Swan violence

WEEK 2: DISTANCE SO FAR: 24 km

Bastard.

Well this week should be fun, as long as your definition of fun is 'bloody horrible'. I managed 2 stamina-free 5-mile jaunts last week (not bad in the absurd heat), but this week I need to do 3. The way it works is I will need to do 1 week of 2x5 miles and 1 week of 3x5 miles and then repeat, with the occasional weekend 'top up' to bring me up to the monthly target so I hit 1000km in just under a year's time.

That said, I did my first 5 miles of the week this morning, and things have much improved. Last week I couldn't manage much more than a mile and a bit before needed a breather for a minute. Today, I only stopped 3 times at a quarter of the way, halfway and three-quarters of the way through. My speed wasn't bad either. I also wasn't attacked by any swans. Which means so far I have only been attacked by swans on 33% of my runs.

I'm not sure I recommend going out quite as early as I did though if you can avoid it (I was out by just before 7am). I've drunk so much tea today to deal with the dehydration I feel like I've inhaled a space hopper.

Burp!

Seconds out: round two

WEEK 1: TARGET 16 km. DISTANCE SO FAR: 0 km

Understatement of the year...

Oh, hello! So here's the deal. Seven years ago, I did the whole "1000 km in a year thing" that you can read about in all my old posts, should you be monumentally bored or something. Suffice to say I did it somehow, and I've kept up running since. But (because there's always a but), a few things have occurred 'twixt now and back then.

For starters, I'm in my early 40s whereas last time I was in my mid 30s, and thus I am now officially decrepit (I even get classed as a 'senior' when I enter races, FFS). I've had my right achilles tendon basically go "Nah!", turn into soup and give up a couple of years ago, leading to 6-odd months of physio just to get back to a level where walking doesn't hurt. I get piriformis syndrome - a literal pain in the arse - on and off down my left side. And the knackered icing on top of the cake of increasing infirmity is that just under 2 months ago I fell and broke my arm. It's better now, but I couldn't run at all for the whole time I was in plaster.

All the above mean I've lost my fitness and stamina, my metabolism has slowed down, I've put on weight and I recover more slowly. Oh, and it's of course the height of summer and I get hayfever, so what POSSIBLE time could be better to start a second attempt at a 1000k-a-thon (as no one has ever referred to it as)?

The answer of course is none at all. I need something to motivate me to drag my arse and all the other broken bits back to the point where I can not go "Hnnnnng!" when getting out of a chair, and it needs to be long term, achievable but not so demanding that I can't fit it around daily life.

So, off we go again. See you in 984 km! Or next week, whichever happens first.