Winter Fail!

Just reviewed how I've been doing with my training schedule since the start of January.... no surprises, as I knew I'd been chickening out of running at night in this cold snap we're having... ran 3 times in first week, 2 times second week and only once this week.......... :-(. Not good, as really should be ramping it up a bit as I have my first race in a month's time, and then two in March, both longer runs. Need to get that motivation going again!

Well partly as a result of the above, I hit some more "firsts" for me today. I was determined to do something, so went to the gym.... club running was off due to the snow. So my first "first" was running in the snow. Basically, the gym is only just down the road and it would have been more effort to get the car out, and it was too dangerous to cycle, so I decided to run there, despite the conditions. And actually it wasn't too bad, so long as I kept to the more compact snow... it was cold but bearable, not slippy and it was only for a few minutes anyway.

The second "first" was running on a treadmill! Now I've been going to gyms for the past 20-25 years and have NEVER gone on a treadmill. I've always thought it would be boring, and well, it's just never appealed. Anyway I had to try it today, as I really have not done any running of note for a couple of weeks. So, my experience of it? Thought it was very different from road running, as once you've set the pace, you have to keep it at that pace. There were times when I was either virtually falling off the end as I was going too slowly, or nestling up to the bar at the front, as I was going too quickly! Also at times, I was quite unnerved, as if I tried looking around me, I found myself wondering off line and almost ending on the floor in a heap...... its actually quite dangerous! However, so long as I kept a steady speed and looked ahead, it seemed fine. Very different from road running though. And I had a weird feeling coming off the machine, as my legs just wanted to keep on going, bit like coming off a boat onto dry land or something. Very strange.

But it has given me a bit of a boost to try to get into training again properly, which I must do. At least I know I can do some running if the weather is rubbish. I am hoping though, that the weather improves, or at least that the pavements get better over the next week. I want to run the 50 bus route (my local bus route) on Friday (my 50th birthday) and I need the pavements to be non-slippy by then! Then I will have a choice; either to run it one way to town (7 miles), one way and then return to home (about 11 miles) or the full return journey (14 miles). Will see what the weather's like and how brave I feel!! Fingers crossed!

2013 Challenge Series

Well I've done my review of 2012, and I'm now looking forward to 2013.... so what has this year got in store? Well, a pretty momentous occasion for me... I'm hitting 50. I found 40 bad enough, so I'm not sure how I'll react to another decade... I'll see.

So, instead of having a huge knees up to celebrate, I thought I'd celebrate by running my "2013 Challenge Series", with the aim of getting/keeping fit and raising money for a charity close to my heart, NYAS. You may think this is a bit of a strange thing to do, but I do need to lose some weight and would like to get fitter.... I'm not a great runner and I am getting on a bit, so these races will be a challenge for me, which is good! I also see this as a way of supporting the work of these charities: both, in different ways, work with some of the most vulnerable children and adults in Britain and both do some excellent work... look at their websites for more info.

So what am I planning on doing? Well here is a list of the races I have planned... so far!
24th February - Winslow Lions 10k 
3rd March - Cambridge Boundary Run (half marathon)
31st March - City to City run (16.5 miles)
14th April - Flitwick 10k 
21st April - Ronnie Bowker 10k
5th May - Fen Drayton 10k
12th May -Sheffield Half Marathon
2nd June - Woodhall Spa 10k
9th June  - St Albans Half Marathon
29th September - Stoke-on-Trent 10k
20th October - Birmingham Great Run (half marathon)
3rd November - New York Marathon!!!

So my targets and challenges! Basically doing any of them will be a challenge in itself, as I'm not a natural runner. Having said that, I have been in training and do feel more confident of completing the races... but the number of them means I will have to stay fit and injury free, which I guess will be challenge number one. I also want to do a half marathon under 2 hours (way off that at the moment), 10k in under 55 minutes (not so far off that) and 5k in under 25 minutes (some way off this)... and for the marathon..... just to finish! If I do any of these I will be pretty pleased! I also want to raise as much money as I can for NYAS... I've set a target of £2000, but would ideally like to raise more.

So, if you want to follow my progress, I'll be posting other blogs about how I'm getting on, do do come back and visit, and/or visit my fundraising pages on BT Donate... and if you can, please give generously.. or if you want, join me in a run!