Month: November 2016

22 weeks to go and everything is on target. I’m covering over 20Ks every week – and I’ve now got a few good 10K runs under my belt. I’m also improving my 5K times with a good PB this weekend. So all good there. 

One thing about this running business is how quickly one becomes “a runner” and with that, the initial fears and hangups disappear and one gets into the comfort zone. A few things I’ve learned recently:

• It’s okay to have a cheeky walk now and then. But as long as no one sees me (if I’m having a walk break and I see another runner, I soon get back to a jog…). 
• It’s quite a sociable pastime – I’m always seeing fellow runners out plodding the same streets and tracks as I do and we’ll always offer a smile and a nod or a wave of the hand. 
• Everyone looks pretty good when they’re out running. Except me, probably. 
• I’m doing this for the achievement, not the time. But I’ll still religiously check my times, strive for PBs and will most definitely compare myself to others on Strava. 
• I agonise now over whether I should be tracking everything in miles or KMs. Every marathon training plan talks miles but I love the achievement of “10Ks” or even a lowly 5. 7 miles and 3 miles just doesn’t sound as good…
• Whenever I’m out on my car now and I see a runner, I have a good look at what they’re doing, what they’re wearing and I secretly want to be out running. 3/4 times a week just doesn’t seem to be enough now.  

Anyway that’s just a few things. I think it’s safe to say I have “the bug” which is a good thing. Now I just need to go out shopping and spend some more money on shiny running stuff… 

By the way, a reminder why I’m doing this and also why I’m boring you all with this blog: I’m running the 2017 London Marathon for the charity Ambitious About Autism. Lots more info in this post here but suffice to say it’s an amazing cause and I really really really hope you, dear reader, can sponsor me. Links are somewhere on this page.  

Peace and love. 

Or not as the case may be…

I travel to Bangalore pretty regularly but have never really considered it a great place for running due to the road congestion and conditions of pavements – and on double checking during this trip I was right. This visit I had training very much in my sights and had visions of coming across a nice park or a straight stretch of road to run on; no such luck. 

So it was good that I chose a hotel with a reasonable gym and two Precor running machines as these were a great fallback. 

The only issue is I forgot how boring treadmill running is so whilst this week was not the disaster it could have been, it was not as good as other weeks. I also blame slightly rubbish a/c in the gym and a severely rubbish body clock – in 10 years of visiting India something I’ve never quite gotten the hang of. 

Things to be positive about this week:

1) I’ve managed just over 10Ks this week (all treadmill). 

2) And nearly 80Ks in the past 30 days. 

3) I ate petty well – small meals are the order of the day in India, always. 

4) And a great week of business and hiring new team members. 

Back to the full training schedule with some nice outdoor runs in the blisteringly cold UK this weekend onwards. 

Peace and love everyone.