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 21st 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.
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