I’ve been visited by a couple of examples of inspiration over the past few days. My friend Jane is a huge inspiration. She has lost a huge amount of weight recently and ran her first marathon last weekend.  Then there is the example, that has been all over Facebook, of 100 year old Ida Keeling in the US who runs. She took up running when she was 67 years old and is still running in fun runs today. My thought is that  if she can do it, surely I can get back into it again. I do miss a good run.

photo: npr.org

My last run was in January, and then I went overseas for a few weeks, and didnt bother getting back to it after returning. Even though I’ve been doing gym most days and walking long distances, I have been missing the heart thump of a good run. Even a good slow run, as is usually the case with me, gets the heart beating fast.

So thanks to Jane, and Ida Keeling, yesterday found me back on the treadmill, with a training plan, aiming to increase my distance to 5k of running. I thought the first run would feel like being a total beginner, but it wasn’t too bad. I managed to do the 5k, but there was quite a bit of walking involved. Even though I have definitely lost running fitness, I feel better after that run, and am a little confident that I may get to my goal of running 5k quicker than expected.

The last run was earlier in the year, when I did the Run 4 Kids New Year Virtual Run and ran my chosen distance of 100k in January. It wasn’t as hard as it sounds. All I needed to do was run 5k on 20 days. That was all done on the treadmill. It’s probably about a year since I’ve run outside.

The plan is to stick with the treadmill until reaching 5k, and then get back out on the road. I will be run/walking on Mon, Wed & Friday and will report back on how the progress is going. I’d love to get back to the trail running that I used to do a couple of years ago. Every Sunday, I would go for a long run in the bush, and just loved it.

Consider me training for my retirement. I want to be that 100 year old lady.