Good morning. Happy Monday. As always, I hope whoever reads this life and training update had an amazing weekend. If, for whatever reason, you didn’t, I hope that the week ahead is kinder to you. My weekend had a couple of highlights completing Perry Hall parkrun and attending the soft launch of a new Mediterranean restaurant.

For the reasons I outlined last week, I decided to start again with the Couch to 5k training plan that is available on the NHS Live Well website. If everything goes to plan, this version of the Couch to 5k should take nine weeks to complete.

The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the interval sessions in Week 2 of the Couch to 5k.

My Tuesday and Thursday evening and Sunday morning interval sessions started with a fast 5-minute warm-up walk and ended with a slightly slower 5-minute cool-down walk. I supplemented the three interval sessions with two cross-training sessions and rest days on Wednesday and Friday. I’m not a member of a gym and don’t have access to an exercise bike, so cross-training sessions comprised of 30-minute walks.

As I want to give myself the best chance of completing the Couch to 5k, I allocated time each evening to stretching. I used my Bob and Brad Q2 Mini Massage Gun to massage my quads and calf muscles before each interval session and whenever I felt my legs would benefit from an extra massage.

Monday – 30 mins cross training

Thanks to some epic early morning overthinking, I started the week feeling shattered. Not the best start to a new week. Following a morning of number crunching, as one of my goals for the week was to spend time away from my laptop screen every lunchtime, I decided to walk to the Post Office to collect my new passport. As I figured a faster-paced walk would count as a form of cross training, I decided to see how quickly I could walk to and from the Post Office.

After finishing work, as I wanted to spend some time outside while it was still light, I spent 30 minutes weeding. Hopefully, this counted as more cross training. My review of Week 1 of my Couch to 5k training was published and I spent some time planning my training for the week ahead.

Tuesday – 21 mins intervals (run 90 secs/walk 2 mins x 6)

My Tuesday started with a walk into Mere Green for a doctor’s appointment. Following a much-needed reality check and a reminder I’m 45 and not 25, I walked home and managed to start work by 09:30. I think the highlight of what turned out to be a difficult Tuesday was closing down my work laptop at 16:00.

Like last week, I almost fell into the trap of spending more time thinking about running than actually running. A couple of hours after a slightly later-than-ideal evening meal, I got changed into some running gear, massaged my calf muscles using my massage gun, and headed out into the cold.

Although my legs felt fine during my warm-up walk, as soon as I started to run, both of my calf muscles felt quite tight, and it felt like I’d managed to tie the laces of my trainers too tight. My trainers were annoying me so much, that I stopped running, retied my laces, and restarted the interval session. My left knee twinged a few times during the final three run repetitions, and I reached the end of the 21 minutes feeling like I was starting to fall to pieces.

I completed my cool-down walk, took a selfie that failed to capture how upset I was feeling, walked the rest of the way home, made myself a cup of tea, spent some time massaging my quad and calf muscles, and then entered the ballot for an event later this year. If by some miracle I’m successful in securing a race place through this ballot I will **** myself.

Wednesday – Rest

As Wednesday was a much-needed rest day and this weekly update is already getting quite lengthy, I’ll fast-forward to Thursday.

Thursday – 21 mins intervals (run 90 secs/walk 2 mins x 6)

After receiving an email to inform me I’d been unsuccessful in securing a public race place in the 2025 Royal Parks Half Marathon ballot, I worked out I’d been rejected seven years in a row. I’ve said it before, but as I feel I have unfinished business with the Royal Parks Half Marathon, I’ll continue to stick my name in the ballot every year.

I’m aware I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but work was incredibly stressful and after spending another day feeling overwhelmed and like an imposter, I finished work, shut down my work laptop, and headed to bed for a nap. I woke an hour later feeling a little more positive however as I didn’t feel like cooking, I ordered myself something to eat from the Hungry Sparrow Chinese takeaway. Happily, the food tasted better than it did the previous Thursday.

