From a tortoise to a hare??

On Saturday I participated in Bolt Round The Holt, a 10k race in Alice Holt Forest.  I have to say “participated” as it would be technically inaccurate to say I ran it.  I ran a lot of it, but gosh it was so hard.  Whilst slogging my way round, I could not help but compare my experience to the London Winter Run on 3 February, also a 10k run but the experience could not have been more different.

So why was I able to run 10k in February whilst having a fantastic time, high fiving penguins and huskies, enjoying the atmosphere and grinning away, then two months later feel like my legs were made of lead??

Well, first, Alice Holt has hills, lots of them.  And it was hot, about 10 degrees hotter than I have been used to in recent weeks.  And I have had a hamstring injury so have lost a bit of fitness.  And there were no penguins or huskies …

But really the cause of the extra 13 minutes (yes, I know, that is a lot of minutes) became obvious when I stepped on the scales the next morning and spotted that somehow I weighed 3.5kg more on Saturday than when I skipped round the Winter Run without a care in the world (well, maybe not skipped exactly).

How did that happen??  I could blame my friends for getting married in March, meaning I had to eat and drink too much at the hen do and at the wedding itself (yes, I know, I didn’t actually have to).  Then there was the night in a hotel to celebrate mine and my partner Rob’s seventh anniversary (those who know us are aware we will celebrate practically anything).  I also had to reduce my running due to the aforementioned dodgy hamstring.  But really, I just ate too much.  And drank too much.  There are no excuses.

Sadly this is the theme of my running life since I started four years ago.  I have plotted my parkrun times against my weight and the correlation is notable.  I am currently around four minutes away from my parkrun PB and also around 13kg heavier than when I achieved said PB.  That is probably not a coincidence!!

So one thing is clear.  If I want to get better at running – and I really do!! – I need to get lighter.  At least 13kg lighter and ideally even lighter than that.  I have known this for a long time but Saturday’s race really brought it home to me.

Hence this blog.  I am putting it out there that I intend to beat my parkrun PB (a currently unbelievable 28:13) within the next 12 months.  This is an achievable goal but it is going to require some changes.

Thanks to those of you who have made it this far through my first blog post.  I plan to use this blog as a record of my progress and to help to keep me on track as I make the transition from a tortoise to a hare.  Maybe I will even inspire someone to make some changes for themselves, or at least make you laugh or smile along the way.