I've been hitting the gym regularly over the last few weeks having done little exercise apart from climbing and the odd bike ride for a while. This training is partly for general health and well being but also training for various endeavours this summer. At the end of the summer I'm running the Great North Run - the largest Half Marathon in the world! I'm also spending the summer trekking in Morocco and with Dave Cornthwaite on the Mississippi.
I started my running at just twenty minutes as I was rowing and doing weights, as well as some time on the bike. Over two weeks this has built up and today I hit the one hour mark - 10.5 km (just over 6 1/2 miles) in 1 hour. It felt incredible to be honest.
I've never been much of a runner to be honest - I've always been sporty and trained hard regularly for rugby, football, cricket and other sports but I've never really gone out and run for the sake of it. An hour run is definitely the longest I've just run for and I was amazed how comfortably I could do it. Running is better than I thought it was, more fun and more rewarding.
I don't think you need to be super fit to run an hour, I think you just need to want to do it and have the right mindset. Think positive and it will come. I'm looking forward to my training moving on, not just with running, but running for an hour seemed a good landmark. Whilst I could probably have done it at many times in my life; during the rugby season at school and things, I had never gone and done it - I have now.
I've cycled for a whole day before, trekked a whole day before and played full length rugby and football matches before, but running for an hour was incredibly rewarding - go and try it!
