Road Runner (From The Argus)

Road Runner

1:52pm Friday 22nd May 2009

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All my good intentions have gone out the window and all my hard work has been undone. I blame it on the house move. Two and a half solid weeks of packing, chucking and moving has left no time for even the most pathetic of runs. For two weeks I have been largely house bound.

The change in area adds to the confusion. I no longer have the safety of Preston Park to jog round, sweating and cursing as I go. My new abode is close to the seafront. Close to the long distance runners, gliding freely and easily down the promenade, chatting and laughing as they go. This is no place for my stop, start, huffing and puffing training regime – not helped, I must add, by an increasing slide back into the depths of nicotine addiction. So what to do? The race is about 6 weeks away and if I want to do myself proud this year round training needs to start again and soon.

I decided to brave it last night. I put on the gear and stood outside my front door wondering which way to go. I chickened out of the seafront and decided to explore my new area on foot and began to run around the streets, And what a revelation this was!

There is no other way that any beginning runner should start. If you suffer from beginners embarrassment as I do, then running around the streets is the best way to combat this. The lengths of the street become a useful aid in training. Run on street, walk the next, sprint one street, walk the next. Training in this interval manner is widely regarded as on of the best ways to get fit quick (which is what I am in need of at the moment…). It also provides a useful escape route to avoid having to see anyone you know. A sharp right here, hang a left there and you can remain almost anonymous.

Of course, this also alleviates boredom. I hadn’t realised until I went running around an area I didn’t know just how boring running circles in the park had got. Now, with options to go anywhere (and even get a little bit lost…) I hope my training schedule will suffer no more. But then that is what I always say. Here is to 6 weeks and counting until the big day where hopefully my training will pay off…