Thursday 30 April 2009

The first of many and trying new things

Before my holiday, I may or may not have mentioned that I accidentally on purpose signed my lovely girlfriend up for the Thame 10k at the end of June. It's one I'll run with her all the way so we can complete the distance together and it was agreed that she'd start her training once we were back from our hols. Now she hasn't run since (or any further than) the 6k Santa run in Dec so we had some training to do but I've given us 2 months to be able to run it in under an hour which I can't see being a problem.

So this morning, at 5.53am I woke up with no alarm (this jet lag business is good for early morning runs I tell you) and then got dressed and waited for the alarm to sound (Morecambe and Wise's 'Bring me sunshine'. Try it, nothing makes you smile quite as much).

The music started and you really can't help singing along so eventually Sleeping Beauty awoke. Albeit grumpily once she realised a)the time and b)we were going for a run. Stealing the duvet became my only option!!

By 6.15am we were trudging down the road at a steady pace heading for Hammersmith Bridge (2 miles away). I knew we wouldn't run the whole thing but it was about getting out and getting started. It would give us a starting point from which we could aim for improvements. After a couple of short walk breaks, LG stopped and turned around at the 1.5m mark while I pushed onto the bridge and caught her on my return. After one more walking break we pushed hard at the end and even had a bit of a sprint finish! It was a good first run!

From a personal point of view, I found it tougher than I thought. The slow bits were easy but the 1.5m or so to the bridge and back until I caught LG were quite fast and I could feel that the wandering round Asia and doing sod all running for nearly 4 weeks hadn't exactly done me any favours despite feeling I've lost a little weight in that time!

An 8 mile training run will be on Saturday followed by my first ever Yoga class in the afternoon (I figure the stretching and breathing will help with the running). Then another run with LG and the friend myself and eatingtrees bullied into doing the May bank holiday BUPA 10k on Tuesday and then my first ever hill training session on Wed. All this and because of reading The Red Bucket's post, I've just signed up for a bit of Touch Rugby as well.

What I want to know is when will it be Food o'clock and Wine o'clock? This keeping fit business is getting in the way of my other passions!

1 comment:

  1. When I did my geology field camp in Ireland, we always referred to the hour of the evening when we would all gather and head to into the village for our daily dose of beer "half pub."

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