Day T + 112

Well the days have really flown by and now we are in 2010. Unfortuantely I had some family matters to attend to during November and December and was thrown off course. Then the snow came followed by ice and I was frightened of breaking a leg. However this morning I braved the cold (and boy was it cold, the air was like ice for the first 5 minutes) and went on a run. Only about 35 to 40 minutes, I cannot be precise as I have managed to lose my Nike+. I went and burnt some more calories walking up and down Oxford Street in the afternoon, which included replaces the Nike+.

A few years ago I made a New Year's resolution not to make resolutions. I know that sounds a bit stupid but really there is clear logical reasoning. I figured each day of my life should be lived better than the previous, why should I wait till the 31st December to change my negative traits or behaviour? However goals are a completely different thing. Goals that are written down are meant to be a lot more likely to actually be achieved (there is some statistic for this knocking about, though how they worked it out I'm not sure) and the end of a year is a good time to think about what you want to achieve the following year. So this year I decided to make a goal for each month and write it into my green leather mini filofax (yes had to get that in, love that green leather filofax I do). It's looking like a busy year and there is a cluster of running goals:

February - run half-marathon

March - run kilomathon

April - run marathon

Which brings me on nicely to tell you that I have entered into the Sussex Beacon (Brighton) half-marathon, which is on the This was suggested to be by Uju as she is running it as well. I hope she doesn't expect me to keep up with her if she's going to run at her normal pace; however it will be good to have her there.

Along with my goals I was thinking how I need to push myself to train harder. Thinking like a teacher (and frequent Boots consumer) I thought about giving myself points for doing various bits of training. Obviously running and more running is the basis of marathon training but to ensure I have overall strength and fitness I need to be doing other stuff too. So with these points, when I get enough points I could reward myself with something like a massage. I haven't yet worked out how many points should equal a massage or what other rewards to offer (massages are high on my list of desirable ways to spend an hour but I may need to inject some variety if I start clocking up points). Here is my current point system:

15 minutes hula-hooping = 1 point

30 minutes Wi-Fit = 1 point

15 minutes running = 1 point

30 minutes walking = 1 point

30 minutes cycling = 1 point

30 minutes swimming = 1 point

30 minutes dancing = 1 point

set of squats and stomach exercise (plank etc) = 0.5 points

kettlebell routine -= 2 points [kettlebells are hard work people!]

1 hour session with Uju = 3 points [you go have a session with her and you'll see why it's worth 3 points!]

That's how it stands now. I may add to it if I can come up with other stuff to do, at least looking at this I can see I have a few options for non-running days. I had planned to run to work and back but I'm not sure actually that is going to work - having a bag doesn't help, then all the hassle of getting changed and worrying about getting lost or late etc. I think for this week I'm going to try getting up early to run, come home and then walk to school in my MBTs and see how that works. I want to get a new cycle (my current one looks cool - well that depends on what you think is cool - however is rather heavy for the hills of Hampstead) with the cycle to work scheme (where Camden pays for half of it) and start cycling to work most days, instead of walking. (In fact May's goal is to be cycling to work regularly.) The real training must now begin in earnest. Keep your running toes crossed for me....