyed at myself for needing to work back up again.  After a month travelling round Asia in December 2011, I got home - barely able to run a 5k – and needing something new to focus on.  It was another month or two before I decided, but would eventually be the Loch Ness Marathon.