Good morning/afternoon/evening etc. As always, I want to start by saying that I hope that whoever takes the time to read this slightly belated weekly life and training update had a great weekend. If for whatever reason, your weekend wasn’t great, I hope that the next few days are more positive. My weekend had a couple of highlights, spending some time with my brother and his family and managing to run every step of Beacon parkrun.
The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the interval sessions in Week 5 of the Couch to 5k training plan.
Like last time I attempted to complete the Couch to 5k, I looked forward to tackling three different training sessions. After a couple of failed attempts, I managed to upload the interval sessions onto my Garmin and tried not to spend quieter moments at work worrying about running for 20 minutes.
My Tuesday and Thursday morning interval sessions started with a fast 5 minute warm up walk and ended with a just as speedy 5 minute cool down walk as it was chilly. On Saturday, I caught the train to Lichfield, walked the mile or so to Beacon Park, spent time chatting to other parkrunners, completely forgot to warm up, ran Beacon parkrun, took some selfies, walked back to Lichfield City station, and then spent 20 minutes waiting for the train to arrive. Not ideal. I supplemented the interval sessions and parkrun with cross training sessions and two rest days.
I know I’m repeating myself, but as I actually want to complete the Couch to 5k, I dedicated time twice a day to work through the exercise program provided by the physio. I’m still pretty useless at most of the exercises.
Monday – 30 mins cross training
Monday was incredibly stressful, definitely not the most positive start to the working week. I kept having to remind myself that in a week’s time I’d be at the start of a couple of weeks of annual leave. Although I felt slightly better in the afternoon because I made myself head out at lunchtime for a short walk, I was still relieved when I was able to finish work at 4pm. Work complete, I closed down my work laptop, switched on my laptop, changed into some running gear, and spent 45 minutes working through my physio exercises. By the end of the 45 minutes, I was feeling more positive.
Physio exercises sort of complete, I made a start on my C****tmas shopping, made myself something to eat, remembered to put the bins out, and finished reading a book from my recent charity bookshop haul, The Girl Before. I had no idea the book had been adapted into a 4-part television thriller until my sister-in-law told me but as I didn’t enjoy the book, I don’t think I’ll be watching the television adaptation.
As I’m still trying to be more organised, I made sure that the interval sessions for Week 5 of the Couch to 5k had downloaded onto my Garmin and laid out some running gear. I eventually went to bed feeling that I was as prepared as I could be for my Tuesday morning interval session.
Tuesday – 21 mins intervals (run 5 mins/walk 3 mins/run 5 mins/walk 3 mins/run 5 mins)
I’m not sure what, but something woke me before my 5am alarm. When I eventually made it outside, I discovered that conditions were perfect for this unfit runner, cold with hardly any wind. It was so cold I reached the end of my 5 minute warm up walk feeling colder than when I’d started. It was the first time I felt cold throughout an interval session.
It was busy out again meaning that I was ‘relegated’ to running along a series of uneven pavements. Given my ongoing issues with pacing, this was most definitely a good thing as I was forced to slow down during the first mile. I found the interval session quite easy, perhaps getting the longest uphill section out of the way during the first mile works for me. When I checked out my running and walking splits, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I’d not started the interval session at an overly ambitious pace.
Apologies once again for all of the random waffle about pacing. I’m sure people will be pleased to know that my knees were pain free for the vast majority of the 21 minutes. Once I’d completed my cool down walk, I captured a couple of selfies, walked home, drank a couple of glasses of water, posted a quick update on Instagram, and then attempted to get another hour’s sleep.
Work was so stressful I found myself counting down the hours until I could finish for the day. A couple of hours after finishing work, I walked the short distance to the Quill and Taper pub where I’d arranged to meet up with a friend for his early birthday meal. I’m very much a creature of habit, so I ordered breaded mushrooms as a starter and Chicken Caesar salad with a side portion of French fries as my main.
As I’m aware that my food photos are getting predictable, I tried and failed to take a couple of blogworthy photos inside the restaurant. I was surprised at how dark it was when we left the pub just after 8pm.
Like last week, I left the Quill and Taper feeling like I’d eaten slightly too much. My stomach felt so uncomfortable during the night I was relieved I didn’t have to attempt an early morning interval session. I’m not sure my temperamental stomach would have coped.
Wednesday – Rest
This weekly update has already turned into another one of my essays, so I’ll share some snippets from Wednesday. Work was busy which meant that the day passed by quickly in a blur of meetings and phone calls. I think the highlight of my workday was making the time to head out for a lunchtime walk. Another highlight was spending 45 minutes chatting to my brother and confirming the plans for a meal at his house on Saturday. I started to massively overthink my interval session when I discovered how much the wind had picked up since lunchtime when I walked to the shops. I’ve said it before, but I’m not a huge fan of running when it’s windy and on Wednesday evening it felt windy.
