sofa dweller takes leave of senses.

hello all,

i've been lurking for a while and thought i'd introduce myself.

in 2003 my mum died of ovarian cancer and after seeing a few friends run the london marathon, i thought i would mark 10 years by getting of my lazy arse and raising some money for a relevant charity.

with that in mind i started running for the first time since school (18 years ago) in June, aiming to give myself a good run-up (pun intended), rather than start in october and making it hard for myself.

so far all is going well. i've discovered that when i'm not being shouted at by a sadistic excuse for a PE teacher who reaks of fags, i actually quite enjoy runnning. i'm up to doing 10K races at the mo (current PB 49:18) and have largely managed to avoid injuring myself.

i failed to get in on the main ballot but coved myself by applying through a few cancer charities. and this morning i got a call from Isobel Hospice, a little local charity who helped mum and the rest of the family hugely at the time. so i'm well chuffed that i can help out a cause i really care about rather than just running in the name of some random charity just for a place.

anyway, i'll probably be around a fair bit, just thought i'd say hi.

hi sofaboy...you seem to be doing well already.....I would start bulilding up the long run now.if you can build it up slowly now there will be less chance of injury after christams when ramoing up the miles too quickly

good luck

cheers. baring in mind the rule about not increasing by more than 10% a week, i'm thinking of adding on 1k a week up to 20 (currently my long run each week is about 12k) and then 2k a week after that. which should get me nicely up to marathon distance by febuary.

i'm currently also doing an intervals session of about 25 minutes and a couple of shorter runs a week. as time goes on, should i be lengthening all my runs or just the weekly long one?

I would try and lengthen one of the other runs mid week.........as the more miles your body runs the easier it will be......but with all things you need to get the balance right and listen to your body  .....to avoid injury

What is nice here is that you have not just applied for a charity place, you have got a place through a charity that actually made a difference, not only to your Mum's life, but supported the family through such a difficult and emotional time. That will make all the training through the winter months that much easier and more personal - 

Sorry I have not offered any advice I just wanted to wish you luck.

agree grendel...........its lovely to be able to help a charity taht means a lot to you

Sofa has you throught about doing a half somewhere in the build up for your london training. If you can get one a few weeks before will be useful both to get some experience for racing pace and also will do a lot for your confidence. Thought best to say now in case there is one near you that would be perfect but will fill up before you start to think about it.

Also hello mate and good luck on your training journey.

Good advice from Cake there Sofa, beat me to it.

When I was up for Great North Run my OH made me run BUPA Manchester 10k to get used to running in crowds and Freckleton half to do the distance.

As Cake says it did wonders for my confidence.

Dont know where you live so cant suggest any half m for you but good luck

Well done Sofaboy, you are doing something amazing and making a real difference. Just keep going the way you are and you will fly it. Best of luck

Sofaboy wrote (see)

Already entered the silverstone 1/2 in march. Couldn't pass up the chance to take
the racing line and make car noises...

 Nice one know this might sound daft but if you need a lift and ask don't be surprised if you get some very strange responses. It's become a in-joke on the threads. It's like a sign that spring as sprung.