Good morning and happy Monday. I’m not aiming to walk or run a thousand miles; however, I would love to be able to run 5k in approximately nine weeks’ time. After not running since May last year, I would love to complete the Couch to 5k. Anyway, I hope that whoever takes the time to read what I suspect will turn into a lengthy blog containing my thoughts about a whole host of random topics had an amazing weekend. My weekend had a couple of highlights, catching up with friends at Sutton Park parkrun and offloading some of my unwanted bits and pieces on eBay.

So, it’s been over a year since I last attempted to complete the Couch to 5k. If you’re new to this blog, please check out my previous Couch to 5k attempts, there have been a few. I’d describe myself as a somewhat injury prone runner with fragile knees and feet. Last month, after a bit of a wait, I had the first of two face to face appointments with an NHS physio. I’m in the process of writing a separate blog post to outline what happened during these appointments and the exercise program the physio provided. A couple of weeks ago the physio gave me the green light to start running again, so here I am.

I’ve decided to share weekly updates again as people have said that they enjoy reading my training (and life) updates. On a more selfish note, I know that writing these updates will help motivate me to get out of the door. As always, I can’t guarantee that these updates will be interesting or that they will contain blogworthy photos, but I promise to be completely open and honest and to share the highs and lows.

I decided to start again with the Couch to 5k training plan that is available on the NHS Live Well website. This version of the Couch to 5k training plan is spread over nine weeks.

The Couch to 5k website provided the following information about the runs in Week 1:

Last time, I supplemented the three Couch to 5k interval sessions with two cross training sessions and a couple of rest days. Each interval session started with a brisk 5 minute walk to wake me up and to get my legs moving and ended with a slightly slower 5 minute cool down selfie walk. Cross training sessions comprised of low intensity 30 minute training sessions on my exercise bike. I also spent a lot of time completing a selection of strength and conditioning exercises.

After realising that using my exercise bike was leaving me with painful knees, I left the exercise bike at the bottom of my drive, and it was rescued by someone collecting scrap metal in under an hour. I’m not currently a member of a gym and I’m a rubbish swimmer so cross training sessions will comprise of a combination of 30 minute walks and the Pilates workouts the physio provided.

Monday – 30 mins cross training

When I started sharing weekly Couch to 5k updates last year, I’d recently started a new job and was working from home. Fast forward 15 months and I’m still working from home and I’m yet to meet any of my colleagues. I enjoy my job but it’s incredibly stressful at times and I occasionally wake up feeling completely overwhelmed. The CBT sessions work organised for me last year were helpful, but I worry that some of my more negative habits have started to make an unwelcome reappearance.

Sorry for the random waffle. After spending the day catching up on some general admin, reading technical reports, and in meetings, I shut down my work laptop, powered up my personal laptop so that I could listen to some 80s music, got changed into some gym gear, and spent 45 minutes working through the exercises the NHS physio left me with last week.

Glute walks, monster walk, stretches, and squats complete, I treated myself to a takeaway from my favourite Chinese restaurant and then spent the rest of the evening watching the European Athletics Championships while listing some of my unwanted running gear on eBay. All in all a productive Monday evening. I’d already downloaded the first Couch to 5k session onto my Garmin and laid out my running gear, so I was as prepared as I could be for my first interval session.

Tuesday – 20 mins intervals (run 60 secs/walk 90 secs x 8)

I’d set my alarm for 5:00am as I wanted to complete my interval session when it was quiet. It was quite dark outside, something I hadn’t taken into consideration. I’d also forgotten that Tuesday is bin day which left me with the option of either running along the pavements and playing dodge the bins or the more knee friendly, sensible option of running along some of my favourite roads. Fortunately, it was so quiet I was able to run along some of my favourite roads, I’m sure everyone who lives along these roads had missed the sound of my heavy breathing and footsteps.

As for the interval session, I found running for 60 seconds at a time easy and reached the end of the 20 minutes feeling like I could have completed another set of 8 intervals. My right knee twinged a couple of times when I was running, I was expecting this as I’d been warned that it will never be 100% pain free. Once I’d completed my cool down walk, I captured a couple of far from flattering selfies, walked home, drank a pint of water, stretched, and then shared my thoughts on Instagram. I’d like to say that I made the most of my early start, but I headed back to bed and managed to sleep for another hour.

I started work at 8am and spent most of the day either in meetings or on the phone talking about prolonged dry weather and drought. I finished work at 4pm and spent a couple of hours listing a few more bits and pieces on eBay. Although the rest of my Tuesday evening was not quite as productive as I’d planned, sometimes it’s good to spend time doing nothing.

