I’m into my second fortnight of my fitness program, it’s still going pretty well. My diary and some other thoughts follow:

Tuesday Run – Week 2 Podcast, leg more or less recovered after Sunday

Wednesday Run – Week 2 Podcast, plus messing around with the incline settings on the treadmill to do some uphill work.

Thursday Run – Week 3 Podcast

Friday Run – Week 3 Podcast

Sunday Squash – Beat Farquhar 3-1. Did a bit of a run, but gave up due to a stitch. Cycled 2.5k instead. The lesson here is not to eat a huge bowl of porridge before going to the gym.

Tuesday Run – Week 3 Podcast

Wednesday Run – Week 4 Podcast

Thursday Run – Week 4 Podcast

Friday Run – Week 4 Podcast

Week 4 of the couch to 5K podcasts is a bit of a push, but I’m feeling really good about the running. It’s looking like I’ll definitely be able to run the 5K I want to do in March, and depending on how hard I push myself in training I might be able to do it quite comfortably. It’s a charity fun run for the Beatson Pebble Appeal so it’s for a good cause as well. The plan for the next couple of weeks is to keep going pretty much exactly as I am, running 3-5 times a week and playing Squash on Sundays.

I’ve been thinking about my long term fitness goals a bit this week as well – the Gym is trying to get people to come up with 10 goals they want to reach this year, so here are mine:

1. Complete the Couch to 5K Programme (Almost half way there!)
2. Run the 5K in March (almost half way there!)
3. Train up to 10k runs
4. Run a 10K (I believe there’s one in the summer that a friend mentioned to me)
5. Start Climbing Munros again
6. Get a bit more proficient at squash (work in progress)
7. My BMI is at the top end of Normal (around 24.5 according to the calculator I just used), I want to get it down to around 20.
8. Get a bit more serious about Rollerblading, once the weather gets nicer I want to get out for at minimum an hour a week.
9. Detox somewhat. I’ve cut way back on drinking anything other than tea or water, and I’m not drinking alcohol until at least my Birthday in March (maybe longer).
10. I don’t think it’s too crazy to try for a half marathon within the year – as a goal I think it’s possible, albeit optimistically.

Oh, and one last point. If you have any question about this (or anything else really) I now have a Formspring account Here. For those of you who don’t know Formspring is this awesome service which lets people ask you questions anonymously. I think it’s a cool idea, and I’m using it to force myself to think about things in depth.

That said however, I’m doing this at least partly for reasons related to my course – so feel free to have a read if you’re interested.

I am woefully unfit. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me and in the past I haven’t cared that much. I’m more than fit enough for the relatively easy walking that we do on university field trips, however I’m not satisfied with this level of fitness. I want to go climb Munros; go Skating a lot more and do my summer mapping project in a reasonably good physical condition. So, to achieve this I am finally making an effort to get a little bit healthier.

There are two main steps involved in this and they are:

1. Exercise a MINIMUM of 3 times a week
2. Stop drinking until (at least) my Birthday in March.

Accompanying me on this probably doomed attempt is one of my best friends, Mark, who is chronicling the attempt on his own blog here. We’re doing it for different reasons, but the desired result is the same. We’re calling it Operation Duck Hook, as a bit of Nixon-era Gallows Humour – something that’s a bit silly and over top that most likely won’t get followed through on.

I haven’t decided yet to what extent I’ll chronicle this on here. This is a geology blog first and foremost so I’d rather not overwhelm it. Never-the-less if you don’t hear me talking about it here or on twitter for a few weeks I would appreciate a good kick. So in any event I’ll let you know what I’ve done in my first week:

Sunday Run – Following the First of Robert Ullrey’s Podcasts for Running. I highly recommend these, they’re really inspiring and are helpful if you don’t really know what you’re doing with regards to training (i.e. you’re like me). I ran along the road out towards Renfrew. Light snow cover on the ground, but nothing too slippy. Run felt pretty easy, but it was the first week and I’m not quite couch potato unfit.

Joined the Gym on Monday. The Glasgow University gym is a fantastic deal – £40 for the entire year (which is about what most gyms charge per month!). I figure that since it’s £3.75 a session otherwise I need to go at least 12 times to make it worthwhile. That’s once a week for the rest of term. I want to make it at least two.

Wednesday Run – Planned to play squash, Courts were booked so went for a run instead. Again used Podcasts for running. Overdid it slightly, so back of my legs felt a bit weird for a couple of days.

Saturday Cross-Trainer – A kilometre at a time on my flatmate’s cross-trainer interspersed with breaks to sort out laundry. Did 10k, little bit worried that my dodgy knee may be unhappy with me though. I don’t particularly like the cross-trainer, it isn’t great for cardio (in my opinion) and it hurts my knees, but it’ll do my leg muscles good.

I plan to hit the gym again tomorrow for another session of running along to the podcasts. That will complete my first week of them, and I’ll be ready to move onto week two of the training program. To give myself a target I’m going to aim to do a 5k funrun in March, followed by a 10k in the summer some time.

Let’s see how it goes.

Edit: Week 2 Update (rather than a new post).

Sunday Run – Did the first of Robert Ullrey’s Podcasts for the third time. This completes the first week of running training, so for the next runs I’ll be using week two. Managed 3.5km on the treadmill. Pretty happy with that, I think I’m on track for being able to do the 5k in March. Knees are acting up a little bit though, so going to go easy on them for the next couple of days.

Monday Run – Gym, Did another Week 1 podcast (taking it slow for the sake of the knees).

Wednesday Squash – Squash with Kathie, I mopped the floor with her but it was nice to see that I’ve still got the skills – it’s like riding a bike.

Thursday Run – Week 2 Podcast.

Friday Run – Week 2 Podcast.

Sunday Squash + Run – Most of a week 2 podcast (cut short for time) + 40 minutes of Squash with Mark (3-1 to me). Pulled a muscle in the back of my left leg though, hoping that I haven’t injured myself too badly. Really enjoyed this gym session, managed to push myself quite hard in the squash games. Mark’s a great opponent because we’re pretty much on the same level skillwise, this means I spend a lot of time running around and jumping for shots.

Plan is to do another 3 (or so) runs over the next week as well as playing Squash again next Sunday. Really starting to get into this.