Getting Started

And so... here it begins. I promised my work colleagues that I would keep a blog of my marathon training for them, I promised on my fundraising page that all who donate could follow a blog tracking my progress and I promised myself that keeping a blog may actually aid me in completing a marathon (yes that's right a marathon - 26.2 miles), so here I am writing a blog.

Now, not being the best of writers and all, I'm not entirely sure that this is going to be the most interesting of reads, but hey I'm actually up for anything that might help me mentally prepare for the hard slog to come.

Trying to think of what sort of shape this blog should take, I contemplated turning it into a Bridget Jones style training diary, keeping a count of how far I have run each week, how much I have had to eat each day, how many drinks have been consumed etc... but in all honesty, I'm thinking I've never done so much exercise in my life, so frankly why care about what I'm eating! In fact for the first time in my life I'm eating carbs not just because all my favourite foods are massively carb-tastic and beige in colour, but because my body NEEDS them. So therefore maybe this blog will have no sort of shape to it whatsoever, and I'll just empty my head of all my running trials and tribulations over the next few months onto here as a form of therapy. Now where did I put that cake?

I started this week in a mild state of panic, already one week behind schedule. With 'The Big Freeze' having had an all consuming affect on the UK for the past 10 days or so, I have struggled to get out and start running. My poor colleagues in the Events team, who are organising all the runners for The Children's Society had to give me a ten minute counselling session to ensure me all was not lost before it had even started!

On Tuesday evening, (feeling a bit more confident thanks to my colleagues) the snow had melted enough for me to run a few km's (trying hard not to fall over and break anything before I'd even started). I was supposed to be running 8 x 400 metre runs (not jogs) concentrating on speed. Unfortunately, the field around which I was going to do these runs was still a blanket of snow and frozen mud so I opted to jog/run the same distance around the streets instead. The first day of training and already I've deviated from the plan. The signs aren't good.

Then upon waking on Wednesday morning, I look outside my window and once again the streets of Hitchin are a blanket of white snow. Oh hell! The words 'square' and 'one' sprang to mind. But I was resolute, that the poxy snow was not going to beat me. Transport may well fall apart in this weather but my body certainly was not going to follow suit.

Thursday night I completed a 3 mile run as per the training plan. Although I did this on the treadmill, as icy streets were still a problem. I can't make a habit of the treadmill thing though as a) I run funny on them and seem to pick up aches and pains after 15mins and b) My god the treadmill is boring. At least it was only a short run.

So still a week behind schedule but I've made a start. The training plan I have chosen is a '3 runs a week plan', as I think anything more will ensure I get shin splints or ruin my knees, both problems I have suffered from in the past. I plan to run 10 miles tomorrow morning (in the rain) hoping to pick up my pre-Christmas fitness really quickly to move onto week two of training. What have I got myself into? And more seriously where have I put that cake?