Dubliner Elaine Roddy is one of the many thousands of women who’ll be pounding the pavement on 1 June to compete in this year’s Mini Marathon. The Kinsealy native will be sharing her training highs and lows with Herald.ie readers as she prepares for the race of her life.

This week I learned a vital lesson about training – you get out of it what you put into it and what I put into this week was very little.

It was not my finest hour in my campaign to date, not by a long shot.

But you’ve got to take the good with the bad so I consoled myself with the reasoning that one bad week will surely motivate a good week next week.

In fairness it was a stressful week with longer hours at work, and while I can’t blame nightfall as a reason not to at least go out for a run, I can blame a lack of energy and drive.

So Monday and Tuesday were a disaster but by Wednesday, aided by a little verbal encouragement from my sister (borderline abuse in fact) out I went. Now anyone who has ever struggled with the get-up-and-go element of training will know how hard it is to ‘get-up’ never mind ‘go’ if your heart’s just not in it. But let me share with you a simple trick that works like a charm.

Basically I take the challenge one step at a time – literally. I will myself to put one foot in front of the other to get my trainers on and walk out the door. I then summon the energy to move a little faster, then faster again until I break into a jog. It’s that simple and before I know it I’m on my way. Unless I have been under the weather I find that once I’m in my stride I feel great and there’s no better way to release stress-busting endorphins than a good run.

Another motivating factor in a motivation-challenged week was the thoughts of suffering the wrath of my personal trainer if I cancelled my appointment on Thursday. Not known for having a sympathetic approach to his instruction, even he took pity on me this week when he saw the look of torture on my face – and that was just on arrival – I hadn’t even started yet.

So, he coaxed me through a less forceful session than normal which I rounded off with a 25 minute run delighted with myself for having got that far. My seismic achievements of last week were but a distant memory now.

I did however take a look at my diet and have decided that I need a change. I’m still clinging on to the South Beach Diet code (but with much less devotion) and I find that the foods I’m clinging on to are, of course, those that were fine to consume when sticking to the diet but actually quite bad for you otherwise.

So, its farewell to all the sausages, bacon and eggs and hello to a more varied menu from next week. Indeed I’m going to actually cook something for a change rather purchase it after someone else has cooked it.

I learned another very valuable lesson this week. No matter how hard you try, you’re never going manage to train/run/walk….(even a crawl would have been something) if you’ve been busy extolling the virtues of alcohol as a relaxant the night before…which pretty much took care of most of the weekend but that’s another story!

Unfortunately, this is not one of my better reports but I’ve got to soldier on for little Sammy’s charity.

I’m starting next week with a heart and soul full of determination and drive - I only hope my body follows suit….