Last night I turned a corner with my running. I realised that as I’d mainly been running in the gym on the treadmill I was used to watching the minutes and KMs tick away which allowed me to push myself a bit further each time.

When I’d run on the road I had no idea how long or how far I’d been going and would give in to the discomfort earlier. That is until last night. A £10 watch has helped me to run 2 miles out in the fresh air. I know I can do 30 minutes on the treadmill so I kept looking at my watch while I was running with the aim of doing 20 minutes on the tarmac.

I did my 20 minutes without stopping and, although I was feeling more out of breath at the end that I would have after 30 minutes on the treadmill, I felt OK enough that I know I could tag on an extra few minutes to my next al fresco run.

There’s no fancy gadgetry – no heart rate monitor, no mileage tracking etc – on my watch, just a timer. All I’m bothered about tracking is the amount of time I’ve been running for.