Good morning and happy(ish) Monday. As always, I hope that everyone who takes the time to read this latest random selection of training and life updates had an amazing weekend. I’m acutely aware that I sound like a broken record but my weekend had a couple of highlights; another tasty Bistrot Pierre lunch and getting to the end of Week 6 of the Couch to 5k. I very nearly called it the ‘Ouch’ to 5k; this would have been more relevant.

The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the three training runs in Week 6 of the Couch to 5k training plan.

Once again, I looked forward to completing three different training sessions. I uploaded the interval sessions onto my Garmin, and following the success of my 20 minute run, tried not to get myself too worked up about the 25 minute run.

I supplemented the interval sessions with cross training sessions on Monday and Saturday, and rest days on Wednesday and Friday. Each interval session started with a brisk 5 minute warm-up walk and ended with a 5 minute cool down walk. My cross training sessions comprised of a 30 minute ‘Harold Bishop’ power walk around Four Oaks. As I’ve realised I need to increase my flexibility, I followed a couple of Yoga for Runners videos on YouTube. I also spent a minimum of 30 minutes each day going through my strength and conditioning exercises and using my massage gun.

Monday – 30 mins cross training

I sometimes think I should rename this blog the trials and tribulations of a grumpy hydrologist. Let’s just say that the first day of the week was a little challenging. Anyway, following a reasonably productive day working from home, in an attempt to forget about my ever-increasing and unrealistic workload, I pulled on my old trainers and power walked to the Crown pub and back.

A couple of hour’s later; parkrun UK released a statement in response to BoJo’s press conference. The statement announced that the final stage of England’s reopening from lockdown will be delayed by four weeks.

Here's our statement in response to the Prime Minister's changes to the Roadmap. It is now our intention that 5k events in England will restart on Saturday 24 July.

👉 https://t.co/9uH0IxqNwm

🌳 #loveparkrun pic.twitter.com/sEHQUxTmRD

— parkrun UK (@parkrunUK) June 14, 2021

It’s now the intention of parkrun HQ that events will restart in England on July 24th. I completely understand the reasons for the four week delay; however, like a lot of people, the news about the delay to parkrun restarting left me feeling slightly gloomy. I’m concerned that if parkrun isn’t able to restart soon then another new variant of Covid-19 will make an unwelcome appearance and will lead to another delay in the lifting of restrictions.

I’m going to sound like a right ‘Moaning Myrtle’ but I was planning on volunteering at my local parkrun in Sutton Park the first two weeks parkrun returned. If my knees behaved and if everything went to plan with my training, I was then aiming to complete the Couch to 5k at Beacon parkrun in Lichfield on July 10th I need to think of a Plan B.

Tuesday – 24 mins intervals (run 5 mins/walk 3 mins/run 8 mins/walk 3 mins/run 5 mins)

I’m not sure what’s going on with my sleep patterns at the moment, but like last Tuesday, I woke well before my 4am alarm. My earlier than planned interval session was rewarded with the most perfect running conditions; it was cool and calm, and as it was so early most sensible people were still sleeping, I was able to run in the road rather than playing dodge the wheelie bins on the pavements. I made the most of the perfect running conditions and really enjoyed the first interval session of Week 6 of the Couch to 5k. I like how my post-run selfie captured the wheelie bins as well as my post-run beetroot impression.

The photo I took unfortunately didn’t do the amazing sunrise justice. I’ve spent a lot of time complaining about more far from ideal pacing skills but I think this chart of my 60-second splits shows that my pacing wasn’t too bad.

I’m doing a great impression of a broken record – I wonder if there is a modern equivalent to this phrase – I peaked far too early on Tuesday. By lunchtime I was struggling to focus on my work so much, I decided to make the most of working from home and in an attempt to wake myself up, I had a cold shower. A slightly random thing to do in the middle of the day but it seemed to do the trick as did a nap after work.

Wednesday – Rest

As always, this update is turning into another one of my essays so I won’t describe the first rest day of the week in detail. Unlike last week, I struggled to sleep so I unfortunately started the day feeling far from refreshed and a little grumpy. I had a busy day of meetings so it was very much a case of time flies when you’re in meetings all day. I’m actually starting to find the number of meetings a little stressful as they are preventing me from doing much technical work. After work I treated myself to a power nap, used my massage gun, worked through my strength and conditioning exercises, failed to eat much as I never have much of an appetite when it’s warm, laid out some running gear ready for the morning, and headed to bed at a sensible time.

Thursday – 23 mins intervals (run 10 mins/walk 3 mins/run 10 mins)

 I think it’s fair to say that on Thursday morning I was rather abruptly woken by my alarm. One minute I was dreaming I’d just volunteered to help organise an international hydrology conference, the next my alarm had woken me and I was wondering what on earth was going on. When I headed outside I discovered that weather forecast I’d seen the evening before had been spot on as it was wet and quite breezy. It didn’t take me long to discover that despite the rain it was also incredibly humid. After not hurting at all during my run Tuesday, my left knee twinged a couple of times during the first 10 minute run and then seemed to settle down. I’m not sure if I can blame the humid conditions, but I found the second 10 minute run difficult. I actually ended up spending a few minutes sitting on the wet pavement getting my breath back after I’d taken this photo.

I’m aware that I’m making myself sound like a drama queen, but I needed a confidence boosting run before I attempted to run for 25 minutes on Sunday. My run on Thursday left me wondering if I’d need to repeat the week. When I checked out my detailed splits, I realised that I just need to slow down.

I also realised that I’d completed the final interval session of the Couch to 5k training plan. The rest of the training sessions are continuous runs which don’t include recovery walks. I just hope that my left knee copes with the increase in running. On Thursday, it unfortunately felt quite niggly and moved from 3/10 to 6/10 on my highly scientific niggleometer.

