The Silver Lining

Hello again. I hope you have all had a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend. Mine has been rainy. Biblically so. Summer is most definitely over. Anyway, I am going to get straight to the point here. Over the course of the weekend circumstances have conspired against me resulting in my having to back out of my 10K race in Windsor. I am frustrated and upset but there is nothing I can do to change the fact that this is the way things have gone. 

If I am totally honest, along with the frustrations and upsets, I am just a teeny tiny bit happy that things have gone this way. I know deep down that I wouldn't have been ready for this race and would have gone out of stubbornness and probably taken hours to get round in the best case scenario, or done myself an injury in the worst case scenario. However, the main feeling at having to cancel is disappointment. I was looking forward to running this course. The distance, the location, it all appealed to me. Oh well. 

So where's this silver lining I mention in the title? Well, here we go.

I have been rummaging around the internet recently trying to find a running group/club to help motivate me to keep running now the weather is against me - who enjoys running in the rain, seriously? I found a running group near me but the best bit is that I also found a running course. It takes you from the very basics of running (technique, breathing, stretching etc) all the way through to being able to run solidly for 30 minutes, which is something I would like to be able to do, despite my quite liking my run/walk routine. 

Yes, you are reading all of this right. I will essentially be taking running lessons. I am aware of how silly that sounds. Surely it's just left foot, right foot....repeat at speed until required distance is reached or heart attack sets in. However, I feel like this course will not only teach me some useful tips like how not to die of a stitch halfway round but also get me meeting some potential future running buddies near me, which all adds to future motivation levels. The course starts sometime around the middle of this month (this month being September - when did THAT happen?!) and I will be hearing back soon about whether or not I have managed to get a place on the course. 

So there's the silver lining. One thing has fallen through but perhaps it did so to clear the way for this new chapter of my running training. 

Also, for those of you wondering when my next race will be, the only race I have booked for now is the Brighton half-marathon at the end of February 2016. I might enter another 10K before then but then again I might not. You, my lovely readers, will of course be the first to know whatever I decide. 

Back to Reality

Delightful rainy England, waiting to welcome me home as I stepped off the plane. Yay.

Excuse the long-ish absence. Returning to real life was not fun and not as smooth a process as I would have liked. First world problems, huh? Anyway what this means is that other than my daily swimming in Italy I haven't really done much exercise recently. This will change very shortly as I have finally settled upon a 10k race to enter and so will need to begin training in earnest if I'm going to stand a chance of actually running that far on the day. The day in question is the 26th of September and the race is the Running4Women 10k in Windsor. I was torn between this and one in Finsbury Park but decided that I would enjoy a change of scenery from London. I've been to Windsor once before and it was beautiful so I am looking forward to running there. Also the race starts at noon which means a tiny bit of a lie in for me! Which is always good, right? 

What this all means is that training is about to kick up a notch in order for me to hit the new distance. As much as I love my easy, breezy two mile runs, I am going to be waving goodbye to them and replacing them with 5k runs instead. They will have to become my easy, breezy runs. Am I dreading this slightly? Yes I am. I'm worried that, when I eventually do run 10k, it will take me so ridiculously long that everybody will have packed up and gone home. 

Ok, so I exaggerate slightly but you get the point. 

Anyway, wish me luck over the next 50 days (according to the race website countdown) and as always I will attempt to keep you updated on and (hopefully) entertained by my struggles... I mean training. 

Next Steps

So here I am, just over a week from my first race. I have to say I may have rested a little more than I really needed to but I also spent a lot of time thinking about what's next for me. My first milestone has come and gone in a sort of anticlimactic blur. It was amazing on the day but then the next couple of days I found myself at a bit of a loss. I went for a short run today which has re-awoken my motivation somewhat and this week will be the beginning of the new training period leading up to my next milestone: the 10K race. I haven't actually signed myself up for a 10K race. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to very soon. As you know I use races to motivate myself (coerce might be a better word) into actually sticking to training, I just haven't been able to settle on which race yet. My favourite at the moment is the Running 4 Women 10K in Windsor at the end of September. Not only does this give me ages and ages to train, it is also a nice course which takes you down that long road away from Windsor Castle and round a big scenic loop before bringing you back to the Castle again. Also I hear it is supposed to be quite flat. I know I should try to like hills more or at least incorporate them into my training but really, (really?) let's get real, nobody enjoys hills. Unless they're the downwards kind. Or you have some sort of mechanism to get you up them. Like a car.

Anyway. I have to say I am feeling slightly daunted by the distances I'll be running. I know in my head that 10K isn't that far but I can't help thinking past that to what will come next. I will have to be doubling my running distance every three months until next April if I'm going to do what I said I would and actually run a marathon. I'm also going to have to get a tad quicker because while 5K races don't really have cutoff times, half marathons and full marathons certainly do and I don't think I could cope with being branded a non-finisher (unless medically necessary).

So you can see I most definitely have my work cut out for me. Am I constantly asking myself why I had this bright idea in the first place? Yes. Am I cursing myself for starting this blog because it means I can't slack off or everyone will know it? Yes. But at the same time, I know that when I ask myself in a year's time if this will all have been worth it, the answer will be YES. 

Oh and also, next week I am going on holiday to Italy where most of what I will be doing will be eating and sitting by the pool in the sunshine. I will aim to get some swimming in as a form of cross-training (and so I don't feel totally lazy) but I think I will limit my running and just enjoy myself. So yay!

This is not my photo or my dog but a) it looks like my dog and b) it accurately represents my plans for while I am on holiday.