Last weekend, my good friend Lukeh ran his first marathon, completing the incredible 26 miles in the first event held in Newport city centre. He was raising money for a mental health charity and was aiming to complete the marathon in about 4 and a half hours. I'd been watching his progress as he shared training updates on Twitter, and reading along as the nerves kicked in once the marathon …

And so, I’m done. If you’ve been following along, you might remember that May was a bumper month for running activities, including an epic 10k. Unfortunately, that 10k was the pinnacle, and the eventual downfall of my running career. Gradually, things got worse and worse, and at the end of my May monthly update, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about it. I completed four runs in …

Starting with the good news, I reached the halfway point of the "500 kilometres in one year" challenge. It's quite a big achievement for me to have reached the middle mark, especially considering the slow start to the year I had! The gap between actual and target is also very heartening. The bad news is that running at the moment is a complete nightmare. There's a big leap in that …

Hoorah! At last I have managed to not only keep up with the target, but overtake it and get a bit of a healthy lead. Another achievement this month is to have no gap longer than three days. That is something I am looking at working on reducing even further but I am slightly torn. This 5k route I have found myself is becoming routine but I think I would …

I finally found a really good course layout that I am happy running along, and it is exactly 5km taking me from almost door to almost door. It's perfect, and I started to get in a really good routine, into the groove. I crossed the 100 kilometre mark, moving past 20% of the total. I even managed to get ahead of the target even if it was only by 0.02 …

January ended with a disappointing 14km deficit from the target, thanks to some days inside due to snow and illness. I was determined to catch up a bit in February (there's nothing like a target on a graph to be motivational!) and started off with an ill-advised 9k. I was aiming for 10 and had to give up before I got there, and then felt like I'd overdone it for …

This year, I set myself a Runkeeper goal of completing 500 kilometres in twelve months. It's a crazy goal, but in 2012, I managed almost 450km, so it should only take a bit more of a push to be able to achieve this. It's one of those that is within my sights but is still going to be a bit tricky. Of course, if January is anything to go by, …

The final few weeks of the year haven't really gone as I had planned. I didn't manage to complete a 10k in December, which is disappointing but not surprising. The weather has been terrible, either freezing cold or torrential rain. I'm not a completely fair-weather runner, but it's hard to get the motivation when it is both dark AND raining. I had planned to make the most of my holiday …

It's been a tricky couple of weeks, particularly this last weekend. I'm getting to the point where most of my running is going to be done on a weekend now, because of the lack of daylight hours. I had a four day weekend but spent most of it tucked up inside with an extraordinarily painful sore throat. No running for me. However, before that occurred, I had managed to complete …

How has it been four weeks since I last wrote an update? Very odd. I managed to complete October's 10k. If you'll remember, I was hoping to improve on this: Jun – 1:34:31 Jul – 1:36:03 Aug – 1:30:55 Sep – 1:34:31 And I managed this: So, not a personal best, but close enough. In other personal best news, my thirty minute runs have topped out at 3.63km, which I …

After the high of new running shoes wore off (only took a week this time, boo!) I wanted a bit of a boost, so I tried out another Zombies Run mission - it's always good to try something different. I noticed that the people behind Zombies Run are creating a spin off version based on the Couch 2 5K thing. I'm jealous! Can I go back to the beginning and …

After the last update, I did go out and purchase some new shoes. They're in a similar fashion to my old ones - white and Nike - but they're also quite awesome. They have purple insides and purple laces! How can they be anything but great? Instantly, I wore them and was back on form... if you can call what I do any kind of form. I completed another 10k, …

It's not been a good couple of weeks, I'll be honest. I had hoped to go out for a longer run this weekend but I only had two opportunities - one of them was far too hot to even consider and the other one... well, I went for a nap instead. You know how it is. The last six runs I have done have been thirty minutes each, and have …

There hasn't been too much to report for the last two weeks, I'm afraid real life has just got in the way of my dreams of Olympic stardom. In reality, I have been training at work for two weeks, with another still to come, and it's amazing what a difference this change of pace makes. Firstly, I've been getting home from work a little later than normal. With time such …

I renamed the category for these posts a while back, opting to call it the Running Diary. As that is the case, here is a true day by day diary of last week's workouts. Monday Definitely in the mood for a run today, having not been out since Wednesday. It was a busy weekend, so no real time to hit the pavements. Went out for thirty minutes, felt good, relatively …

Firstly, I can't quite understand where the last two weeks have gone. These are meant to be weekly updates but they keep turning into fortnightly ones because the days are escaping me. It felt like it was going to be a really good week/fortnight for running this time, although now I look back I didn't go nearly as much as I had thought! After running on Sunday, I also went …

(Bit late posting this one, but the heat! When you get to read about this week's running adventures I already know it will say TOO HOT TO BE ALIVE! But that is for the future.) I don't know. Each week I start with the best intentions and they just get brushed aside as quickly as I can snap my fingers. Instead of whining on about when I did and didn't …

I had to take it easy the week after my first ever 10k as I wasn't feeling too good, and then the weather began to turn. It worked out okay, because the rest did me some good. Last week, things were a lot better, and I went out on Monday and Wednesday. Finally, I was seeing 30 minute runs with average paces under 8:30 again. Phew! I thought I'd forgotten …

This week, I did good. I ran on Monday and Wednesday and Friday. I didn't do anything in between, which isn't really sticking to the plan, but hey, running more. Go me! I had Friday off work, which meant I had some time to do a longer run. I also needed to do a longer run due to some over-indulgence during Film Watch the night before. So, I started slow, …

My weekly updates are more often than not becoming fortnightly, but that's okay, there has been so little to report of late. This week has been a complete washout because back pain has stopped me doing anything more than walking like a robot and sitting. I don't really know what happened, I thought at first I had just slept funny. I went for a run that first day but then …