Thursday – 21 mins intervals (run 8 mins/walk 5 mins/run 8 mins)
I have no idea why given that I was wide awake at 3am thinking about my life, but I woke feeling remarkably perky just before my 5am alarm. When I headed outside, I discovered that it was cold and very breezy. Fortunately, it felt like the majority of my interval session was what I’d describe as wind assisted as opposed to being hindered by the wind.
The roads were busy again, so I had to spend the majority of my first 8 minute run interval running along the pavements. As before, running along uneven pavements seemed to make me subconsciously run at a more sensible pace and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that running for 8 minutes felt quite easy, so easy I was able to increase my pace during the second run interval.
I spent most of my 5 minute cool down walk weighing up the pros and cons of different options for the route of my 20 minute run on Sunday. Once I’d ruled out several options, I thought about heading to Beacon parkrun and completing the final run of the week a day earlier than planned. I got home, drank a glass of water, remembered to stretch my legs, and then headed back to bed for an hour.
It felt like the remainder of my Thursday was comprised of online meetings and phone calls. After spending the morning working on my laptop, my head was feeling so fuzzy I made myself head out for a walk at lunchtime. Not for the first time I was reminded of the importance of getting outside, my head and legs both thanked me for the fresh(ish) air and lunchtime walk.
Friday – Rest
The highlight of Friday was setting up my out of office reply and logging out of my work laptop for the final time this month. I bought myself a Chinese takeaway to celebrate the start of my annual leave and worked out which trains I’d need to catch the following morning. After spending a slightly unhealthy amount of time worrying about running for 20 minutes, I’d decided to complete the final run of the week 24 hours earlier than planned at Beacon parkrun.
Saturday – 30 mins cross training Beacon parkrun
Although I really missed my Saturday morning walk across Sutton Park, I enjoyed having time to amble through the centre of Lichfield and to walk past Lichfield Cathedral before heading into Beacon Park. I was early for Beacon parkrun, so I had plenty of time to stop and take photos.
As for Beacon parkrun, I set off with one aim, to run without walking for 20 minutes. I told myself that once I’d been running for 20 minutes, I would walk what was left of the 5k. In an attempt to make sure I didn’t set off at a silly pace, I positioned myself near the back of the parkrunners. This approach worked and I felt great throughout the first lap around Beacon Park.
As I approached 20 minutes of running, I was feeling so good and enjoying running in the daylight with other people so much that I decided to carry on running. I ended up running every step of Beacon parkrun crossing the line in a time of 31:08 (official parkrun time of 31:23). I stopped to take some slightly dubious selfies and walked back to Lichfield City station.
I didn’t have much time to reflect on what had happened at parkrun before my brother collected me. I spent the most amazing Saturday afternoon and evening with my brother, my sister-in-law, and my niece and nephew. I hadn’t seen my brother’s family since before Christmas, so it was a long overdue catchup. and his family. I felt so shattered when I got home, I was relieved I didn’t have an early start the following morning.
Sunday – 20 mins running with no walking 30 mins cross training
Any lingering doubts I had about completing my 20 minute run at Beacon parkrun, disappeared when I headed outside on Sunday morning and discovered how windy it was. I know that I would have struggled to run for 20 minutes, some parts of my 30 minute walk quite literally took my breath away. Once I’d completed my physio exercises and had inflicted some pain on myself with my massage gun, the remainder of my Sunday was so mundane that I won’t bore you with the details.
The sixth week of the Couch to 5k training plan I’m following looks challenging but achievable. I know that I said exactly the same thing last week but looking at the interval runs makes me feel quite apprehensive. There are three different interval runs that based on my experiences this week will help rather than hinder me. The duration of the longest continuous run increases from 20 to 25 minutes. I’ll probably head back to Beacon parkrun as I find running with other people so much more enjoyable than running on my own.
Training totals:
Niggleometer:
* I wanted to compare this Couch to 5k attempt with previous attempts, so I worked out how far I’d run after 20 minutes running at Beacon parkrun.
Do you think I should carry on following the Couch to 5k training plan? I want to carry on following the training plan, but judging by a comment I received on Instagram, some people don’t see the point as I ran 5k on Saturday.
Do you think I should head back to Beacon parkrun this weekend to complete my 25 minute run? I’m not sure if I should try to complete the 25 minute run on my own rather than at Beacon parkrun.
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