Good morning and happy Monday 🙂 As always, I hope that whoever takes the time to read what I suspect will turn into another quite lengthy training (and life) update had an amazing weekend. My weekend had a couple of highlights; managing to run 2km without needing to take a sneaky walking break and celebrating Sutton Park parkrun’s fifth birthday.

As the Couch to 5k training plan doesn’t seem to work well for me, I decided to follow the This Messy Happy Beginner to 5k training plan which is available along with other training plans here.

The This Messy Happy website provided the following information about the training sessions in Week 3:

The Beginner to 5k training plan is amazing as it includes a variety of strength and conditioning sessions and rest days, something lacking in the Couch to 5k training plan. Links to videos are provided for each strength and conditioning session, and the training plan also provides a link to a ‘How to stretch after exercise’ video.

Monday – Strength and Conditioning (Strength)

I don’t think the miserable weather and the fact I was feeling unwell helped, but I’m slightly ashamed to admit this but I spent most of Monday feeling sorry for myself. I didn’t have any meetings, so I ended up spending eight hours sitting at my desk in my office at home not speaking to anyone feeling incredibly fed up and isolated. I made the mistake of checking out social media and was left with the impression everyone was on holiday somewhere exotic. Meh!

At least the weather here was forecast by the Met Office to improve.

📈 After a changeable start to the week, it's turning drier and warmer through the next few days as high pressure builds pic.twitter.com/2oshzOTSKp

— Met Office (@metoffice) August 14, 2023

After the recent far-from-ideal weather, I think we would all appreciate some sunshine.

I closed down my work laptop and switched on my laptop so that I could complete the first strength and conditioning session of the week. I got changed into some gym gear and as I still wasn’t feeling very well decided to repeat this single leg workout from Week 1 of the training plan. Like last time I ended up making the most of the alternative exercise options when they were available.

Once I reached the end of the strength and conditioning session, I grabbed the Bob and Brad Q2 Mini Massage Gun I’m currently reviewing and spent some time massaging my legs. As a Wolves supporter, I should have watched my team take on Manchester United, but the match didn’t start until 8:00pm and I wanted to go to bed at a sensible time in preparation for my 5:00am alarm.

Tuesday – 32 mins intervals (4 mins warm-up walk then 2 mins walk/2 mins run x 6 then 4 mins cool-down walk)

I’m not sure what’s going on, but I woke well before my 5:00am alarm. I can’t even blame what happened during the Wolves match as I was asleep when Wolves should have been awarded a penalty.

As I estimated I’d cover anything up to 3 miles during my interval session, I decided to head towards Mere Green. It was cool and still, perfect conditions for this unfit runner. During the start of my warm-up walk, I somehow made enough noise to cause a dog to start barking. I could still hear it barking five minutes later. I didn’t feel as guilty as I probably should have done as I was certain it was the same dog that barks pretty much continuously when I’m working from home.

Something amazing happened during my first run repetition, I spotted a runner I hadn’t seen since I last attempted the Couch to 5k. I actually ended up running past three other runners, clearly, Clarence Road early on a Tuesday morning is the place to be. The only downside to the interval session was the idiot that drove past me at such a ridiculous speed, I suspect the car had been stolen.

As I approached Mere Green I spotted a temporary traffic light in the distance. I saw the light was on green as I approached it, so I carried on running.

I reached the end of the final run repetition feeling tired but relieved I’d completed another relatively niggle-free interval session. My pacing had once again been consistently inconsistent and also too ambitious for my current fitness levels. I spent my walk home thinking about my pacing issues, trying and failing to capture a selfie and a photo of the stunning sunrise.

I’ve decided to include this epic fail of a sunrise photo just to remind me of my Tuesday morning interval session. I’ve just noticed how long this weekly update and I’m sure people don’t want to read about my far-from-thrilling work meetings, so I’ll leave my Tuesday update here.

Wednesday – Strength and Conditioning (Yoga)

I’ll keep this short as I’m still failing to get excited about yoga. Some people seem to make yoga look effortless; I found Wednesdays slightly later than originally planned yoga session quite challenging. I’m aware that I’m repeating what I said last week, but I’ll persevere as I can see how yoga will benefit my running. Yoga session complete, I laid out my running gear and after spending some time working on my CIWEM Chartership application, made sure I headed to bed at a sensible time. I wanted to complete my interval session early in the morning and after spending the day feeling shattered, I wasn’t confident I’d feel like running first thing in the morning.