Friday – Rest

Usually, thanks to the wonders of flexi time, I’m able to finish work a little earlier on Fridays. Not this week! I participated in all-day online Facilitation Skills training course which meant that I had a later than anticipated finish. Although I enjoyed the training course and found it incredibly informative, for some reason I felt shattered after the afternoon session. I guess I’m not used to being pushed out of my extensive comfort zone and spending all day on Zoom. While I suspect most people probably watched the England v Scotland football match, I watched the first couple of episodes of Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime and then headed to bed. I’ve no idea how I used to have enough energy to head to the pub virtually every Friday.

Saturday – 30 mins cross training

I’m really hoping that housework can be classed as a form of cross training. When I woke up, I realised that I hadn’t given my house a through clean for a couple of weeks so on Saturday morning I spent over an hour vacuuming. When I’d finished vacuuming, I made the mistake of looking at the ceiling in the lounge; it was cobweb central, so as I couldn’t find a feather duster, I attempted to vacuum the cobwebs up using the vacuum. I dread to think how many spiders I made homeless.

Productive Saturday morning complete, I met up with my friend in Bistrot Pierre for lunch. The Crispy duck salad tasted amazing, it’s just a little unfortunate that I ended up wearing some of the dressing on my white top. One day I’ll work out how to feed myself without getting in a mess.

The rest of my Saturday was predictable. If you’ve read my previous weekly updates you’ll probably be able to guess what my Saturday looked like. I received a delivery I wasn’t expecting, my friend had bought me a ‘Fast Food’ t-shirt as he felt it reflected my love of McDonald’s burgers. Looking at the burgers on the t-shirt made me realise I haven’t been near a McDonald’s since the start of last year. A t-shirt with Chinese themed t-shirt would have been more appropriate. And yes, I know that the brand in question have a history of offending runners with their marketing. I’m still going to wear the t-shirt as I’d rather wear something than damage it for ‘likes’ on Instagram. Sorry!

I checked the weather forecast and discovered that I’d potentially be battling with wet and windy conditions. I had laid out a running vest but decided to wear the Fast Food t-shirt laid instead. I headed to bed a couple of hours earlier than planned as my vision started to go a bit weird, always an early warning sign that I’m getting a migraine.

Sunday – 25 mins running with no walking

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll probably already be aware that my 25 minute run yesterday morning didn’t go to plan. I started to doubt my ability to run for 25 minutes, the moment I stepped outside and discovered how windy it was. I can’t blame the windy conditions for my failure to run for 25 minutes but I can blame my terrible pacing. During the first few minutes, my left knee niggled quite a lot and at one point I was aware that I wasn’t running smoothly. My knee settled down so I continued with the training run.

The first 15 minutes felt quite comfortable and I started to feel more confident. I was acutely aware that my pacing was all over the place but I blamed this on the windy conditions; one minute I was running directly into the wind, the next minute I changed direction and running felt a lot easier. I kept looking at my Garmin and trying and failing to slow down. After 20 minutes, I turned towards home and discovered that I was running directly into what felt like a wind tunnel. I allowed the self-doubt to creep in and I walked for 30 seconds. I’d failed to run for 25 minutes and had stupidly tried to make up for this during the final few minutes of the run.

When I checked out my splits it was clear that I’d got my pacing completely wrong. When I was training for the Royal Parks Half all of my longer runs were run at between 11 and 12 minute/mile pace and I felt like I could have carried on running for hours. This is definitely something for me to think about.

As for the final four minutes, these are definitely an example of what I describe as ‘angry’ running. I was so annoyed at myself for giving in and walking, I increased my pace. Sorry knees!

I felt so drained after my failed early morning run, the remainder of my Sunday was a far more relaxed affair than usual. I started the weekend with an ambitious ‘things to do’ list but failed to cross out the majority of the items on the list. After noticing a few early warning signs that I could be getting a migraine, I spent a couple of hours in bed trying and failing to get some extra sleep. I must have needed the sleep as I slept for over four hours. A waste of a Sunday, but I clearly needed the sleep. My weekend ended with a takeaway from my local Chinese restaurant and an early night.

So, that’s Week 6 of the Couch to 5k sort of successfully completed. I just hope that my fragile knees and temperamental foot continue to cope with the training. I don’t want to tempt fate, but my left knee isn’t causing me too many issues at the moment. I experience the occasional niggle when I walk down the stairs at home, but that’s about it. I just hope that my knees and foot cope with the final three weeks of the Couch to 5k. While I obviously hope that this doesn’t happen, if my knee starts to hurt when I’m running I’ll stop. I’m aware that I’m repeating myself but I don’t think there’s any point in me running if I’m in pain.

Week 7 looks challenging and hopefully will be achievable if my left knee settles down. I finally get to say ‘goodbye’ to interval runs as in the final three weeks of the Couch to 5k, all of the training sessions are continuous runs without recovery intervals. So, that’s no more walking and getting my breath back. I think my main concerns are how my knees will respond to running for 25 minutes three times in a week and getting my pacing spot on. Unless I get my pacing spot on, I have a feeling I’ll find the runs difficult. As the old saying goes, slow and steady wins the race.

Training totals

• Runs: 18 (out of 18)
• Time: 6 hrs 15.5 mins
• Distance: 32.79 miles

Niggleometer

• Right knee: 4/10
• Left knee: 6/10
• Right foot: 2/10
• Left foot: 2/10

Did you have a good weekend? I hope that the weather was a bit better where you live than it was in Four Oaks.

Do you think the average pace on Garmins is accurate? I have a theory that my Garmin is less accurate when it’s windy.

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