Having been on what I’d call a 3 discipline fitness routine – running/cycling/weight training – since May, I thought it was high time to actually set myself a more challenging target than I had originally.
The original target was to train at least 5 times a week, running at least 20 miles, cycling at least 20 miles and doing 3 weight training sessions (of at least 1 hour in duration). This meant that I’d also have to discipline myself to get up at 6am most mornings to fit it all in or face it during my lunch break! It was a tall order but I was up for the challenge.
Looking back since I started, I’ve had some good and some bad days – not feeling 100%, work or home life impacting on scheduled training days, lack of motivation, etc – but all in all it’s gone fantastically well. Better in fact than I’d ever imagined.
But here I am some 10 weeks into my fitness ‘regime’ and I feel it’s time to focus on my next challenge as the existing one is starting to get repetitive – despite feeling and seeing the benefits of my hard work!!
So during my al-desko lunch break today I took the plunge and entered myself for the Cardiff Half-Marathon on Sunday, October 17th 2010. This will be without doubt my biggest running challenge EVER – as I have never run 13 miles in a race environment in my life. Please note that I’m not what you’d call a “proper” runner anyway!
The time between now and October will give me enough time to tweak my current training methods to focus more on longer distance running – something which I will have to do at the expense of (probably) the cycling – otherwise I am going to suffer big style come race day.
I’ve also decided to use the Swansea Bay 10K on September 26th, as a kind of benchmark of my progress (in terms of race time) and as part of my training.
Why do I do it? Well I suppose the main reason is that I’m a very competitive person and I always try and push the boundaries of what I can achieve, firmly believing that you can always squeeze that little bit extra out – be it running 2 seconds faster or lifting 5 kgs more. I think I’m pretty much like that with everything in life and I know my wife would agree with that statement!
Hopefully this half-marathon will give me the satisfaction of achieving another goal in my life and subsequently will no doubt drive me onto my next challenge – whatever that may be.