Nought to Marathon: January Jogs

The past two weeks have been filled with plenty of ups and downs, but overall, I’m starting to feel pretty positive about my marathon training.

I was lucky enough to have a quick trip to Budapest for a long weekend, and as always, I had all the gear and was raring to go - but something got in the way. This time, it was a whole load of snow covering Budapest which very much put me off going outside, let alone running.

After my time in Budapest, I started to get pretty worried about my marathon training and my lack of running. so I thought it was about time for me to commit to running..

So I did. Every day, for six days. Each run was either a short three mile run to or from work or a two-mile run during my lunch break - nothing excessive. This combined with my usual 3-mile walk to and from work really helped to boost my fitness and on the 7th day, I managed to run a whole 8 MILES.

Now I wouldn’t necessarily recommend running for 7 days straight, it doesn’t exactly prepare you for a long run and it’s pretty bad for your joints if you’re running on the hard ground every time. What I will say is, after having a break from running I was feeling quite nervous for the marathon and quite behind in my training. Running every day even for a 20-minute stint helped me to increase my confidence in my ability dramatically. Now, heading out for a run I’m used to the horrible feeling of the first twenty minutes and now it’s much easier to get past that because I know how. Having podcasts ready and waiting for me to distract myself during the early stages is a way I’ve learned to deal with it.

In short, it’s safe to say for me “practice makes perfect”. I am by far nowhere near being a perfect runner, but the more I go the more I’m enjoying them so hopefully, this is going to continue moving forward. I’m nowhere near where I want to be, but I’m feeling more confident that I’m going to reach the goal eventually, so that’s a good place to be in my #NoughtToMarathon journey.