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.

Wednesday 18 March: After a less than successful start to my training last week, I am happy to report the latter half of the week was much more productive.

I began by giving myself a break on the basis that Mondays are hard enough as it is, while Tuesday’s five-hour work trip allowed me to think I’d earned a rest that evening. However, by Wednesday, I had run out of excuses and so, armed with a steely resolve to break in my new trainers before I gave up on them altogether, I set out for a trot.

I usually walk for five minutes to warm up and then break into a light jog and depending on the time of day or general energy levels. The light jog can vary from pleasantly relaxing to full-on persecution. For example, I am not very good at running early in the morning. I am more of a nocturnal creature. Rather than injecting a boost of energy into my system to help me face the day ahead, I find it squeezes every last kilojoule of energy out of my body until I want to crawl back under the duvet for the remains of the day. I tried eating a little something before setting off one morning but all that did was add nausea to my misery and so I’ve resolved to save my athletic efforts to the early afternoon/evenings for now.

Seeking advice following my knee complaints of last week, I was informed that my style of running was all wrong. Rather than landing on the ball of my foot and pushing forward I was told that I should be landing closer to my heel and pushing through the foot towards the toes. So I decided to give that a try and boy did it feel awkward. Either the new style differed greatly to my old one, or the new trainers were very long, but I felt like I was running in flippers. I feel sure I looked ridiculous but the fact is my knees didn’t hurt half as much and the end justified the means.

As for breaking in the trainers, they felt less stiff by the end of the run so I no longer regret the investment. I set out again on Thursday, then Saturday and it dawned on me that one of my biggest issues with running is the boredom. Yes I do have an MP3 player with some great tracks, but, after a while I find myself running at a steady pace and could happily keep going if it wasn’t so monotonous. I’ve got to keep safety in mind so wandering into scenic parks alone is never advisable, but, it has dawned on me that were it not ridiculous, let alone highly dangerous, a travel TV that could be attached to the front of your head and play your favourite movies/soaps would be a great antidote to the tedium. I’m off to the gym tomorrow for my first personal training session in months to start conditioning my body for more frequent and longer runs - queue aches and pains from head–to-toe for a few days, but it’s all worth every twinge it if it helps my little Sammy in the future.

Next week: Will the professional advice help Elaine with her training? Or will it be another reason to rest for a day or two?

- Elaine Roddy