Woody, lets go for a run!

I’ve been studying, hence my blog silence!

Last September I started a PgDip in Therapeutic Radiography (treating people with cancer and some other conditions with radiation).  It’s a 2 year course, 12 weeks in university and the rest of the year we learn on the job in a hospital.  I’ve just finished my exams so now I have a few weeks off before I start 2nd year! (as long as I pass my exams!!)

Anyway, while I was studying, I had nightly cravings for Ice Cream. Specifically Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food! It has little chocolate fishes in it!!

Phish Food with Yogurt & Biscuit topping

Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food

To make it even more calorific, we added ½ a tub of yogurt to it, and some crumbled digestive biscuits!

Needless to say I may possibly have put on some weight, but I consoled myself that I would have plenty of time to exercise after my exams!  My exams finished on Thursday last week, so on Friday I decided to make a start!

Its a long time since I’ve done any running (Long ago, as my Nana used to say, I ran for a club, but that really was long long ago!)

A Long Long time ago!

I really was quite fit back then!

A friend of mine started running about 8 years ago, and now regularly completes triathlons!  I would love to do one, but I can only swim the breast stroke so I don’t think I could manage the swimming bit!  This year he has also done several marathons including the London & Brighton marathons, in preparation for a monster race!  He has just completed the Comrades Marathon in South Africa for a 2nd year. Only 55.1miles!!! It is the world’s most brutal ultra marathon, and even though it’s winter in South Africa in June, the temperature is usually in the 20’s!  To make it even worse, if it takes you more than 12 hours to finish it you don’t even get a medal!!

I don’t think I will go that far… but I do still want to run a Marathon! It’s been over 3 years since I made that decision, and even though I’ve started training a few times, I’ve never got much past 3 miles.  This time I hope I will manage to get a bit further!

Anyway, the day after my exam, (Friday before last) I started. I downloaded an app to give me some guidance, because left to my own devices I would run 15 miles on the first day & then not be able to move for a month & then give up!  It was hard!  I came back looking like a beetroot, but I did it!  Then I did another run on Sunday, and have managed to do 7 runs since then including one in a complete downpour, and Woody has come for all except 2 of them!

We got a little bit wet!

I’m not however expecting to lose any weight any time soon!  I am counting the calories that I am eating just to see how bad things really are, and despite cutting out processed sugars like cake, chocolate & ice cream, I still seem to manage to sometimes eat double my recommended calorific intake for the day!

It seems like this is going to take time 😦 That’s the problem with getting old.  Getting fit takes SO much longer than it used to!!

Anyway, watch this space!  I really do want to run the Clarendon Marathon, a cross country marathon from Salisbury to Winchester along the ancient Clarendon Way with a few extra turns here and there to make up a full 26.2 miles. More than 90% is off road, with the trail following country tracks and paths – many of which have not changed since being traveled by the ancient Kings and Queens of England.

Today I managed 3.4 miles, which is quite an improvement from my first run which was 1.8 miles! Now… time to tackle the garden!