Full disclosure: I’ve been trying to start training for a few weeks now. But between holidays, poor planning and general laziness, it has not gone well. Predictably, it wasn’t working so I sat down with my good friend Dharmesh (10+ years of running experience, Ironman triathlete and all round legend) who gave me a few pointers and suggestions including keeping this blog for accountability.

The result? The outline of a proper training plan and a commitment to give it my all. Here’s how week 1 went:

Prep work

Preparation is an important part of the process; you could just go out and run but that’s a short way away from frustration, fatigue and boredom. As part of my preparation, I went through a “health mot” at my local gym to give me a baseline (stats to follow)

The easiest and most enjoyable part of any training plan – gear and gadgets!

The shoes

Unsurprisingly, shoes are very important. I happen to have flat feet (like comically flat – my footprints don’t look right) which is often referred to as “over pronation”. It puts a lot of stress on my knees and ankles and so I needed the right gear.

After a lengthy consultation at “runners need” (a specialist running store with some really passionate and knowledgeable staff) and some gait analysis; they recommended the Brooks GTS 18. Honestly, you may find cheaper shoes elsewhere but the knowledge and service at the store more than makes up for that so I highly recommend you support them!

Other gear

Garmin vivoactive 3 smart watch. Honestly, this was an extravagance; I’d been eyeing it up for a long time but marathon training gave me an excuse to buy it. Tracking is important though so you can pick up a cheap GPS watch for about 50 pounds from most sports stores.

Technical t-shirts
Extemely cheap (3 pounds from decathlon), great for those sweaty training sessions – and if you’re doing it right then you should definitely be sweaty!

The plan

The training plan we came up with in the end involves the following weekly schedule:

3 x runs (varying levels)

2 x core training (Pilates, rowing etc)

2 x resistance training (weights)

1 x cross training (cycling)

(I’ll go into the specifics of each over the next few weeks)

Rinse and repeat for three weeks followed by a “rest week”. Rest weeks are important to ensure you don’t overtrain and injure yourself – but it doesn’t mean you just kick back! The number that gets thrown around a lot is about 60% of your usual effort/distance e.g if you usually run 5km then go for 3km during your rest week. The other key component during a rest week is a “test run” to check progress and recalibrate your next three weeks of training. For me, this means trying my hardest to run 5km to check pace, endurance etc.

Results

Not good. Firstly, I took what turned out to be an incredibly intense Pilates class (yes they exist) that crippled me for the rest of the week – turns out my hip flexors are incredibly weak and I couldn’t walk and I couldn’t even stand up straight. I squeezed in a run at the end of the week but certainly not the glorious start I’d envisioned. A bit disappointing and anticlimactic (sorry) for sure but roll on week 2…

Stats

Max distance run: 5km

Average pace: 7:39m/km

Longest continuous running: 10minutes

Weight: 97kg

Waist: 44in

BMI: 32.4

WHR: 0.96