Run Forrest, Run!

I recently read an excellent book on weight loss, written by a chap called Allen Carr. No not the goofy toothed, camp-as-they-come comedian but an author who’s notoriety comes from his smoking cessation book “Easyway to Stop Smoking” which I read (well, listened to the audio book) and quit smoking on the 8^th December, 2011. His style of writing is unique in my view and I am 100% convinced, certain in fact that I will never smoke again. You’re probably sceptical and I don’t blame you however I know my own mind. It was easy to quit smoking, too easy in a way but that “if it’s too good to be true it probably is” frame of mind is arguably fuelled by the enormous number of smoking cessation aids in circulation. As part of their marketing strategy they convince you that quitting smoking is awful, and the withdrawal pangs are so unbelievably severe that you need some kind of prop to help you through them. Absolute nonsense, the lot of it. Anyway, I digress..

The long term plan for me was always to quit smoking, then lose weight and/or take up some form of regular exercise. I’d had this plan in my head for at least 5 years and probably longer truth be told. The catalyst for me actually doing something about it was the birth of my baby boy, who was born in January 2011. Even then it took me nearly year to get my backside into gear. So as said, I ceased smoking on the 8^th December 2011, and roughly 4 weeks ago I bought a pair of running trainers, a few tee shirts and shorts/tracksuit bottoms, and away I went. I must admit I had low expectations of my capabilities as I hadn’t undertook any regular exercise in over ten years and I wasn’t let down by my initial thought process. It was hard going. Luckily I stumbled upon a newspaper article on the London Marathon, that also had a pull out section that listed out a training regime, all geared up to get you running a marathon in around 6 months. I had no intention of doing anything of the sort but was happy that I had a routine to stick to as the previous week’s running had been a bit haphazard.

So I’m currently nearing the end of my third week with the newly found regime and the first part (6 weeks long) is aimed at getting you to run a 5k in a decent time (around 30 minutes) and its obviously a bit of a beginners guide. So halfway through almost and I’m pleased with the results so far, each session I’m able to run that bit further without slowing down to a walk and the recovery times between each walk/breather are becoming shorter, yesterday was the first time that I ran through a session without slowing down to a walk, so a bit of a milestone was achieved.

It has actually motivated me to carry on running. As mentioned earlier I had no intention of carrying on running, it was merely a stop gap until I found a suitable exercise bike (I targeted cycling as an activity I could enjoy and would most likely adhere to) but the more I run, the more I enjoy it. So much so that I have found out earlier today that the date for entry to the 2013 London Marathon is the 30^th April and I fully intend to enter. It appears that only so many people can apply, and only so many people will get selected, so if I am not part of that initial selection I can opt to run for a charity. I’m hoping by the time I need to start raising funds for my chosen charity, I will have enough of a following on this blog to be able to raise a decent amount (the London Marathon organisers expect you to raise £1k-1.5k)

I’ll make periodic updates on my running progress in the blog, hopefully this will end in roughly a year’s time with me completing a London Marathon! I never, ever thought I’d be saying that!