18 weeks to go.

Hi fellow runners

My name is Claire and over the course of the next few months I hope to keep you up to date with my training for the Ignis Asset Management Women’s 10k. This will be the third time I’ve taken part in this event. I didn’t want to use the word “run” as the first time it was more of a walk!

With a previous best 10k time of 59 minutes (achieved last September) I figured aiming for 55 mins for May would be achievable. That was before I realised that doing practically no training in November and December meant it would be a bit of a struggle to start it up again, not helped by the typical Scottish winter weather.

I started running again last week. Went out on Saturday and managed about 3.5 but at a ridiculously slow time! So Sunday I decided I would try and run 2.5k in a time faster than 10kph. I managed it….just! How did I get in this state when only a couple of months earlier that would have been a gentle jog!

Being back at work meant I didn’t get out running again until this Sunday. I went out aiming to do a fairly decent run at a not too bad a pace (in other words about 4k in over 10kph). However with the strong wind I wasn’t too optimistic. I started reasonably well but then my hat flew off so that wasn’t great having to chase after it!! Then the batteries in my Garmin GPS died, so I had no idea how fast I was running (a couple of months out of running meant I had lost all perception of speed!!). Then the wind really picked up and I decided to turn back as I was pretty much running on the spot. I reckon I did about 2 miles in around 20 minutes, or something like that!

They say the first week is always the worst. I’ll try and do better next week!