Running Away!

When I backpacked around the world in 1992 I returned to the UK 12 months later a stone or two heavier than when I departed! I think when I arrived in Australia after 5 months in SE Asia living on healthy rice & veg, the joy of being able to buy biscuits and chocolate somewhat got the better of me!

I’d like to avoid that on our family adventure!

As we started planning our travels in 2012 I had the usual new year resolution to do something about my gradual decline in fitness levels over the past, oooh, 10 years?
With the exception of a few short bursts over the years, I can’t exactly claim to have done as much as I meant to on the fitness front, especially since having kids. True, I’ve made some impressive payments to various gyms which worked out very costly on a per visit basis, and perhaps was at my fittest when I trekked in Nepal for 10 days in 1998. I’ve taken part in a couple of Race for Life 5k stumbles, and those who’ve known me a good while may even recall the Live Aid 10k run in London 25 years ago – i reckon that would be the last time I ran for more than a minute or two!

So I am extremely smug and happy and really quite surprised that I’ve reached week 9 of the excellent ‘Get Running – Couch to 5k’ iphone app which Martin found whilst still nursing his Jan 1 hangover and I’m running for 30 minutes (without stopping) along with my friend Jo, who incidentally also ran that Live Aid run with me way back then!

It’s a small miracle that we’ve stuck with it – we have definitely kept each other going and I highly recommend the app! The first week it was 8 x 1 minute runs with walks in between. I was slightly embarrassed to admit just how tame it was, especially to friends who were just getting ready for the Brighton half marathon but it was just what I needed! The run times built up over the weeks.

Every week I thought I won’t be able to do the next week and then amazed myself that I have. The dulcet tones of the virtual personal trainer are encouraging saying ‘well done, you’ve just run 20 minutes , just another 5 minutes today and you’ll be done, If you feel tired, just slow your pace but don’t stop running’ brilliant! And it works!

Martin and Ben started the program too but stopped a while due to sickness and workaholism – come on boys, get running again!?

I feel so much fitter although I haven’t lost an ounce of weight and the waistline still comes up ‘warning’ level on another health / fitness tracking app that I am much less impressed with – grrr!

I’ve even been to the first couple of hot yoga classes purchased on one of my Living Social deals!

So I am wondering how to make sure I keep it up when we’re on our family gap year? Should be simple – you can run anywhere and it’s free! I wonder if we can get all the children running too and we can pop out on a family jog a few times a week along the beach!?! Otherwise I’m going to miss having a run buddy and quite frankly don’t fancy running alone just anywhere actually, especially after reading dear Martin’s last post!

Now there’s another thought – must check if running is excluded from our new gap year policy !