Lazy Lady

I am lazy. There, I said it. I have always tried to lie to myself, telling myself I'm not lazy I'm just doing what I want, when and how I want. Empowering myself by making all my own decisions regardless of outside pressures. Recently though, I've stopped buying my own bullshit and have forced myself to own up to it. Don't they always say that admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery? Well I am admitting it. Shouting it from the rooftops (silently in my head).

I am lazy.

This doesn't bode well for my running plan. Especially since the last fond memory I have of running was when I was ten and I was racing a classmate's little sister across the playground. I was sooo much faster than her (obviously. I was ten and she was six) but I still let her win. Since then all my running has been either enforced PE running around a 200 metre track in the baking Italian summer heat (I grew up in Italy and did all my schooling there) or half-hearted guilt-motivated runs on a treadmill in a gym. This cocktail of unpleasant memories coupled with my general slothfulness means that on paper I should really not be excited about the upcoming miles I plan on running. And yet, I'm excited. 

I'm excited because this morning it finally clicked in my head. I've never gone running for myself. It was always either because I had to or because I felt I had to. This time I set the goal. I chose it. And every time I find myself battling my laziness and struggling to get on with it I will think back to ten year old me running full pelt across that playground, not a care in the world, and I'll let it carry me forward.

Now all I have to do is get up off this couch...

Ready...Steady... Couch!

Yes, I am still sitting on the couch. No, I haven't been for a run yet.

But I am going to. A week from tomorrow marks the beginning of my training which, a year from now, will see me entering and running in a marathon. I have been formulating this plan for quite some time now but only recently revealed it to my nearest and dearest. Parents and partner were supportive, if not slightly sceptical given the zero amount of exercise I have done in the past six years (yes really, zero). My best friend however was slightly blunter. "I'm questioning your sanity dude. You hate running. Really. You hate it." Obviously she was eventually supportive but I like to think this is a testament to my level of beginner-ness to running.

Now, don't get me wrong, I have tried to get involved in some sort of fitness/exercise activity over the years. Gym memberships bought and cancelled after a couple of visits. Perhaps a quick, painful run around my area and much vowing never to do it again. None of it has stuck. This time however, not only have I created an actual (free) personalised running plan, courtesy of Runner's World SmartCoach, I have also signed myself up for a Race for Life 5K this July. This is the crucial piece of the puzzle. There's no backing out now. I have made a commitment to raise a certain amount and run in this event and this is what will hold me to my training plan. At least in the initial "why am I doing this to myself" stage.

So here we go. I have my routes mapped out, my plan is set and my new running kit is due to arrive within the week. New pretty things, a motivational tool if ever there was one.