A couple of hours later, I got changed into some running gear and used my massage gun to massage my quad and calf muscles. I completed my warm-up walk on slightly busier than I was expecting pavements. It wasn’t just a case of dodge the wheelie bins but also of dodge the dog walkers. I’ve come to the conclusion that Thursday evenings are very popular with dog walkers.

I reached the end of the interval session feeling strong if not exactly pain-free. Luckily, I have an Osteopathy appointment this Thursday. I completed my cool-down walk, made myself a cup of tea, and then spent more time massaging my quad and calf muscles.

Friday – Rest

I’m not sure why I went into what I call ‘middle of the night overthinking mode’, but after getting less than four hours of sleep, I knew the last day of the working week would be a struggle. I’m not sure how I made it to 3pm without falling asleep at my desk. I was meant to spend the evening at an 80s Anthems by Candlelight concert at Lichfield Cathedral, but I felt so tired I opted to stay at home.

Saturday – 30 mins cross training

Sutton Park parkrun was cancelled, not due to the weather but due to the fact another event was taking place in Sutton Park. As a result, Ellen and I arranged to head to my NENDY, Perry Hall parkrun. I completed what was a very well-organised Perry Hall parkrun in exactly the same time I completed Sutton Park parkrun the previous Saturday, 40:38. Spooky! If everything goes to plan, we’ll revisit Perry Hall parkrun when the weather is a little better.

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We didn’t have time to stay for a post-parkrun coffee, so after Ellen kindly dropped me off near Boots so that I could collect a prescription, I walked home and then spent an hour catching up on some rather overdue housework.

I’d managed to book a table for the soft launch of a new Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in Mere Green called Willow. All food was half price, so I ordered crab and crayfish ravioli to start followed by a double steak burger.

I’m not sure exactly why given the size of the menu, but my friend Vic only ordered himself a starter. This meant he ended up eating more than half of my double steak burger. Anyway, the food I did get to eat tasted amazing and I’ll definitely return to Willow when it opens later this month.

Following a productive but rather lonely afternoon and evening, I laid out some running gear and headed to bed at a sensible time.

Sunday – 21 mins intervals (run 90 secs/walk 2 mins x 6)

Although I hadn’t set my alarm, I found myself wide awake just before 06:30. Irritating. I lay in bed for a couple of minutes contemplating attempting to get more sleep before reminding myself running in the morning would increase the likelihood of me actually running. I got changed into the running gear I’d laid out the previous evening, worked through some strength and conditioning exercises, had a productive loo visit, and headed out into slightly breezier conditions than I’d anticipated.

My left knee had been quite painful after parkrun, so I felt a little apprehensive when I set out on my warm-up walk. I completed my warm-up walk without too much knee pain, so I checked my laces weren’t feeling too tight, selected what I hoped would be motivational music on Spotify, and started to run. The interval session was enjoyable and mostly pain-free. I managed to run the first run repetition at a reasonable pace and attempted to increase my pace throughout each run repetition. I reached the end of the interval session feeling like I’d worked hard but could have carried on running if I needed to. I think it’s obvious I still need to work on my selfies.

I walked home, made myself a cup of tea, and headed to the Co-op to grab a newspaper and some groceries. Unlike last week, rather than heading back to bed for an hour I attempted to use my foam roller for the first time in a while and worked through some stretches. The remainder of the day was so mundane – the highlight was entering the Shenstone 10k – I won’t bore you all to tears with the details.

So, that’s the second week of the Couch to 5k completed, just another seven weeks to go. As I don’t want to have to take another lengthy break from running, I hope that my temperamental knees and left foot continue to cope with the training.

The third week of the Couch to 5k looks achievable. I feel quite confident I’m more than capable of running for three minutes at a time. As I’ve said a million times before I need to remember to run at a pace I have a chance of maintaining.

Training totals:

• Runs: 6 (out of 6)
• Time: 2 hrs 3 mins
• Distance: 10.47 miles

Niggleometer:

• Right knee: 4/10
• Left knee: 4/10
• Right calf: 2/10
• Left foot: 1/10

 Did you have a good weekend?

 Do you ever feel like an imposter at work? 

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