Janathon: Day 5

I RAN! As you may be able to tell, I'm a little excited by it. I was only out of action for 4 days and I couldn't wait to get back on the road. I guess the running bug has finally bitten!

The 5am alarm call (I snooze for half an hour) did make me die a little inside - I hadn't woken up that early since before Christmas. But after a few seconds of poking myself in the belly (I find a little self-bullying comes in handy at times like this), I was up, changed and out. Because the foot's still not 100% better, I took it slowly, but managed my usual 5.23km route without any more pain. I'm going to try to extend that to 7km tomorrow morning, so I feel a little more prepared for this weekend's long run.

I wanted to share something I found in this month's Runner's World magazine. They interviewed Stefaan Engels, the mentalist who's running 365 marathons in a year. He said:

"I run just like Joe Average goes to work on Monday morning - whether I feel like it or not."

That's really stuck with me, and I think it's a great way to look at training, especially for an event. I'm really bad with self-discipline, and I reckon I need to start looking at my Paris half marathon training as something that I don't have a choice in. I go to work even when I don't feel like it (how often do we ever really feel like going to work?!), and it has to be that way with the training too. There's a half marathon to run at the end of all this!

While I've got you here, I want to say a massive THANK YOU to those of you who have sponsored Team Bangs on the Run. We're all training hard, and your donations really do keep us going, and will make us go faster! If you haven't sponsored us yet, and have a couple of pounds spare (check the back of the sofa) to give to Refuge, you can do your thing on our JustGiving page. Anything you can give really will make a difference - just take a look a where your money goes.