Yesterday I went to the gym with the intention of running 5K on the treadmill. The aim was to complete the 5K in under 30mins, at about a 9-9.30 min mile pace.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. It wasn’t even close to happening.

Over the last couple of weeks I have had the horrid realisation that not only am I overweight, but I am incredibly unfit. I haven’t run more than 5K at once since the marathon, and I have really let things slide, both with my exercise routine and with my diet.

Here are the facts;

I am 5ft 6in and weigh 69kg, and last time I was measured, had a body fat percentage of 30.7%. (31% is classed as obese). Whilst I am not obsessed with my body fat percentage (lets blame it on the boobs), I am concerned that my BMI is 24- the top end of healthy, and that my clothes size has gradually increased over the last 2 years. Most importantly though, I am unhappy with my figure, and this affects my confidence.

With a hot holiday (warm/warmish) coming up in 8 weeks time, I am determined to get myself to body shape that I am happier with, and one I will feel comfortable wearing a bikini in.

Add to this my lack of fitness, and the need for a lifestyle overhall comes into play.

• I need to increase my cardio fitness.
• I need to decrease my waist size.
• I need to reduce my body fat percentage/weight.
• I need to increase my muscle strength.
• I need to tone up my body.
• I need to clean up my diet.

Anyway, back to the 5K realisation workout. I set out to run the whole 3.1 miles in under 30mins. This would mean the treadmill would be set at about 7mph. So I set the treadmill going at a speed of 7 and felt quite comfortable running at that pace for 1km, until I looked at the time it had taken me. Over 8 mins! I realised that would equate to a 5k of over 40mins- way over goal time. I then worked out that I was running at 7 kilometres per hour! Not so impressive.

I cranked up the treadmill to work out at 7mph- about 10.3kmp, and found it really difficult. So difficult infact that I talked myself into running 1K at 10.3 speed, before turning it back down to 7 for 1K, effectively doing an unintentional interval workout!

So it looked a little something like this

I have signed up to do a 5K race on the 11th November, and am really hoping to clock a time of under 30mins. I have a lot of work to do between now and then if I am going to achieve that!