Week 1 - Battling the Elements

The start of my official training schedule coincided with a week at home in Cornwall. Weather conditions were far from ideal with flash flooding, thunder and lightning and gale force winds just some of the delights that attempted to hamper getting those first few miles on the clock. Rather than the familiar routes around Battersea Park and the banks of the Thames I found myself plotting miles around the country lanes, along cycle trails and across white sandy beaches. "How marvellous," I hear you cry. "What a treat compared to the smoggy, boring, traffic filled London roads and pavements," I hear you exclaim. Well... to be quite honest I'm really not sure I concur. One of the most fanatstic things about London running is that it virtually dead flat and largely dry and mud/sand free. For the out of shape, beginner runner I would descibe these conditions as IDEAL.

Easing gently into the programme, my training manual dictates that during Week 1 I needed to complete two short 3 mile runs, one medium 4 mile run and a longer 5 mile run. The short runs I planned to do around my house and found a circular 3.5mile route which worked well (although whichever direction I chose to go I encountered my first hills). I had to concede defeat on the first outing and walk the second half of steepest incline, but when doing the run in reverse I persevered with a slightly gentler uphill struggle and reached the top - triumphant - but utterly exhausted - before continuing along the road at the top.

For the medium run I met my friend Julie, an experienced marathon runner who trains in Cornwall, to do a 5 mile run along the Bissoe cycle trail. I am ashamed to say it's an area I've never previously explored and so I was very grateful when Julie introduced me to it and let me know that it's a popular running spot for marathon training with various routes of up to 22miles. Good for future reference. Julie also introduced me to the statisticians dream that is the Garmin Forerunner. I currently use a simple digital watch with a built in stopwatch but it would be good to invest in some technology that tracks my distance and speed as well.

For the long run I had planned to take part in a charity 10k fun run in Newquay. Unfortunately, it was cancelled on the day due to more horrendous weather and so I had to come up with a plan fairly sharpish to replace the miles. I decided that Perranporth beach at low tide would be a good option - long, flat and beautiful. And it was, until the rain started hammering down and the puddles got deeper, and the sand started sinking and the bottle of water I was running with turned out to be carbonated. Oops! Made it the entire length of the beach (about 2 miles) but as I turned around to come back again I was running head on into a pretty strong wind. By this time my trainers and socks were soaked through and also sandy which was causing some blister style grief. Looking like a drowned rat and unable to shake off the disappointment of the cancellation of the Newquay 10k I threw in the towel (note to self - remember to pack towel on rainy days) and ended up walking the remainder of the route.

Not a great end to what was looking like a strong start to the training but I'm not going to beat myself up about it as, on balance, I think Week 1 went quite well. I'm back in London for Week 2, the weather surely can't get any worse and the terrain will be mostly tarmac and flat. Hurrah!

Stats
Miles Run: 14
Miles Walked: 2
Average Pace: 10.5 minutes
New Experiences: Running up hills
Running on sand
Running in the rain
Training with someone else