My Personal Fitness Challenge To Run 310 Miles

I am sat here writing this in my gym gear, having just got home from a short jog around our serviced apartment as the gym was full.  I say short, it was 2 miles and it was something I wouldn’t have been anywhere near able to do back in September when I set myself the #Miles4MAMA challenge.  My personal fitness challenge to run 500km, or 310 miles.

#Miles4MAMA now has an official end date.  A date that gives me a full year to achieve my personal fitness challenge, a full 310 miles.  Running, not walking.  The challenge this year will end on the 11th of September at the Great North Run.  And who knows, by then I may even be considering entering my very own half marathon.

I am not a runner.

I am, quite possibly, one of the worst runners known.  I ache.  I puff.  I drip sweat everywhere.  Nothing about me running is elegant.  I am a great big, honking, sweaty, puffing, heaving runner.  Slamming my feet into the ground.

I don’t dislike running, per se, but I certainly don’t enjoy it when I get going.  I can’t seem to find my zone that so many people talk about.  But the achievement.  Oh the achievement is fantastic.  I love when I get home and I can announce that this time I managed to run for the whole time.  Or that I have just ran the furtherest I’ve ever managed.  Or that this is a new personal best on my mile run.

That is my adrenaline rush.  That is why I keep pushing myself.

That, and the fact that it is essentially free to throw on my trainers and head to the great outdoors, that it is a great cardiovascular workout for me to help manage my blood pressure and cholesterol even if it knackers up my knees a bit.

Oh and the husband does it.  Yep, the husband is, like me, an achievement junkie runner.  His biggest achievement is completing the Barcelona Marathon in under 4 hours (3 hours, 52 minutes and 15 seconds to be exact)

He runs.  It makes me feel guilty.  I run.  It’s a win-win.  Plus then I feel I can eat whatever I like, you know, like carrot cake.

My Personal Fitness Challenge

I’m slowly building up how far I can run.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Back in September I could run for 20 minutes, but of that 20 minutes I would have to run for 2-3 minutes, walk for 90 seconds.  I, very very loosely, followed the couch25k program until I got bored of it and made my own up.

And by make my own up, I mean through sheer grit and determination make it up to running for 20 minutes solidly.  Then the next time I went out and wanted to walk reminding myself that I can run for 20 minutes, I did just the other day SO KEEP ON GOING.

Up until February it was all about getting miles into my legs, making sure I was consistent with my running, that I could comfortably run 3 times a week.

In steps the husband with his challenge.  Try running 3 miles this weekend.

I did.

Sneaky husband again, oh so your last long run was 3 miles how about you up it a little bit more this week?  Maybe by 10%?

I did.

And have managed to get my “long” run up to 5 miles.

And yes, my short runs are still relatively short.  But they are getting more consistent.  I can almost guarantee that if I go out for 20 minutes, I will be coming in with a 2 mile run to add to the collection.  My 1 mile challenge is getting faster. The miles are coming in thick and fast.

310 miles in a year.

At my last update I had completed 45.46 miles, in March I ran a marathon. I ran 26.21 miles. That puts me a 71.67 miles.

238.33 miles to go….best get those running shoes on.