I didn't post an update last week because there was very little to report. We've been in the midst of a heatwave - probably the only summer that Britain will see this year - and it was just awful. I could hardly keep the motivation to stay upright, let alone go out and exercise. The beginning of this week was similar, although I did think it was cooler on Monday …

I was a bit late posting the last update, so it feels like only five minutes ago I was writing about being rubbish at running. But here I am back again to talk some more! This week I managed three runs, so we're back to the minimum that I should be doing, although I still want to do more. It has been three shorter runs this week, though. As mentioned …

Two runs in a week, this is progress! What I am finding now is that as the 10k program I'm working through gets harder, the runs get longer. Which is fine physically, because I am just about keeping up (if getting ridiculously slower as the distances get longer). It's just timewise. I've said it before, but it's tricky to justify more than an hour of running in an evening, unless …

I'm getting a bit fed up of saying "well, this week I didn't run much" but it turns out to have been another fortnight of frustration. What with family things, work things, and trying to find the right combination of time, weather and energy, I'm just about getting back on top of it. So, last week there was just one run on Monday, and this week I also went out …

This week, the one run I've got up on Runkeeper isn't quite fair, but it has been a rather pitiful seven days. Monday, I went out for a run but after about ten minutes, I knew my calves weren't having any of it. A further few minutes on and my app cut off midway through a pace update and when I checked, the time had gone all weird. I decided …

I didn't write an update last week because I got a bit mixed up with the days, given the two bank holidays. Before I knew it, it was Tuesday, and I figured it could wait for a double update today. I've also not been running as much as I would have liked, after some rather busy days followed by some more reluctant days. I'm still working through the 10k class, …

It doesn't take long before my attention span wanders. I had that plan, run thirty minutes in the evening, a long run at weekends. Then the clocks changed, and there was all this daylight in the evening, and I wanted to do something a bit more focused. So, I went and signed up for another Runkeeper Fitness Class. Actually the same one I did before, the 10k one. I could …

A couple of good runs this week, but no big one at the weekend. I was mentally prepared to do it, but then the race went on a bit longer than imagined and I ran out of time. Oh well, gearing up for it, I suppose. During the week, I found myself listening to my own music, rather than those big running megamixes I have downloaded. At some point, it …

Back to running again, which was a good feeling. The first run back was great! I thought it would be tough, but as it turns out, it was pretty much exactly the same as the one I left off with - and that was a good one! I had intended to go out today, but it's been a bit of a busy and mixed up weekend - what with the …

No running for me this week, and boy do I feel guilty about it. I'm seeing tweets of people running super speedy 10k distances, or beating their personal bests, or Jenson Button's girlfriend completing her first marathon and I just feel awful. Physically, I probably could have managed a week of running but mentally, I was all over the place. Job stuff, car stuff, work/life balance stuff, podcast stuff, it's …

I'll admit it, I've been pretty hopeless with the running this week. With all kinds of healthy activities really. It's just been hectic, and excuses, excuses, excuses. Today should have been my long run day but I woke with such a headache, I couldn't face it. This is the first day in a long while where I have just had the entire day free to do what I want, and …

During the week, I managed two runs which isn't quite up to the amount I want but is close enough. Finally, my new shoes are broken in and the problems I was experiencing are all gone. The only issue I'm left with is that the flat of my feet feel a bit weird once I take the shoes off. I'm assuming this is something I will get used to. I …

It's been an interesting week, running wise. It started off with the first run for six days on Monday. It wasn't very good, my ankles and calves hurt. My knees started protesting after the event, and it just all felt very wrong. I tweeted about it and got a few good responses with ideas of what it could be - a lack of practice, the requirement for new shoes, the …

Again, it was a bit of a dull week, as the weather played a big part in keeping me indoors. I tried to make up for it by using our newly acquired exercise bike, and I was intrigued by the results. I thought my legs would kill afterwards, but actually they weren't too bad at all. I presume that is something to do with all the running, perhaps my legs …

There's not much to report this week. I ran twice - the first was an excellent workout, I felt good and strong and capable of taking on the world. The second was the complete opposite, slow and muggy, and ended in tears. I was disappointed and frustrated and figured it was all pointless. You know how it gets sometimes. I posted my immediate thoughts on RunKeeper and had some brilliant …

This past week only involved two runs, which was pretty disappointing. However, they were both much better than any of the other weekday runs I've done this year, I reckon. I also think I know why. On Monday evening, I suddenly decided that it was the time to start eating properly. There were three main reasons I decided to get an app. The first was to find out more about …

After last week's enforced break thanks to some poorly timed germs, it was hard going to get back into it this week, but I didn't do too badly. Went out on Monday and Tuesday - both of which felt like I had wooden legs and had forgotten how to use them. It was bitterly cold, and in places it was frosty, and as it is quite dark I was stepping …

This week has been a complete bust. I came down with a sore throat that developed into a cold and kept me indoors all week. I was starting to feel better on Friday, and thought I might get out today, but I think it might be moving into my chest and I want to be a bit more precautionary than reactionary. I know January hates me, and I don't want …

After running on New Year's Day, I started my new regime - which essentially was "running more." I wasn't sure exactly what the plan was, but I had found a suitable route for the less than daylight post-work hour. Having said that, it's amazing how quickly the daylight extends once the shortest day of the year is out the way. So, I ran on Bank Holiday Monday to try and …

I ran on Christmas Day, and now I have run on New Year's Day as well. I had plans to run in between but as ever, they didn't quite work out. Already, amazingly, the daylight is creeping in of an evening. As soon as we had the shortest day, it felt like the difference could be seen - but perhaps that is a psychological thing. I have found a route …