Step 1: Standing up

After 4 months of living in Mongolia with limited opportunity to exercise, it's time to set a goal and get back out there!

My aim? To complete the Gobi Half Marathon on Sunday 23rd September. Yep, 21km of sand running in the desert. Quite an ambitious goal, but it's not every year you have the chance to live in Mongolia, and this seems like the perfect challenge.

It's been a couple of years since I've done any serious running. My poor legs have been a little forgotten whilst I've focused on paddling and building upper body strength, but now I have 10 weeks to switch on my legs again, and build up to the event. 

At the moment in Mongolia it's summertime, days are long with the sun rising at 5am and setting just before 10pm, and the air cool in the mornings and evenings - perfect for training. Billy sent me a training plan yesterday based on one written by Pat Carroll and I'm hoping to tick all the boxes over the next few weeks.

First step. Standing up!

Shoes on standing up!

With shoes on (standing up), I headed out this morning for the first session - Speed work, 10 x 30 sec sprints, with a 1min rest in between sets. After jogging along the streets for around 10min, I realised there wasn't really anywhere nice to train, and I thought back to the beautiful Centennial Park at home, 5min from my house. Non-deterred, I picked a straight section of path alongside the Children's Park and began the sets, a little to the surprise of the few office workers up early on their way to work.

Luckily it was a short session to begin with. I'm a little puffed, and my knee is a bit sore, but hopefully these things will improve over the coming weeks.

It feels good to be training with a purpose again!