Wahay! Kayaking!

I booked myself on a kayaking course for August 19th. With all the running, my legs are getting lean and mean, but my upper body is totally neglected so I decided to take up kayaking. Once I get the basic qualifications, I think I'll have to get out and buy my own kayak.

Oooh sore legs

I did a quick gym session yesterday and included a mile run, which was pretty gentle, but when I got out on the run today... crikey my legs were sore.

I had planned an easy 5k at 6 min/km pace and I went the first 3k without too much trouble. After that my legs just refused to cooperate and I had to jog/walk the last 1.5k, cutting the route short. What was nice was that I was barely breathing heavier than normal at that pace - a stark contrast from when I started and encouraging for when I really up the distance.

I need to focus on getting my weekly distance up now. I have been doing about 20-25K per week, but I really want to get that to about 50K per week before the end of the year. So my focus until the end of July is to get to 30K per week - I'll be posting my weekly breakdown from now on.

Of course, next week I'm moving house so not a great week to go in to.

Happily, tomorrow is a rest day and by Thursday I hope to have working legs again.

City of Manchester 10K

As Keith might say "Yee Haw!". After the terrible 1:09:x x I posted at the Great Manchester Run, I was determined to get sub-hour this time - and..... 54:39! Oh yeah! Wasn't exactly flat either - some nice bumps along the way. Super pleased, especially since I could have carried on. I think I might look for a 10 mile race to do in 6-8 weeks time.

Sally and my parents came to watch, and Sally took some great pics, including the one in this post.

The Road So Far

After realising in January that I was becoming a bona fide chunker, I decided it was time to start on the fitness wagon - and this time not just to play at it.

Rick and I took up running with the specific aim of entering the BUPA Manchester 10K - which we both did. Unfortunately, I had been injured right up until two days before the race and I posted a rather disappointing time of 1:09. I did, however, raise £500 for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, so it wasn't all bad.

Thankfully, training is back on track and I ran a 6K trail race at Castle Howard this weekend in 32:28. The coming weekend I am running in the City of Manchester 10K and I'll be getting under 60 minutes if it kills me :)

On a very positive note, I have lost 24lbs so far and I am not quite the bloater that I was!