Thursday – 32 mins intervals (4 mins warm-up walk then 1:30 mins walk/2:30 mins run x 6 then 4 mins cool-down walk) Rest

I was feeling so tired when my alarm woke me at 5:00am, I decided getting a couple more hours of sleep would be the most sensible option. I figured I could complete my interval session later in the day. After spending the day feeling peaky, I decided attempting to run probably wasn’t a good idea and taking an extra rest day would be the most sensible option.

Friday – Rest

The improved weather didn’t last long, and Storm Betty woke me early on Friday morning. The weather was so miserable, I decided to follow the Beginner to 5k training plan and ensured I had a very restful day. Friday was so mundane, and this weekly update post is already far too lengthy, so I’ll stop waffling.

Saturday – 4 mins warm-up walk then 2km run then 4 mins cool-down walk

I was barcode scanning at parkrun, so I decided to incorporate my 2km run into my four and a bit mile route across Sutton Park. I estimated I needed to start running when I reached the Jamboree Stone, so following a lengthy warm-up walk that included some photography at Little Bracebridge Pool I started to run.

I’d be lying if I said my pacing was consistent and sensible. I’d be lying if I said the 2km run felt easy and I enjoyed every minute of the run. The 2km run felt difficult and I didn’t enjoy the final five minutes of the run. I reached the end of the 2km with tired legs, there’s no way I could have carried on running if I’d needed to.

Following the completion of my cool-down walk, I walked to Banners Gate, collected my parkrun vest and a finish token bag, and then sat down in an attempt to cool down. I usually have something to drink when I’ve completed a run, this wasn’t an option as I’d not brought a drink with me. By the time parkrun started, I’d stopped looking like a beetroot and I’d just about recovered from my run.

After setting a barcode scanning personal best I walked back through Sutton Park. An hour and what would turn out to be a persistent headache later I was at home having a much-needed drink of water. Following what felt like a reasonably productive start to the weekend, the remainder of my Saturday wasn’t what I’d describe as blogworthy although I remembered to watch the evening session of the World Athletics Championships.

I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed such unbelievable drama in the home straight of a women’s 10,000m. Only to be followed a few minutes later by even more drama in the mixed 4 x 400m relay.

Sunday – Strength and Conditioning (Yoga)

When I first looked at the third week of the Beginner to 5k training plan, I questioned the need for two yoga sessions in a week. I stopped questioning the training plan when I stepped out of bed and discovered DOMS had made an unwelcome return. The DOMS I was experiencing confirmed my suspicions; I’d overdone it yesterday and my legs were letting me know.

I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t expecting the second yoga session of the week to be a 20-minute long ‘Yoga for Your Back’ workout. After I’d navigated the yoga session, I spent some time stretching and gave my legs a massage with my Bob and Brad Q2 Mini Massage Gun while watching the World Athletics Championships.

For a whole host of reasons I won’t go into here, the remainder of my Sunday was unfortunately what I’d describe as a bit of a write-off. I occasionally have days where I feel like I’m completely lacking in motivation, sadly, following a reasonably productive Saturday, yesterday was one of those days.

So, that’s the third week of the Beginner to 5k training plan more or less successfully completed, at least I managed to run 2km without feeling the need to take a sneaky walking break. Three weeks completed just three more weeks to go.

Week four of the Beginner to 5k training plan looks quite tricky. The warm-up walks have been replaced with warm-up runs, I’ll definitely continue to start each interval session with a warm-up walk. I’ll be spending Wednesday and Thursday in Warrington, so unless I manage to get up super early on Wednesday morning, I’ll have to rearrange a couple of my training sessions.

Training totals

• Interval runs: 6 (out of 7)
• Time: 3 hrs 28 mins
• Distance: 16.41 miles

Distance based training runs

• 1 km: 06 mins 08 secs
• 2 km: 12 mins 16 secs
• 3 km: TBC Week 4
• 4 km: TBC Week 5
• 5 km: TBC Week 6 (hopefully!)

Niggleometer

• Right knee: 4/10
• Left knee: 3/10
• Left foot: 2/10

I’m aware I’ve asked this a million times before, but do you have any tips for running at a sensible pace? I’m still finding running at what I’d describe as a sensible pace I can maintain difficult. Any hints and tips would be gratefully received.

Have you entered the ballot for the Tokyo Marathon? Tokyo has been on my places to visit bucket list for as long as I can remember, so I almost entered the ballot. Luckily I saw sense and reminded myself that I can’t even run 5km at the moment.

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