Overview and History

I used to run a lot. Not ever long distance, but as a Teenager I did athletics at school. I was OK at it. Generally doing Hurdles, 400m and Long Jump events (what a combo). However I gave it up when i was about 20 or 21 due to life choices that I now regret.

I always thought I was a good or natural athlete, I was pretty fit, liked running and generally was competitive, but never really had the dedication to do anything serious at all. That was obviously a bit of a mistake

Where I’m At

Now in my mid 30s I’ve rediscovered just what I enjoyed about running, pushing myself to get better times but generally enjoying the process of working towards a goal and seeing some progress along the way. But not only just getting faster but the positive aspects it has had on the rest of my life as well.

My stress levels are lower, i don’t get tired as easily, waking up earlier and generally just feeling more “human” are the results of increased exercise. But there is still a long way to go and I have some hefty goals that I want to achieve in the next couple of years.

Numbers at beginning of 2025

I was running approx 10km a week at the beginning of 2025, however that was up drastically from 2024 where I didn’t run for weeks or months on end.

As a result, in 2024 I probably only ran around 350km in total for the whole year. That is something that has to change.

I also started timing my runs, basically by working on my 5km pace at first, but soon to be working on the longer distances as well.

Here are my times at around the 1st January 2025

Goals for 2025

I have set a number of goals for myself, none of them are too hard. But it is all about consistency. With consistency it should be somewhat easy to achieve everything that I’m setting out to do.

Trying to stay injury free has been the most challenging things that I’ve had to overcome in the last 12 months, so targeting better flexibility and mobility as a way to stay injury free is going to be key.

Distance Targets

Race Targets

Before the end of 2025 I want to enter at least one of the following. All of these are distances I have not run competitively ever or in at least 15 years

• 10km
• Half Marathon
• Full Marathon

Time Targets

Goals beyond 2025

My goals beyond 2025 is something that I haven’t though about too hard, simply because I don’t know where my fitness levels will be at the end of 2025. So these are just some general things of what I want to do, not in any order but just a random splattering of goals and targets that I may or may not come back to

• 50km Ultra Marathon
• 17min 5km
• 35min 10k

How to Follow

I track everything through Strava and provide a bit of commentary there: My Strava