Day 8: 20/04/07

Wednesday proved to be something of a revelatory day in the Goodfellow Training Programme. On finding that the scheduled Body Blasts class I had been due to attend was cancelled, I took the opportunity for some much-needed stamina building. A quick five-minute warm-up on the upright exercise bike was followed by 42 minutes on the treadmill – which presents the problem in a nutshell really. Forty-two minutes. That would be 12 minutes too long then. Nevertheless, it was encouraging that I had managed to run the first 2km without stopping, in 16 minutes – and that was just three days after I first set foot back in gym (on Sunday) after a two-week absence through ill-health.

I finished the session with a five-minute cool down on the sit-down exercise bike, vowing to really up the training after realising with something resembling a cold panic that the race was actually four weeks and four days away and counting. It was only on my return home that I made the second realisation: I needed new trainers!! A hint that this was the case was the half-inch long blister that had developed on the insole of my foot – and not for the first time. I’m sure this is something all you readers realised a long time ago, but you really do need the right kit for this lark – and quite frankly, my two-year-old probably-not-designed-for-proper-running-in-the-first-place trainers were just not cutting it. So determined, was I, to get the proper shoes for the job that the very next day I was the proud owner of some swanky new trainers – actually designed for running long distances. And of course while I was there I couldn’t resist buying some proper socks and a cute pair of pink shorts as well…let’s put it down to an incentive to carry on the training!!