Good morning and happy Monday. As always, I hope that whoever reads this life and training update had an amazing weekend. My weekend had one highlight; spending some time away from my house with mum, my step-father, and the family cats.

In an ideal world, the weekend would have had another highlight; me running 5k yesterday. Unfortunately, I hurt my left knee on Tuesday, and by running in pain on Thursday, turned what was a niggle into a proper injury. Yes, I know I’m an idiot!

The eighth and final week of the Couch to 5k training plan I’ve been following since May looked like this.

As I wanted to do my best to avoid picking up a running injury, each interval session started with a five minute warm-up walk and ended with a five minute cool down walk. Cross training sessions comprised of 30 minute training sessions on my exercise bike. I continued to place a lot of importance on strength and conditioning. During this final week, I allocated at least 30 minutes each day to the exercises that were recommended to me following my Run3D gait analysis.

Monday – 30 mins cross training

Following a fun-filled day of hydrological conundrums and MS Teams meetings, I found myself embarking on another 30 minute virtual cycle ride around a section of Lake Garda. I remembered to open my office windows before getting on my exercise bike so the 30 minutes felt quite comfortable. I’m not sure what it is about exercising indoors, but I still managed to work up a bit of a sweat and ended the 30 minutes looking like a beetroot.

Tuesday – 40 mins intervals (run 20 mins/walk 5 mins/run 15 mins)

This is going to sound really stupid, but after struggling to complete exactly the same interval session on Sunday, I spent far too much time worrying that I’d fail a second time. Although I accepted I couldn’t control the weather, I was worried I’d get my pacing wrong and would end up walking. It’s always good to embark on a training session feeling positive!

I woke before my alarm – this new habit is getting irritating – and had completed my warm-up before 5am. I noticed it was quite blustery; this left me with a route related dilemma; should I have another go at Sunday’s route or stick to a more sheltered route. I opted for the more sheltered route and must apologise to the residents of Wavenham Close and Knighton Road. I’m not a burglar, I just love running along your flat, recently surfaced and pothole-free roads.

Once I’d settled into what felt like a pace I could sustain, I found the first 20 minutes enjoyable. I’m not going to say it felt easy the entire time because it didn’t, however, my breathing felt like it was under control and everything felt good. I was actually a little reluctant about walking, as I had a feeling my knee would start to niggle when I stopped running. I clearly know my knees well, my left knee started to niggle during the five minute recovery walk.

I completed the 15 minute run without walking – definite progress from Sunday – but my left knee felt quite sore and I was aware I was running like a wonky donkey. Sensible runners probably would have stopped and walked but I’m not sensible and I was a long way from home.

In between working, the rest of the day featured slightly too much magnesium oil spray (if you know, you know), several icepack treatments, and a couple of sessions on my foam roller. By the evening my left knee felt a lot better, I felt reasonably confident that I’d be able to run on Thursday.

Wednesday – Rest

As this weekly training and life update is rapidly turning into an essay, I won’t describe the first rest day of the week in detail. I spent most of the day working with an ice pack balanced on my left knee and did my best to remain positive. I also spent an hour on Zoom being introduced to and setting up a product I’m really looking forward to testing out and reviewing. I just need to be able to run to review it! After a day of ice packs, compression, and elevation, my left knee felt a lot better and I headed to bed feeling reasonably confident I’d be able to run.

Thursday – 33 mins intervals (run 10 mins/walk 3 mins/run 20 mins)

I feel that with my track record with injuries it was almost inevitable that I’d pick up an injury at some point. I just didn’t expect it to be quite so close to the finish of the Couch to 5k. On Thursday, I woke well before my alarm and had completed my five minute warm-up walk by 5am. During the warm-up walk, my left knee felt a little what I can only describe as unstable and I wasn’t walking normally. The warning signs were there.

