Once upon a beginning

I've decided to enter some races this year for the first time.
   
I've never done anything competitively before, so this is all new ground for me. It seems like the sort of thing that would be good to blog about, if nothing else than for my own interest further down the line.
   
I've set myself a lot of goals; some short term, some long term and some that I may never achieve. All my serious goals are restricted to running, though I have thought seriously about entering a triathlon. I'm a very poor swimmer and haven't cycled in years, but I think competing in the short sprint distance would be an interesting and very difficult challenge.

The Races

My first goals are to compete in the British 10k on July 8th, to compete in the Bupa Great Birmingham Run on October 21st and to compete in the Great South Run on October 28th.
   
That's a total of 29.3 miles over the three races; 6.2 miles, 13.1 miles and finally 10 miles.
   
That's not all though - as a warm up, I have entered the Lymington Lifeboat 10k on the 13th May. The day after my birthday.
   
The difficulty lies with the final two, which are on consecutive weekends. Part of me thinks I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but I'm confident I can do both if I taper properly towards the end of my training.

The Training

To prepare for these races, I'm going to be following Hal Higdon's training programmes beginning immediately after the warm-up 10k race I entered with my ex-flatmate Ash in Lymington.
   
The first programme will take me from 10k to 10k in 8 weeks. I aim to show some improvement over that time, so the second 10k (and first of my 'major' races) will be a race against myself and that time. I think this will probably be the most interesting thing about this year. I'm curious to see if I do improve noticeably and, if so, by how much.
   
Following that, I will have 2 weeks break before the 12 week programme to my first half-marathon begins. I am not aiming to push myself too hard in that event because of the 10-mile Great South Run the following weekend; I don't want to injure myself! I hope to finish in a respectable time (under 2 hours) leaving me free to really push hard in the Great South Run.

The Tracking

I will begin to use DailyMile to track my progress in training as well as using RunKeeper, which doesn't have a widget to display on the blog.
   
I won't stop using RunKeeper, though, the main reason being that I intend to subscribe to RunKeeper Elite, meaning family and friends can track my progress live on the days I'm running.

The Nutrition

This is probably the biggest unknown for me. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be eating through training apart from to make sure I have enough carbs. As for when I eat and how much, that will all have to be part of the learning curve.

The Charities

Finally, I couldn't be doing these runs without trying to raise some money for someone. Since I am a Christian who is aware that not everyone is, I am running for two charities, one Christian and one non-Christian.

   

Open Doors 

OD is a charity committed to supporting persecuted Christians worldwide. Since the nature of persecution varies so massively, from physical torture to social discrimination, their work varies too. Open Doors exists to meet the need of the persecuted, whatever that may be, and to "remember those in prision, as though in prision with them" (Hebrews 13:3). I see this as a command, not a request. Since I can't physically go to help, I'm doing what I can, and what I can do is run.

Compton Hospice

This is where my Grandpa, Gilbert, spent a lot of time during the final years of his life. I was very young at the time and I don't think I ever really understood more than "Grandpa's ill" or what it meant to have a stroke. As I've grown older and matured, I can look back and see how vital the work of the hospice was. My family is very close, so there was a lot of support for my Nan and each other, but even with everyone pulling together to help, the hospice did a huge amount to ease some of the pressure and take away the worry of the practicalities for a long time. If a family as close as mine could benefit so much, it's clear to see how needed their work is for people who don't have anyone to turn to when facing terminal illness.

   
I will put up links to JustGiving pages as soon as I can.
   
So this will be the first step on a long journey - 5 months of which will be spent just in training. I think I will need to focus 100% on these goals if I am going to achieve them, so any other goals like getting my 5k time down will have to take a back seat till October.