Feel the Rhythm, Feel the Rhyme, Get on up, it’s TRAINING time!!

First off – Marathon Megan is now in her last week of her 30 day kick start marathon training habit. Snow, freezing temps, basically NOTHING is a match for this girl’s dedication to strapping on her trainers and setting off for a 40 minute run. Home stretch now Megan! After my own efforts this morning at my own brand of running training – I now fully appreciate the enormity of Megan’s achievement all the more!!

Yesterday’s Advent Fitness Task to myself was to draw up a training schedule to prepare me for my 3rd challenge. To be completely honest, I’m still not totally convinced that I know how to adequately prepare myself for running 10km for 28days straight – nonetheless I devised a schedule that builds up my running mileage over the next 6 weeks and allows me to get to grips with running the different sections of my normal morning route to work. I scheduled today as my first 5km run to the SUPERchicks class this morning. My flat to the S/C Hyde Park Meeting Place is exactly 5km – what are the odds?!

My training schedule - pixified.

 What you really need to know is that green indicates that I am planning to coerce AJ into training with me. Mwah ha ha.

Last night I went to bed all excited at the prospect of getting over the fear that I can’t actually do this. I even fell asleep visualising the different sections of the 5km route – every sloping pavement, crossing, uphill section – in the manner of the driver dude from Cool Runnings. Yes I am that sad that I have Cool Runnings in my DVD collection and that I can visualise my entire route to work. That’s what happens when you walk the same route a couple hundred times in the course of a year. When I woke at 4.15am, I was still excited but MEGAgrateful that I still had 45 minutes shuteye. I next awoke at 6.30am, having totally overslept my alarm, and now late, I was not feeling particularly enthused by the prospect of any running.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I had done so much preparation to make this a really (or so I had thought) FOOLPROOF intro to the running schedule by a) leaving a spare work outfit at the office the day previous so that my rucksack would be SUPERlight, b) carbing up via consuming a whole packet of cheddars last night – OOOPS and c) laying out my lighter running gear so that I’d have to run in order to keep warm, (No snugly merino wool outer layer for me today) I would have totally kiboshed the whole operation.

But in order to actually make it to work before cross boss o’clock, I took the tube to Green Park and planned to run from the top of Green Park to the bottom of St James’ Park and onto Westminster Bridge if I was feeling strong. In reality I made it as far as the bridge in St James’ Park before slowing to a walk. I ran a distance, if I’m being really generous, of about 1km!! I’m laughing because I have soooooo far to go and I’m the only one who can make this happen for me over the next seven weeks. Additionally I’m meant to be doing a 6km SANTA run THIS Saturday. Quelle disaster!

Hopefully I’ll still be laughing through my beard come Saturday xx