Training times...

About 4 weeks ago a colleague was trying to persuade more people to take part in a 10km run sometime this year, now this guy is very fit and cycles and runs all the time. After he went I had a think about it and thought why not I need a different challenge this year. If he had said cycle a distance that would have been quite easy as I do a lot of that as I enjoy cycling and do lots. But running is something different, it is not something I enjoy that much and find very hard to motivate myself to do. So certainly a very good challenge.

I decided that I will start training and work towards being able to do a 10km run somewhere during the summer. But to make it even more worthwhile it will need to be a sponsored run and for cancer research, something that has been brought very much closer to home over the past couple of years.

So 3 weeks ago I made a start. First time out and what I expected would be the problem was, my breathing. Found it very hard to get any distance and keep the breathing controlled, so on the first day only managed nearly 2km. Since then I have been making sure I have got out at the weekend as during the week is proving very difficult due to work (but this part has to improve over the next couple of months).

Each time since when I have gone out I have found it better and easier to run and the breathing becoming much more controlled and have found the right pace for myself. Went out on Friday evening and was very pleased with the result as managed about 3.5km without any problems, my breathing was much better, recovery time was also very much better afterwards. So yesterday decided to push it further and went out again. This time very pleased with the distance I managed, 5.5km. I even felt at the end of it I could have gone further but didn’t want to push it too much. Again the recovery time afterwards was much better. When running though I have the music playing away but I also set myself little targets along the way to make sure I get there and that certainly helps.

One thing that has surprised me though is that I am now beginning to enjoy it more especially as I start to get fitter through it. Still have to improve my eating habits but that will come with time, but so far so good. This week need to do much more so that by the end of April I can get to the 8km mark without too much hassle.