Back on the wagon

I think it might be time to get back on the running wagon.

As I wrote a few days ago, I have been fairly happy with the level of exercise I am currently doing, however, I have been keen to try and increase my running as at the moment I am only running once a week for about 30 minutes. That run has been fun and sustainable, but it is hardly going to get me running far or fast. For now my lack of ability to run far or fast has been fine, I haven't really had a burning desire to do either, which is why I have only been running once per week, however, all that changed yesterday.

Yesterday a mate of mine announced his 40th Birthday celebration plans, and true to triathlon form he has decided that his 'party' is going to be a group run, one kilometre for every year of his life. You can do the maths. This celebration is to take place in mid July.

Now, I have no delusions of taking part in the full run, but I would like to go along and take part in one way or another. For people like myself not up for the full 40km there are options of doing 10km, 15km or 20km. The planned pace for the run is between 4:45min/km and 5:00min/km so at the very worst I could go along for the 10km version, I am currently capable of getting through that. A few weeks ago I did a 15km run at around 4:35min/km pace so I would have said the 15km version was fine, however, I have let the running slip a little since then, so I wouldn't be so confident now. Ideally I would like to go along for the 20km run and so that is where I have set my sights.

At the moment my runs are between 6 and 7kms, so that means I have around two months to build from that up to 20km. I think that sort of build is pretty doable, however, in order to get there I need to get off my rear end and get on with it. So that is the plan.

Of course I am realistic about building running capacity. Trying to do too much too quickly is a great way to get injured and so my plan will be to avoid that. For this week if I can run for 30 minutes three times then I will take that as a win. I can build the volume of the individual runs from there, but for now my first challenge is getting out the door three times. From there I will see how I go.

Time to get on with it.