This post comes courtesy of  fellow B2L-er and ‘True Lad’  Sam Kane – always an inspiration… Follow him on Twitter at @SamKano.

I’ve loved sport all my life. You name it, I’ll try to play it. In the off-season though, I’ve never really done much training in preparation for the new season come September-time – I’ve always much preferred Red Stripe, crisps and Nandos (because I really am a True Lad) if I am honest. However, last season, I had a bit of awakening. I always used to be able to go out drinking on the Friday and still turn in a half-decent performance on the Saturday. The past season, I found that this was no longer the case… any boozing on a Friday meant sheer fatigue on a Saturday. I’m sure turning 30 and a visibly slowing metabolism is nothing more than a mere coincidence.

So this summer, I thought, for once I am going to make sure I am in some sort of shape for the coming September. And naturally, working in such close proximity with James and Armo meant running was front of mind. So I have been attempting to do a couple of runs a week to help with the upcoming season. The main sports I play (football and rugby) are very stop-start, and when it comes to running are much more about pace over 40m than any distance. As a result, long distance, which for me is about 800m, has never been a forte.

However, after talking with the LSR boys about their running exploits and the fact that a certain other person recently smashed a 10k run (it’s either talk “running” with them or actually try to have a conversation with them… the former always wins). The Charminator put me on to a really useful app, RunKeeper, which uses GPS to monitor your distance, heart rate, calories burnt, pace and speed. Despite the new advertising campaign for Adidas’ miCoach, starring SK-rejects Jessica Ennis and Victoria Pendleton (unlucky ladies), I can’t recommend this app highly enough. I have been running for about two months now and was taking on 7k runs. I’ve got my time down to 31.26 from an initial 34.50. This week however, I hit a true personal milestone.

I knew I was meeting a friend for the football last night, am going to a pub quiz tonight, have a birthday tomorrow and wedding reception on Saturday, meaning running won’t be too high on the agenda for the coming days. So I decided to do two laps of Wandsworth Common instead of the normal one, which transpires is a 10k run (ok 9.8km, but I’m new), to justify the impending drinking. I’ve only ever run as far once before in a Nike 10k, when the aforementioned age was considerably lower and the aforementioned metabolism was considerably faster. I got round then in 48.17. I surprised myself with the result (and believe me, my ego is often off the Richter). I clocked 44.28.

Now, I’ve seen what James and Armo do on this blog, so here are my mile times or “splits” as I believe people in the know call them:

Mile                  Pace (min/mile)

1                                             6.33
2                                             6.26
3                                             7.59
4                                             7.20
5                                             8.15
6                                             7.30

I think it’s fair to say I went off too quickly, but was pleased to almost keep under eight minutes a mile. There’s no doubt that the regular running has improved my fitness and probably put me in better stead for the upcoming season. And there are two other points to end on. 1) I’m now obviously completely ripped and 2) it is undoubtedly completely down to the sheer inspirations that are Armand David and James Coyle… Both are gospel truth…. Obviously…

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