I decided to run for 10 minutes to see how my left knee reacted. To be honest, my knee was pretty much niggle free during the first 10 minutes. I was aware my running style was more wonky donkey than an efficient runner, but I stupidly decided to ignore the fact that I couldn’t run normally. My left knee felt a little uncomfortable during the three minute recovery walk but I decided to pretend everything was fine and started to run again with the aim of running for 20 minutes.

My left knee niggled occasionally but the first ten minutes were generally fine and I was thinking about potential routes for my 5k run. I then made the fatal error of running down a reasonably steep hill and must have overloaded my left knee as the pain went from slightly niggly to really bloody painful. I reached the end of the 20 minutes, posed for some photos, and then endured a painful 15 minute hobble back home.

Friday – Rest

Friday was a difficult day and not just because I managed to burn my left knee with my ice pack. During my fortnightly MS Teams catch-up, my line manager told me I should prepare for my fixed-term contract ending in September. I know there’s never a good time to be made redundant, but I’m not looking forward to trying to find a job in the current economic climate.

At least the takeaway I ordered from my favourite local Chinese and being able to watch the return of parkrun in New Zealand made me forget about my job woes for a couple of hours.

Saturday – 30 mins cross training Rest

I must admit that not starting the weekend with a 30 minute session on my exercise bike felt a little strange. I did briefly consider having a go on my exercise bike but decided my left knee wouldn’t appreciate it. As for walking as an alternative form of cross training, my knee felt quite painful as soon as I spent more than a few minutes walking. The large ice burn I’d given myself added to the pain.

Following a morning of thrilling household and adulting related chores; I sat down and spent some time thinking about my career options going forward. Earlier this year I felt so unhappy in my current job, I almost resigned.  It was only a fear of change that stopped me handing in my notice. The job situation improved beyond all recognition, so it’s a little ironic that now I’m happy, my fixed-term contract is ending earlier than expected.

After a reasonably productive morning and afternoon, I did something I should have done several months ago. I’m not sure if I mentioned I bought a Pulseroll massage gun when I visited the National Running Show in January. Anyway, I got the massage gun home, and I’m ashamed to say it remained in the box until Saturday afternoon.  Luckily for me, the massage gun charged and everything worked. I just need to work out how to use it as I don’t want to give myself another injury!

Sunday – Run 5k non-stop!! Rest

When I saw how windy it was in Four Oaks yesterday morning I almost stopped sulking about my left knee. I felt a little miserable in the morning and was I definitely guilty of feeling sorry for myself. Fortunately, my Sunday improved as I was able to spend a few hours away from my house visiting mum, my step-father, and the family cats. The roast dinner – my first since Christmas Day – tasted amazing and made a refreshing change from pasta and Chinese takeaways.

So that’s what should have been the final week of the Couch to 5k training plan I’ve been following since May almost completed. I can’t believe I got so close to the finish and then hurt my knee, definitely a case of so near and yet so far. Slightly frustrating but it is what it is, I know my knee will recover, it just needs time.

What’s next? Since the injury happened on Thursday, RICE has been the name of the game. While I don’t want all of my training over the last eight weeks to go to waste, I don’t want to make my injury worse by attempting to run too soon. It is a little frustrating as my fitness wasn’t an issue on Tuesday and Thursday and I’m confident I can run 5k. I’m not going to write and publish a weekly update this week as I don’t want this blog to become too gloomy. When I do complete my 5k run, I’ll be sure to share my thoughts with you either on here, on Instagram, or on both.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read and to comment on these weekly Couch to 5k updates. Your support really has helped me and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to finish what I started back in May.

Training totals

• Runs: 23 (out of 24)
• Time: 12 hrs 0 mins
• Distance: 64.53 miles

Niggleometer

• Right knee: 2/10
• Left knee: 5000000/10!
• Right foot: 2/10

Did you have a good weekend? Spending some time away from my house for the first time since March felt amazing.

Have you ever managed to make a running injury worse? I can’t believe I managed to make my left knee more painful by putting an ice pack directly onto my skin. I’m such a genius!

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