Training Begins
Knowing that a serious plan needed to be put together, I looked into various options but eventually opted for the My Asics personal planner to give me an idea of what to do to prepare. Having lost over 3 stone since September 2014, I was in a fitter state than I have been for years, I was just missing one thing....motivation.
Motivation for me is a key factor. Signing up in November, with the colder months lying ahead, I knew it would start to get more and more difficult to push myself to get out in the cold, rain, hail, snow or whatever mother nature threw as an obstacle in my way. The best way to over come this is persuade another to join the madness, that way if one person felt like a duvet day the other would push them off the couch and on to the icy roads. I knew that my good friend Rosh would be up for the distance. I have known Rosh for a good 15 years and he is always up for a challenge, and as someone who has enjoyed a spot of running in the past I felt he would be an inspirational running partner. Luckily, he was up for a new challenge.
So mid-November our running training started. Our first 3 mile run was done in 32 minutes which I think is not a bad start. A few 3 to 5 mile runs later and we had seemingly reduced the 5k to a sub 30 min run. The run up to Christmas started to increase the distances 6 mile, 8 mile then the dreaded 10 miler! All of these were done at a comfortable pace, not too fantastic, but we were both noticing the decreasing times and increasing distances, were we getting fitter, faster and becoming runners?
My wife Clare and I had a pre-Christmas break in Budapest at the start of December and I took my running shoes with me. With the beautiful back drop of this amazing city, I went out for the most picturesque run I have ever done, down one side of the Danube passed the Parliament Building and then across to Buda, up to the palace, back down to the Danube banks and across back into Pest. This will be a run I will never forget, just overwhelming views and a feeling of pride for completing the run.Only a couple of days after Budapest we celebrated the Davies Family Early Christmas. With my brother living down South we would not see my niece and nephew over Christmas so we always celebrate early. My brother is training for an Ironman in 2015 so we decided a little jaunt around Cromer would be an opportunity we both would enjoy, we were right. Along the coast line, what we though would be pretty flat turned out to be quite hilly.
During our little Christmas Break from the runs, Rosh admits to eating his own body weight in food and was a little reluctant to start back where we had left off. He could feel the turkey and treats sloshing around in his stomach on our first run in between Christmas and New Year. Entering 2015 meant that we were only a few months off our Half Marathon Run and we needed to step up the distance.....what we didn't need was any set backs.
2014 Fastest 5k - 28:35
2014 Fastest 10k - 58:35
2014 Furthest Distance - 10.2 mile
Total Distance - 83.1 miles (2 months cumulative)
Number of Runs - 15
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