Now the 20km run is completed

So having run 20km for the first time in my entire life, what is next?

I don’t have any inclination to ‘train on’ for a Marathon, but I sort of like the idea of been able to do a half marathon or 10m ‘race’ at some stage in the future. For that to happen though I need to ensure that I remain fit, as getting fit is no fun at all, and as I get older it will just get harder and harder!!

On the other hand running for 90 minutes or so at a time is very time consuming both in terms of the preparation that is required (eating the right things at the right time), the actual run and the recovery time – it digs too much into the day to be sustainable, certainly now that I have taken on a more work and will be traveling again in the coming months.

The good bit about the last three months is that I have certainly got fitter, and my legs have got stronger. The not so good is that I didn’t lose that much weight, largely I think because my appetite went up and I struggled to do anything other than the running so my overall activity levels dropped. This certainly isn’t a problem as I had one single focus over the last three months and I achieved it, but moving forward I want to make the most of the fact that I have invested so much time into getting fitter, and try and move onto ‘the next level’.

Again with the new contracts I need to be careful as a) I will be spending a lot of time in front of the Macs and b) I will probably have a few trips that I need to take from time to time. As such I need to ensure that I am able to achieve and maintain a good balance.

As the contracts are going to take a couple of months to really get going I am going to spend the next two months i.e. the rest of the year on a very specific training program. The objectives are to ‘keep my hand in’ with the occasional long run, but to inject some variety into the training, and do more all round fitness work. As for diet I just need to modify it a little and cut back on the bread, nuts and crunch bars. It isn’t a case of replacing them with fruit, vegetables etc as I eat enough of that stuff. In between now and the end of the year I will have a total of four weeks off the booze and solely eating vegetarian meals as that always works well for me.

Training Schedule

Twice a week I am going to run 10km (replaced with a 15km run twice a month)
Once a week I am going to cycle 20km
Three times a week I am going to do a general work out i.e. weights, pilates, stretching

Ideally it would be good to find a sport or activity to do, so maybe I will dig out the tennis racket, or see if there is a 5 a side team around? I doubt very much that I will find a training partner, but if you fancy a couple of months training let me know.

As with all change discipline and motivation are the key, so I will probably use the blog a bit more than I did with the sponsored run to update on progress as that will spur me on on the days that I am feeling lazy.

So, today I am off for a 5km run to get the stiffness out of my legs, and I will go for a bike ride tomorrow, then start the training schedule on Monday.