Having publicly announced my training goals and challenges for the year ahead I now have the embarrassing task of admitting I failed at the first hurdle.

I missed my personal deadline of 1^st March to workout a training schedule and I have been struggling to run four times a week.

In fact last week I didn’t run once – my daughter’s gymnastic practice (followed by two competitions) and my son’s running training and District Sports event took precedence over my personal fitness goals. I had to approach the week as if I was ill and try and enjoy the downtime.

So I’ve decided to try new tactic…instead of (wrongly) assuming I will be able to motivate myself to run at night I’ve dusted off the running pram (an Out and About Nipper V4 - www.outnabout.com/accessories/nipper-sport-v4-new.asp) and have taken to running first thing instead.

Two days in (two runs in the bag) and I’m learning quickly:

1. Running with a pram is exhausting – my pace is terrible and so I’m focusing distance and not pace
2. The added weight, the fact I can’t move my arms properly and the often frequent stops to swap toys, calm winging and navigate deep muddy bridle paths make this a different kind of running altogether (more a walk / run kind of activity – but it’s definitely cardio)
3. But most importantly…I think I can do this…the weather is brightening up, I don’t have to rely on childcare and until it stays light past 8pm this is definitely going enable me to stick to four times a week… Hell I’ve already run twice this week, I’m 50% there!

I’ve also repeatedly counted the weeks to my first event and it’s 14 weeks away this coming Sunday…that gives me a decent chunk of time to start a proper schedule. I won’t be breaking any records on race day, but I should be able to get to a level of fitness that will allow me to run comfortably(ish)…that’s assuming the kid’s don’t have any other events that get in the way!?