How I did it: I built up to it gradually. With the level of fitness I have, it's more of a jog than a run, but I set myself a pace I could maintain realistically (7.6km) and had an idea of the distance/time I wanted to do and just ran at the same pace throughout. I kept my eye on various measurements on the display and just kept aiming for some arbitrary marker on the way, i.e. I'm at 34 calories - let's get to 40 calories; now I'm at 4 mins 10 seconds, let's get to 5 minutes. I kept doing that until I got to my actual target.

If I really struggled to hit my actual target, I went for as long as I could before I really started flagging, noted what I'd done and set a little bit longer/further for the next time.

It took me three trips to the gym in total to get from doing just over two-thirds of my target to reaching it.

Lessons & tips:

• take it steady
• pace yourself
• psych yourself up before you go
• do some other exercise to warm up first
• wear trainers that are comfortable
• be inspired to reach your goal, but don't be over-ambitious
• know the level you're at and have a realistic aim
• be pleased with what you achieve if it's better than you would normally do, even if you don't achieve your goal
• use what you do achieve as a benchmark to nudge yourself past the next time

Resources:

• good footwear
• comfortable clothing
• music (if it helps, but I actually use the sound of equipment around me to help me keep a rhythm, but I've found music helpful in the past too)
• friends/acquaintances/family who can help motivate you

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Feb 05, 2012, 09:17AM PST | 3 comments | 10 cheers