Today I began training for my very first marathon in April. I have a 12 week training programme to follow which — right now — looks pretty daunting. Out of the 31 days in January I have 12 rest days which means that I’ll be running for over 60% of the days in the month.

Being out celebrating the New Year until 4am isn’t particularly fantastic preparation for the beginning of training. Fortunately my run today was a very aptly named ‘recovery run’. 30 minutes of easy running. Quite a nice, steady initiation. The hard work lies ahead, but right now I am feeling quietly optimistic about the challenge.