Getting serious...ish

There is a lovely loop outside the village of Quin that passes my house and connects to the Mid Clare Way. You know the roads, narrow with grass growing in the middle and well sheltered. The loop is 3.5 miles (5.6km) with a gradual hill for almost half a mile at the start.

This is a perfect distance for me right now and I have ran it a dozen times or so in the past 2 months but after successfully entering Ballycotton 10 mile road race it is time to get serious about my training.

Without a goal I would train aimlessly and probably skip the wet morning workouts so I have 10 weeks to get my ass in gear and get fit enough to race 10 miles.

Due to work and getting my son to school for 8.30am I have to get up at 6am for my weekday morning runs so I bought a headlamp and some reflective gear for the dark winter mornings. Running in the dark is a bit surreal and you do have to concentrate or else you could be ankle deep in a pothole - especially with the rough weather in ireland these weeks.

My plan for the next few weeks is to run this 3.5m loop 3 times a week with a longer run at the weekend. So my mileage will be aprox. 16 miles rising to 20 ish. Not alot for most serious runners but for someone who isn't fit it is enough.

All going well after Ballycotton I will run a half marathon in early summer (Great Limerick Run?) with the aim of breaking 2 hours. I have ran 2 hilly halfs in 2.03 and 2.04 so it is achievable.

I was a bit horrified to see my weight at 13st11lbs after the Christmas holidays so I need to work on this too. 13 stone would be great but I'm not going to obsess too much, I will lessen the carbs significantly over the next few weeks using the Dukan template, we'll see how that goes!