Week 2... more good work...

OK, this is more like it... I finished the week feeling like I had been run over by a truck (and soundly failing all over again to go to any early more Military Fitness at all whatsoever, I think this might be a pain reserved solely for New Year!

Monday - 2m run and Military Fitness

So Monday didn't quite go according to plan. I packed my kit on Sunday night, and by lunchtime on Monday realised that I didn't have my sports bra. Now there are few bits of kit that you need for running, but believe me a sports bra is a total essential! You can cut corners on kit, any long sleeve top, t-shirt, jogging shorts will do (within reason... if it is too big there could be awkward chaffing issues, but on the whole pretty much anything goes... all this dry fit, shrink fit, wind resistant stuff is cool, but the only thing that will really make you go faster is to run faster, so why waste money on kit?!?) but as a woman you can't get very far without a sports bra!

Anyway, a rather long detour via my flat meant around an hour and a half later I was at Mil Fit - phew! After a quick stop off at home to change and pick up the missing item, I jogged the mile from my flat to Mil Fit, did the class, and jogged back... it's icy right now, but it feels good to be out in it. That said I did cough the rest of the night, with the icy air in my lungs I think it managed to get right into parts of my lungs that don't get much air these days and I hacked a bit for the rest of the night - nice!

Also, in it's debut use, having just said you don't need any fancy kit (!), I used my Camelback for the first time. This nifty tiny rucksack has a 2 litre pouch with a tube that comes right round to your mouth, so you can carry water, and take some on while running. I think it might be best to walk and drink though, my attempt at taking on water while running resulted in a fit of spluttering, which also didn't help the intake of icy air either and just lead to even more coughing!

Wednesday - 6m run

2 laps of the park! This went off without incident, I have managed to get into a nice routine. Lap one is a comfortable jog around the park, keeping it simple and a bit slow, getting round without any heroics... lap 2 is a chance to let it out a bit, if I have any energy left then I take the pace up and try to stretch myself.

Thursday - 4m and Mil Fit

OK, so this was the challenge that I was dreading all this week. A friend from Mil Fit (we'll call her E - in case she doesn't want to feature in this!!) works near me and she suggested we run together when she found out about my marathon. She's doing the Paris marathon a week befoer I do London. It's great to have someone to train with. She's got a plan and everything! So I think it pays to stick with her, we both could do with the motivation and I could do with someone to help me out with a training plan.

Anyway, she suggested this crazy idea. Run to Mil Fit in Battersea, then do the class, then go home... I was worried. What happens if I can't keep up with her pace, arrive totally dead to Mil Fit and then die in class too, how humiliating would that be? E and I haven't run together before, and she says her pace is slow and steady, but what if her idea of slow matches Paula Radcliffe's and is nowhere near my steady 10 minute mile slow? And how the hell am I going to do a whole Mil Fit class after I have run all that way?

Well, needless to say my fears were unfounded. Our run to Battersea was fresh - again the chilly air saw to that! And I did drag at the back of the class around at Mil Fit, but I didn't totally embarass myself. I mean I had no acceleration left in me, once I was pegged at the back of the class then that was the best I could do, there was no sprint left! But apart from that I didn't do too badly, and I certainly didn't finish the class with nothing left, which is what I was expecting.

And so, bar my total lack of energy for anything at the weekend, I think this was another good week... could have been a lot worse, and hey, still not doing too badly in the run up to 1st Jan 2008 when the hard work really starts!!

Lessons learnt from training week 1

Right, so I think that the reality of the situation is starting to sink in. I have started to tell people (and I have a facebook group too, which is basically like broadcasting anything to the world at large!) and they seem to be on board with it, although the general feeling is basically that I am insane to do it, and then they find out that I am doing it for the second time and really start to worry about my mental health.



Training: Week 1.



Well, not great, but not bad either!



Monday Night: Military Fitness



When in doubt simply enlist help from the army! I have been training with British Military Fitness (http://www.britmilfit.com/) since the start of this year. They are great! They run classes at parks across the UK, and loads in London, so you turn up, limber up and put yourself in their capable hands while they grind you into the ground for an hour. Running, circuits, sit-ups, press-ups, burpees (don't ask, they are as bad as they sound!), it is all fun and games... well, sort of... no, it is! I really enjoy it, but in a kind of perverse way. They push you to your limits, but at the end of it you do feel like you have really worked out and you can feel the improvement in your fitness from the first class.



Wednesday Lunchtime: 6 mile run



Working in Regent's Park is great, it means that a whole little running track, in the form of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill is there before me at lunchtime, and I need to start taking full advantage. A lap of the park is 3 miles, so it is time to start making every lap count I feel...

I had meant to then go to Military Fitness twice at the weekend, but got a bit of a sniff, so ducked out... and it is getting icy... and the class is at 9am... and this is the time for excuses because after Jan 1st 2008 there are NO EXCUSES bar an injury that keeps me from doing any actual running, so I might as well play the wimp card now while I can...

Countdown to my doom...

I don't like this site (see below, I don't mean the blog, I like the blog!)... it is like a constant ticking reminder of what I am doing... and how long I don't have to get myself ready...

http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/

But feel free to use it as a marker for how long you have left until you come to line the streets and cheer me on!! :)

Starting out..

Right... so I'm running the 2008 London Marathon. Oops...

I'm mean I realised that every time I balloted for a place each year that meant that a) there was a chance that I would get a place and b) that chance was getting higher and higher and after 5 attempts I would finally get one, but that doesn't mean that I had actually processed that in the context of doing a MARATHON on 13th APRIL 2008... oops...

There are a few things I need to sort out now:

1) Training - I am lead to believe that you need to do some of this in order to take part. I also know this is true since I did the marathon in 2003 (so I clearly am mad, I mean I am already doing this for the second time - why?!?) but I don't really remember the training that well, I mean I kind of do, I remember long mornings plodding along the South Bank in the mist and fog on January but I don't remember anything else... did I do shorter mid-week runs? Sprinting and running? Cross training? These words seem alien to me...

2) More Training - it's not like just running the distance is the problem, I mean in order to train I need to make time to train. I'm not very good at making time for things. I am the sort of person that wants to do everything at once and all the time, so how is that going to work with training? Oh and I am away for Xmas, and New Year, and a week's skiing in January, and a wedding at the end of Jan, and one at the end of Feb, and er... no that's it, I mean the rest of the time is just my own (!).

3) Sponsership - I think I'd like to raise some money. Last time I did it for Leonard Cheshire and raised around £1,400. This time I think I'd like to do it again. Also, this means that as my place was via the ballot it was free, so all the money I raise can go direct to whichever charity I choose, instead of them having to pay money for my gold or silver bond place and then take what is left over. However, raising money can be as much of a job in itself as doing the training. But it would also be worth it. Plus, if I am suffering, then why shouldn't everyone else that I know suffer by being made to help me out and go without something in order to sponser me!!

OMG - what have I done?!?