State of play

I'm currently training to run in my first long distance race in October. I have my eye on the EDF Birmingham Half Marathon on October 11. Given that I've never done anything like this before, I've been very cautious with my approach. I've invested in some proper running shoes, a proper training guide and today I finally ordered a heart rate monitor/watch/pedometer. Running is not cheap!

At the moment I'm training 3-4 times per week, saving my longer runs on the roads for the weekend. Almost all of my running has been done on roads, but I am now mixing things up with treadmill sessions in the gym and a weekly swimming workout. Perhaps most notably, I've also radically changed my diet (kinda had to if I had any aspirations to run well). Within 3 months I've gone from not being able to run for more than 10 minutes without stopping to completing my first 10 mile run.

I think I'm well on course to complete a 13.1 mile run in 3 months time and have thus far not had any major injury concerns, although my left leg seems to struggle more than my right. However speed has never been my strength and I realise I have a very long way to go yet. Next session will be a gentle fartlek (a casual run with regular but temporary sharp increases in speed) on Friday. These tend to be quite intense and are not my favourite part of training, but if I am to improve my speed they are necessary. So I've read.