A New Year - A new running focus!

Well here I am again, starting up my blogging again to help me through the winter training to my next spring marathon. This time though the marathon is the Rotterdam one as I didn’t get into London for this year. To be honest, I am rather pleased that I am not doing London again, not because I don’t like this marathon, far from it, London will always have a special place for me (after all, it’s the first marathon I did and the only course where I have (yet!) completed the distance in under 4 hours) however four times is enough for me now and it’s about time I ventured into new territory – so Rotterdam it is!

My pre-Christmas training has been going well; just plodding along really at a decent level allowing me to keep my base fitness alive. However, the New Year sees me start a more dedicated programme of training, helping me to get to the start line in Rotterdam on the 10th April. Not only do I hope to be fit enough to complete the 26.2 miles again I am also aiming to get my finishing time to back under the 4 hour mark. I am also lucky enough to be taking part in this marathon with three of my Climb Your Mountain (CYM) friends and colleagues which will ensure that the trip is not only rewarding on the running front but fun too! As I did last year, I will of also be raising money for CYM as part of this challenge so watch this space as I will soon be launching my Justgiving page!

To start off the new year, I took part in the Milton Keyens Parkrun event today. This is an organised run of 5k and timed - you just have to register beforehand. This is the first time I have done this event and it was a great way to start my 2011 running campaign (I was pretty pleased with my finishing time too: 24:14 an average of 07:46 minute/miles…pretty good for the first run of the year!). My run stats and route map of the Parkrun event today can be found here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/62171430

Hopefully after a period of dedicated healthy eating alongside my training I will also lose a few lbs – I am aiming to be as lean and as fit as I can for this year’s marathon and losing a few lbs will definitely help this cause!!

Anyway enough rambling from me for one day! I hope that everyone has a healthy year full of fun, laughter and lots of running :-)