Wednesday – Rest

This blog is already turning into one of my essays, so I’ll fast forward to Wednesday evening. I want to start with a bit of a disclaimer as I’m aware we are experiencing a cost of living crisis and I’m aware that I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to afford to eat out once a week. I’m also aware that I should be saving rather than spending money at the moment, but I won’t be going away this year, I enjoy getting out of my house, so I’ve been treating myself to a meal out once a week. I walked the short distance to the Quill and Taper pub where I met up with a friend.

When I discovered that the pub had run out of Chicken Caesar Salad, I panicked and ended up ordering fish and chips. This was a decision I’d regret a few hours later.

The fish and chips tasted amazing but after not eating anything at lunchtime, the what I felt was rather stingy portion of chips meant I still felt quite hungry when I finished my meal. We didn’t have time for a dessert, I realised this was probably a good thing given that I’m trying to cut down the amount of chocolate I consume.

Thursday – 20 mins intervals (run 60 secs/walk 90 secs x 8)

Without going into too much detail, my Thursday morning didn’t get off to the best of starts when I woke up at 4am with some stomach related issues. I quickly realised that running an hour later wouldn’t be sensible. I figured I could complete my interval session when I’d finished work, so I cancelled my 5am alarm and had an unexpected lie in.

Work was busy and it felt like one minute it was lunchtime, and I was dropping off some of my eBay sales at the Post Office, the next it was 4pm, and time for me to finish work. I did think about completing my interval session straight after work, but I decided to wait a few hours until it cooled down a little.

I thought about heading out to complete my interval session for far too long and didn’t leave the house until it was getting dark. It was far more humid than I was expecting at 9pm and I regretted wearing my Proviz gilet. As for the actual interval session, I once again found running for 60 seconds at a time easy and reached the end of the 20 minutes feeling like I’d not done much in the way of exercise. I must have worked reasonably hard because I was looking like a beetroot in the selfie I shared on Instagram.

Although my right knee niggled a couple of times when I was running, it otherwise behaved itself. Once I’d worked through the exercises the NHS physio gave me, I headed to bed feeling confident that if I didn’t do anything stupid at parkrun, I’d be able to complete the final interval session on Sunday.

Friday – Rest

I think that other than the fact it was Friday, Friday had a couple of highlights; selling some more of my unwanted running gear on eBay and treating myself to a second pair of power 6” cycling shorts for half price in the Sweaty Betty Insiders sale. I’ve worn the pair I purchased at the start of the year a lot and have found them incredibly comfortable, so I was more than happy to spend £30 on a second pair.

Saturday – 30 mins cross training

Last year when I was following the Couch to 5k, parkrun was still suspended due to the Covid pandemic. Sutton Park parkrun restarted about a month after I’d accepted that my knee injury was severe enough to prevent me from running. Thanks to parkrun I’ve been able to feel like part of the local running community when I’ve been unable to run myself. My Saturday mornings now start with a 6:30am alarm, a four mile walk across Sutton Park to Banners Gate, parkrun itself, and then if I can blag myself a lift, breakfast at the Communitea Café in Boldmere. I’ve said it a million times, 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’ll stop waffling as this weekly update is getting ridiculously long. The rest of Saturday saw me watch Tottenham beat Wolves, spend a couple of hours trying to make my house look slightly more presentable, spend some time weeding the front garden, spend some time preparing eBay listings, attempt a couple of the Pilates workouts the physio provided and finally, some somewhat overdue what I’ve described in the past as adulting tasks. Not the most thrilling Saturday but a productive start to the weekend.

Sunday – 20 mins intervals (run 60 secs/walk 90 secs x 8)

I woke just before my alarm so that shortly after 6am I was completing my 5 minute warm-up walk. I’d love to say that I found the final interval session of the week enjoyable but thanks to my own stupidity it wasn’t. Although my knees felt reasonably happy during the 20 minutes, my stomach was anything but happy. Without going into too many details, I was so excited to run in the daylight, I’d stupidly left my house without going to the toilet. I won’t make the same mistake again.

I regretted my poor decision making throughout the interval session and have no idea how I completed the final couple of run intervals without having an unfortunate mishap. The five minute cool-down walk was not a lot of fun and it felt like I was waddling rather than walking.

So, that’s the first week of the Couch to 5k successfully completed, just another 8 weeks to go. The rest of my Sunday was so mundane that I won’t bore you with the details.

Week two of the Couch to 5k training plan looks reasonably straightforward, after finding running for a minute quite easy, I’m confident I’ll be able to run for 90 seconds at a time. I just need to remember to be sensible and to run at a pace that I can maintain.

Training totals

• Interval runs: 3 (out of 3)
• Time: 1 hr 0 mins
• Distance: 4.86 miles

Niggleometer

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

Did you have a good weekend? Did you manage to complete a parkrun or another organised event?

Have you managed to watch any of the European Athletics Championships? If you have, what have been your highlights? I loved watching Keely Hodgkinson win the first of what I hope will be numerous gold medals.

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