Couch to half-marathon

Okay so after the revelation the other day that I'm going to try and run a half-marathon in six months' time, let's break this down a bit.

Maybe one day I can look back at how far I've come?!  ...Which means recording the ugly truth about where I am right now.

I've just turned 39 years old.  I'm what fitness apps like to call "essentially sedentary" - other than housework and lifting my kids occasionally, I do no physical activity whatsoever.  Occasionally I might go for a walk with a friend or my mum when she's here visiting.  Sometimes I ride my bike on the driveway with the kids.  I load firewood in winter.  That's it.  I suppose it's worth noting but of no relevance whatsoever that I am a "healthy" weight.  And that's hopefully the last time you'll hear me mention that topic.

My fitness history is patchy at best.  I'm no athlete.  I was never good at sports at school, although I did enjoy cross country despite never being the fastest or actually, you know, joining the team or anything.  Through my adult life I've had periods of time where I've been a committed gym member, and of course I did do that 5K back in 2013 as previous mentioned.  But for the past eight or so years I've done basically no exercise, and I wouldn't describe myself as a naturally active person at all.

So long story short, I am very definitely starting from zero.  The half-marathon is in July.

My goal is to finish.  To run 99% of it.

So that covers my history and my goal.  Where are we at today?

As of today, I've been running for basically two weeks.  I'm doing run/walk intervals to increase my endurance in the time-honoured C25K method.  Today I ran for five minutes to set a benchmark for my shiny new Garmin watch (it's a Forerunner 245 for those of you taking notes).  I ran a pace of 7:42/km, which means it's going to take me at least 2-3 hours to run the half-marathon... if my very poor maths hasn't failed me.

For the past two weeks I've been doing three runs per week but I'm hoping to increase it to four, running while my girls are at kindy/school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with a long run early on Sunday mornings.

At this early stage I really can't picture how I will achieve my goal.  I find running very hard.  There's no "easy conversational pace" for me, it's all just very hard work.  I'm motivated by the idea of achieving something that feels impossible right now.  Although it's difficult I do enjoy the challenge and of course it feels great knowing you're doing something good for your wellbeing.  On the days I run I get more stuff done, I eat better, and I drink more water.

I'll try to update here once a week or so.  Apologies to those of you who are here for the trees and the knitting posts.  It's going to be a lot about running for a while...