My training seems to be plodding along, but I must confess I am not seeing the spectacular results I expected. I have visions of running fast and strong, my feet gliding across the ground greeting those I pass with a smug pride. In reality, I can just about stumble a little further than the benchmark tree that I was using as my guidance at the beginning. I must express my disappointment with this matter.

The only way this can be combated, I though to myself, is with hard work. Not the girly jogging you’ve been doing so far. Hard, physical exercise. I did wonder what part of me was insisting upon undertaking such physical exertion but at least it was some sort of motivation to increase my fitness, however masochistic.

I pondered over what sort of exercise this could be, whilst flicking through a fitness magazine. Maybe sprinting? Hill running? Circuit training? Then the answer leapt from the page and ordered me to attention. Boot camp training. That, I thought, is how you get fit quick.

The article was about using the traditional army boot camp training style that has become increasingly popular, but doing it yourself rather than paying very large amounts of money to have a man in camouflage laugh at your press up ability.

The routine consists of lunges, squat jumps, press-ups, sprinting and all manner of exercises you would ever think of trying in a normal work out. After 50 minutes of falling over, legs giving up, arms no longer holding me up, I concluded this was like nothing I had ever done before. My heart was pounding, my body was faltering underneath me and every time I laughed I thought my stomach was going to seize up. In spite of the pain, the crippling pain, it was actually fun. There is something incredibly silly about standing in your garden with a friend attempting one more press up, but falling to the floor.

Afterwards, I felt a little weak, but exhilarated that I had worked my body harder than ever before, excited to see how much working this hard, could improve my ability to run. One word of warning though, if you do attempt a boot camp style exercise regime, be prepared for the day after. Muscles were sore in places I was sure I didn’t have muscles. A few stretches later and I had regained some normal movement to my body, but I wouldn’t advise doing this sort of regime two days in succession.

But if I can keep this up, I am sure that the fitness I can gain from exercising in this way will leave me sprinting to the finish line come July.