Good morning/afternoon/evening/night. As always, I hope that whoever takes the time to read my latest weekly life and training update had a good weekend. If for whatever reason, your weekend wasn’t great, I hope that the next seven days are more positive. If you took part in an organised event, I can’t wait to see your Medal Monday posts and race reports.

The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the interval sessions in Week 4 of the Couch to 5k training plan.

As in previous weeks, each interval session started with a reasonably fast 5 minute warm up walk and finished with a slower 5 minute cool down walk. I supplemented the interval sessions with cross training sessions on Monday and Saturday and rest days on Wednesday and Friday. I’ve not yet plucked up the courage to buy myself a new exercise bike, so cross training sessions comprised of 30 minute walks and the Pilates workout YouTube videos that were kindly provided by the NHS physio.

With apologies for the repetition, but as I want to complete the Couch to 5k this time, I allocated time each morning and evening to work through the exercise program provided by the NHS physio. Although I’m getting quite good at glute walks, I’m still absolutely useless at what the physio called monster walks and I worry that my form is so suspect I’ll inadvertently injure myself.

Monday – 30 mins cross training

A far from ideal night’s sleep which saw me doom scrolling at 3am meant that I started the week feeling a tad tired. My lack of sleep meant that work felt far more stressful than it needed to, and I could feel my anxiety levels increasing as the morning progressed. Spotting this photo taken during parkrun on Saturday made me feel slightly better, thanks, Rob.

[Photo: Rob Andrews]

I’ve no idea how as a marshal I ended up carrying one of the bags the tail walkers usually carry and a random green cone, but I was clearly enjoying myself.

After a slightly better afternoon, I closed down my work laptop, switched on my personal laptop, got changed into some running gear, and spent 30 minutes working through the exercises the physio left me with. I’d love to say that I prepared and cooked myself a healthy meal, but I didn’t. After a challenging start to the week, I decided to treat myself to yet another takeaway from my favourite Chinese restaurant. I headed to bed knowing that I’d eaten far too much.

Tuesday – 21.5 mins intervals (run 3 mins/walk 90 secs/run 5 mins/walk 2.5 mins/run 3 mins/walk 90 secs/run 5 mins)

Like last week, I was rather rudely woken by my alarm at 5am. When I eventually made it outside, I was disappointed to discover that it wasn’t raining, and that the humidity had returned. It wasn’t windy so I knew I wouldn’t be able to blame any pacing failures on having to run into a wind tunnel. Midway through my warm up walk, I was presented with the option of following two different routes; a flatter route or a slightly hillier route. I opted for the flatter route as I figured this was the safest option for this unfit runner.

It was surprisingly busy, not so much with traffic which was good because it was bin day meaning that most of the pavements had wheelie bins blocking them, but more with people out walking their dogs. Most of the dog walkers I saw were quite chatty considering it was just after 5am, it was just unfortunate and somewhat frustrating that I spotted the two dogs that attacked me earlier this year. I don’t think the owner of the dogs recognised me.

Sorry for all of the random waffle. The interval session itself went very well and most importantly; my knees were niggle free 95% of the time. I made sure that I ran the longer 5 minute intervals at a pace I knew I could maintain and forced myself to slow down when I could feel my pace increasing. Thanks to my more sensible pacing and the lack of wind tunnels and hills I reached the end of the second 5 minute interval feeling like I could have carried on running.

Once I’d completed my cool down walk, I took a couple of selfies, said a slightly embarrassed “hello” to the dog walker who spotted me attempting to take a photo of myself, walked home, drank a glass of chocolate milkshake, posted a quick update on Instagram, and then tried and failed to grab some more sleep. Work was so stressful I spent most of the day regretting my early start and lack of sleep, the only thing that kept me going was thinking about what I was going to eat at the Quill and Taper pub later on.

Last time, the pub had run out of what I’d originally planned to order, so I ended up panic ordering fish and chips. On Tuesday I was able to order Chicken Caesar salad with a side order of French fries.

The salad tasted amazing, just looking at the photo I took makes me feel hungry. I left the pub feeling like I’d probably eaten slightly too much. Sadly, my stomach agreed, and I had a bit of an uncomfortable night.

Wednesday – Rest

I’m acutely aware that this weekly update is already an essay rather than a blog, so I’ll share some of my Wednesday highlights. The rain made a welcome, somewhat overdue appearance, and I enjoyed listening to the sound of torrential rain and intermittent thunder during a meeting about drought. The same rain, unfortunately, meant that I had to postpone my planned afternoon walk to Mere Green to collect one of my nephew’s birthday presents. At least I headed to bed feeling well rested.

Thursday – 21.5 mins intervals (run 3 mins/walk 90 secs/run 5 mins/walk 2.5 mins/run 3 mins/walk 90 secs/run 5 mins)

For the second time in three days, I was rudely woken from what felt like a deep sleep by my 5am alarm. It felt a lot cooler and calmer than it did earlier in the week, and after my encounter with the dogs on Tuesday, I decided to play it safe and returned to my main road hopefully dog free route.

