Over the last few months I've been training to be fit enough to run in a 5K race. I know, for most people 5K doesn't sound an awful lot, but for someone who isn't used to running, I might as well be running backwards on a triple marathon for just how impossible such a task sounds.
On the NHS website you can download a number of audio files, to help you to easily attain this 'impossible' sounding distance, and you can play these files alongside your mp3 player on your phone while you run. Sounds easy? It actually is.
Each week's instructions increase your running so gradually you hardly realise you're getting fitter.
I'm now on week 7, and my last unbroken run was for 28 minutes over a distance of 2.88 miles. I really was chuffed with my progress. However, this monumentally euphoric moment was quickly crushed when I made the mistake of looking down at my speed. On my Garmin GPS watch it indicated that I had only averaged 6.12mph. Boy, that's slow isn't it? All that energy being spent and it's barely faster then walking!
If I ever get round to entering a 5K race, you'll know where to find me because I'll be somewhere at the back, being rapidly overtaken by all the elderly women pushing their Zimmer frames!
