Wednesday 15th April: My disastrous lack of training last week thankfully sowed the seeds of a much more fruitful effort this week.

For starters my change of diet has had the intended effect of giving me more energy. I now rise a mere 10 minutes earlier than normal to make and eat some porridge. I’ve always loved porridge but the memories of “pots on stoves” of my youth when my mother used to make it served to put me off cooking it myself as it seemed there was too much effort required. Sinfully lazy I know, but the truth all the same. I can now microwave oats in under four minutes for a quick and healthy breakfast. Lunch and dinner are much healthier too and I’ve found I quite like the process of buying the ingredients to cook my own dinner. I may be a long way off the Nigella Lawson skill-set when it comes to fine dining, but I make a mean stir-fry.

So with my diet sorted I then had the task of stepping up my game in training. Monday was a light run, while Tuesday brought me back to the gym for my beloved cardio-kick class - though I’m starting to think this may evolve into a love-hate relationship. You know things are tough when the instructor looks a bit wrecked going through the motions herself. At one stage in order to keep our heart rates up we were doing a basic can-can for a minute. Sounds easy? Try doing it at speed with constant hollers to kick higher and you’ll soon realise why those dancers at the Moulin Rouge look so fit. It can get quite dangerous when exhaustion blurs the ability to judge distances and you realise you’re a couple of centimetres away from booting someone else in the back. And is a minute really only sixty seconds long? Felt like an hour to me.

With Wednesday evening, came a personal training session, focusing on the arms, that I followed with an advanced step class. It’s basically the same extremely high steps, but a different routine. The instructor for this class owns the gym and I’m quite certain he gets a sadistic thrill out of watching us gasp for air and water when we’re finished, but it truly is an all over body work out and I’m quite certain if I can continue with this class regularly I’ll be more than able for a 10K run.

As Easter weekend drew closer I wound down my efforts a little, but not completely as with previous weeks. On Thursday I went to my Pilates class as I have done for years. Pilates is a passion of mine, as much for its calming influence not to mention its hard-to-beat toning and strengthening benefits. For those who fear body conditioning and weight-lifting because it could create ‘bulk’ then you should give Pilates a go. If it’s good enough for ballet dancers, then its good enough for me. Finally on Easter Sunday I went with some of my family for a long walk on the beach in the beautiful sunshine, to balance out all that festive chocolate I’d eaten earlier in the day.

Next week: With Elaine now finding some real pace in her training schedule, will she be able to keep it up in the weeks ahead in the countdown to the big race?

- Elaine Roddy