The roads were busy which meant that I had to spend more time running along the pavements than I would have liked. At least the uneven pavements made me subconsciously slow my pace. The first 21 minutes of the interval session were incident free; my knees felt fine, my pacing was sensible, and my breathing felt easy. Sadly, the final 30 seconds of the interval session saw me jumping into a bush in an attempt to avoid getting hit by a driver who seemed to think driving directly at someone running along the pavement was acceptable. I’m not sure if the driver didn’t see me or was drunk, but the incident left me feeling incredibly shaken.

Once I’d completed my 5 minute cool down, recovery walk, I walked home, drank some water, spent 30 minutes stretching, had a shower, got ready for work, and then started work.

The remainder of my Thursday comprised of phone calls, meetings, more phone calls, and more meetings. Work meant that I had no idea what was going on in the ‘real world’ so I was stunned when I heard that the Queen had died peacefully at Balmoral earlier in the afternoon.

Friday – Rest

Friday was a busy but positive day. A request for mutual aid saw me talk to a couple of my colleagues from my old team in Wallingford for the first time in almost 12 months. It felt good to catch up and I’m looking forward to working with my old team at the start of October when I return from my two weeks of annual leave. An afternoon training session meant that I didn’t finish work until 4:30pm, unheard of for a Friday. I treated myself to a takeaway from the local Chinese, watched some of the Diamond League Final athletics, laid out some running gear for parkrun, and headed to bed with my latest book, The Bobby Girls.

Saturday – 30 mins cross training

After a busy week and emotionally draining Thursday afternoon and Friday, I appreciated every second of my four mile walk across Sutton Park to Banners Gate. Sutton Park was lovely and peaceful and as I wasn’t in a rush, I was able to appreciate the silence. I did notice that the north end of Sutton Park was quite gloomy, and I didn’t always feel completely safe. This left me wondering how many more weeks I’d be able to walk across Sutton Park to parkrun. Even the open spaces felt quite gloomy, perhaps this was fitting after Thursday.

302 parkrunners and a selection of dogs impeccably observed an incredibly moving period of silence before parkrun started. The Run Director judged the mood to perfection and acknowledged feelings of loss while recognising the importance of coming together at such times. I wasn’t volunteering so I walked and talked my way around my 84^th parkrun in 55:56. If everything goes to plan, I’ll complete my 100^th parkrun later this year.

Once parkrun was complete, a group of us headed to the Communitea Café for a late breakfast. I’m aware that I’m repeating myself, but I do love the Sutton Park parkrun family and appreciate being able to forget about the real world for a couple of hours on a Saturday. I didn’t appreciate a stranger on Instagram taking the time to message me to say I was disrespectful because I’d had the nerve to attend parkrun. Whatever happened to #BeKind?

The remainder of my Saturday was rather mundane. I managed to collect my nephew’s birthday present from Mere Green, packaged the various bits and pieces that had sold on eBay, finished reading The Bobby Girls, tackled the ironing mountain, and caught up on some much-needed sleep.

Sunday – 21.5 mins intervals (run 3 mins/walk 90 secs/run 5 mins/walk 2.5 mins/run 3 mins/walk 90 secs/run 5 mins)

I woke just before my alarm and when I eventually made it outside, I discovered that it was calm and cool, perfect conditions for this unfit runner. After the somewhat unexpected end to my last interval session, I decided to replicate my route from Thursday morning. Less than 3 minutes into the first longer run interval I started to seriously regret my decision making. My pacing was a bit ambitious, the combination of my poor pacing and a mile long hill meant that my legs started to feel like lumps of lead. I’ve got no idea how I forced myself to run when my head and legs were telling me to walk. I very much doubt I could have carried on running for longer than 5 minutes.

The remainder of the interval session felt easier, probably because the majority of the second half of the route I’d chosen was either flat or downhill. I didn’t encounter any dangerous drivers and I completed the interval session feeling tired but relieved I’d made it to the end of week four of the Couch to 5k without my knees imploding.

Once I’d completed my 5 minute cool down walk, I captured the slightly grumpy looking selfie I’ve included above, walked home, had a drink, spent some time stretching, and treated myself to a bit of a lie in. When I eventually dragged myself out of bed watched the start of the Great North Run and the closing stages of the elite women’s race.

Last week, I said that watching The Big Half in London had made me realise just how much I’d missed taking part in organised events. Watching the Great North Run seemed to have the opposite effect, seeing the crowds of runners just made me feel stressed. Strangely, the Great North Run has never featured on any of my race bucket lists.

Like last week, the remainder of my Sunday was unfortunately a complete write-off. I occasionally have days where I feel like I’m completely lacking in motivation, sadly these days seem to be getting more frequent and tend to occur during the weekend.

So, that’s week four of the Couch to 5k completed. Although my knees were niggle free throughout the majority of this week’s interval sessions, I did feel the occasional twinge during my 4 mile walk across Sutton Park on Saturday morning. I just hope that the increased intensity of the interval sessions next week doesn’t put too much strain on them.

The fifth week of the Couch to 5k training plan looks difficult. Just looking at the interval runs makes me feel slightly nervous. The duration of the longest run interval increases from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. I’m sure there’s a reason for this, but the prospect of running for 20 minutes does feel a little daunting.

Training totals

• Runs: 12 (out of 12)
• Time: 4 hrs 1½ mins
• Distance: 21.14 miles

Niggleometer

• Right knee: 5/10
• Left knee: 5/10
• Left foot: 3/10

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