First training run for 2011 Marathon

Wow.

It's amazing how much fitness you can lose in just 12 months. This date last year I ran 26.2 miles. This morning, I struggled to do a mile.

Fair enough, I'm coming off the back of broken ribs but Jebus H. Christ I thought I was going to be sick afterwards. Ah well, every journey starts with a single step and all that!

Here is this morning's training route:

A new year, a new challenge..

This day last year, it was battered, bruised and quite literally broken but, having run my first marathon, I felt incredible. However, as good as I felt, I was very annoyed that an unfortunate injury meant that I didn't complete the course in anywhere near the time I wanted to.

Over the next year, I plan on correcting that. I am going to train for a full year, building up mile after endless mile with a view to not just completing the Dublin City Marathon 2011 but to do it in 3-3.5 hours.

I may well try and raise money for it again, as I did in 2009, but for now it's very much a personal goal. However, training to run a marathon alone can be a very boring and lonely (especially a years worth of training) so if anyone fancies joining me, please, let me know!

In the mean time I'll try to update this blog at least once a week, using Endomondo to track my routes etc.

So, here we go again....