Back on the road

I've decided to start running again. I made this decision yesterday evening, during a game of tag in the back garden with the children. Although I could still comfortably out-pace the one-year-old, I was having a harder time keeping ahead of the four-year-old. And things were, well, wobbling rather a lot.

So it was up at the crack of 6:45 this morning to return to my old plodding ground, the short loop around the nearby streets. I took it gently, stretching before and after, walking for a bit to warm up, and trundling gently along with run 1/walk 1 intervals. I haven't retained a great deal of residual fitness from last year's running; I was going about as fast I did after my first week of running. But I suppose that's only to be expected.

It's always a good idea to write your goals down, so here are mine:

• Short term: Go running at least three times a week throughout June. Actually I'm hoping for four times a week, including one longer run at weekends.

• Medium term: Run the short loop (2.36k) without stopping. As before I'll extend the intervals gradually until I get there.

• Long term: Run 10k without stopping. And I'm going to do this before I even think about running in a 10k race.