One Small Step - Search For the Silver Buckle

To some Running 100km seems ridiculous.In fact, if you ran straight up for 100km you would reach the Karman line which is the official boundary of outer space.I think that has some connections with running 100km back on the earth. It takes you to a different place with a certain type of atmosphere that not everyone has experienced.This is my journey and it did start with one small step for man ..

Before you get off that couch and start running its important to ask yourself a couple of questions.

Why do you want to run?

If you are doing this only because someone else said you should and deep down you really don't want to, then stop right here and go and find something that you personally have an interest in pursuing.

I have found that if you are not invested in something, for the right reasons at the start, when the going gets tough you more often than not just give up.

So really take a moment to think if running is your thing.

For me, it was something I enjoyed when I was younger and loved the way it made me feel. I could just open my front door and run. Anywhere.

If Running is something you think you would enjoy the Next question to ask yourself is:

What do I want to achieve?

For some, it may be just to get fitter and that itself is a very worthwhile goal.

For others, it may be to train for a specific event.

Either way, it's important to set some goals.

This can be both short and long-term goals. Set a big one to entice you along, something adventurously challenging is my favourite, one that seems ridiculous at first thought then support this with smaller goals to inspire you to keep going.

To be honest at the start my Big goals weren't that big but they seemed massive to me.

So don't try and keep up with the Kenyans just take that first step and wondrous things will start to happen.

With any goal it's important to break it down into manageable chunks, no one can eat a 900 g steak in one bite, so let chop this up and set ourselves some easy to digest goals.

For example when I first started running my first goal was to run from my house to the top of the road and back.

A total distance of around 2 km which is around 1.2 miles in the old money.

By about 500m in I was starting to breathe heavily and by the time I finished I had a serious sweat on.

Looking back on this it's pretty funny, I obviously was not that fit but in the back of my mind, I still thought I was reasonably fit.

Blindly denying all those beers and naughties I had consumed for years would have had any effect at all.

I call it the false Hero effect. You think your a hero... But sadly you're not!

Achievable Goals

Keep these first goals achievable, slowly keep pushing yourself to run better

Note: This does not always mean faster.

Depending on what you are trying to achieve consistency is important, the tempo you run it has to be comfortable, once you are comfortable then increase the distance.

Once I could run to the top of the road and back I ran around the block which was 5 km.

I was chipping away and each day brought small victories and each run made me feel more alive.

Having this feedback of positive emotions for hard work is one of the greatest benefits of exercise.

So If you answered both these questions then you're ready for the next step.

Which is... out the door and into your first running adventure!

Share the love and let's go on an adventure together.