….soooooo close!! I’m nearly at the 15 Stone something point, actually I’m bang on 16 Stone, not bad considering 4 months ago I was 18 Stone! I’ll stop trying to lose weight when I hit about 13.5 to 14 Stone so I guess another 4 months to go! ;P

Yesterday was fairly eventful - had my brass lesson at 9am, followed by a nice ridgeline tramp up to Lowry lookout and back, I really pushed myself too, did it in less than 2 hours which is all part of my master plan; on the downside, I need some proper walking shoes as my old trainers managed to inflict a couple of blisters on me. I wandered into town after I got back, grabbed a new belt (I’ve lost so much weight I needed to!)… Oh and I treated myself to an electronic (KORG) metronome - I could use my PC but then that’s not quite so portable - for when I practice my fingering exercises and test pieces.

Today - LAZED in the morning till about lunch; then went to collect my laundry which I dropped off at some point yesterday… came back chilled whilst merrily breaking my PC using Partition Magic 7 (so I can dual boot Linux again) then managed to be late for band rehersal through an intricate series of txt chinese whispers! Managed to beat Andrew Weir there though who was the source of mis-information lol! Had a good blow, but I know I could have played better - my head wasn’t really ‘there’ tonight having just broken my PC…(now fixed btw!)….sigh, and now I’m gonna end the evening by chilling out watching the Robert Redford/Dan Akroyd/Ben Kingsley; Classic - “Sneakers”

Ah the joy…. :happy:

Ok, just finished having a good stretch and a cool down. My intention today was simply to walk out my goal training route and measure my heart rate and time to do so.

The distance covered I have calculated to be approximatley 11km (just over my 10km target distance) from my home to the end of The Esplanade where it meets Hutt road is 5.5km, so there and back - job done!

I don’t even feel nackered either which is a bonus. Based on the readings from my Polar watch, my average heart rate was 125 (being around 89-92 at rest) with a maximum heart rate of 137 depending on the terrain and the crosswinds I faced during my leisurely walk :loopy:

taking into account a pit stop halfway for a rehydrating beverage. It took me about 1 hour and 45 mins to walk 11 km. That’s WALK. I’m aiming to be able to run a 10km run in under 1 hour. If I do it in less than 50 mins I will be extremly pleased with myself!

So, why have a I started off my training like this?

I guess it’s the physics freak deep inside me, I am approaching this whole training and get ready for the race thing as a big experiment if you like, so - now after today I have a baseline. Some data for how long it takes to walk a set distance prior to any training. It will act as my control. So, by the end of 12 weeks I will repeat this exercise and see for example if there is any difference in

a) time taken to complete
b) average heart rate
c) maximum heart
d) at rest heart rate

In theory also after doing the anaerobic exercises suggested in a number of programs I have seen - I ought to be able to cut down my recovery time considerably. Not to mention my wasteline :happy: (assumes a cocky military style stance… “Huuwaaa!!”)

After my brief encounter with depression last night :numb: I have finally pulled myself together, and come to the conclusion that what happens, happens for a reason, and that ultimatley only good can come from it.

So….. :happy: What now? Tonight I will be putting together my training timetable for my end goal > The Macau Half Marathon with my sister.

I start the training properly next week, with a twelve week program (depending on how I feel during the training I may condense this down to 6 weeks) in time the the Wellington 7K on 17th February 2008.

After this milestone I will continue my training in readiness for the main Wellington 10K which is on 22nd June 2008.

This will then give me the remaining 5 months to get myself mentally and physically ready for the Macau Half Marathon. I may even get a half decent time you never know.

I’m not going to take any of this lightly, and realise that I am not going to be running kilometers fast straight away, and the first sign of trouble will see me going to a physio to work things out. Though with my correctly measured and fitted running gear and a little common sense, I think this plan can really work. I know I am definitley fired up for this. If my sister can do it (she used to suffer really bad asthma), so can I!!

So, over the next few months this blog is going to take on the form of a training diary too; so that you can share in my trials, challenges and successes along the way.

This is a positive change, and since this is a Leap Year, it’s about time I took a proper leap !! :loopy: