Good morning, I’m feeling quite chirpy as I had an extra-long weekend and I’m on annual leave today. I hope that whoever takes the time to read my latest training and sort of life update – thank-you so much – had an amazing weekend.My four-day weekend had a few highlights; breakfast with mum on Friday morning, a spot of parkrun volunteering on Saturday morning and a post-parkrun volunteering BLT, and a couple of training runs. After four weeks of consistent(ish) training, I’m finally starting to feel a little fitter.

Week four of my Couch to Half Marathon training plan looked like this…The training sessions all looked achievable and I looked forward to running for three minutes rather than two minutes at a time.

So, how did I find the fourth week of my Couch to Half training? Did I manage to complete all of my training sessions? Did I let work get in the way of my training? Did I actually use the infamous exercise bike? Did I manage to avoid picking up an injury?

Monday – Rest

The week didn’t get off to the most positive of starts when I arrived at my local train station and discovered that the train I usually catch and all other trains were ‘delayed’. After waiting on the platform for 30 minutes getting colder and colder I decided to head back home. I’m fortunate that the organisation I work for promotes flexible working. I felt sorry for the people who had to travel to Birmingham. After a false start, I ended up having a productive day working from home and completed a couple of somewhat overdue technical assessments. Unfortunately, Monday wasn’t all positive. I tried and failed to enter a half marathon because my debit card was declined. I checked my bank account and everything looked okay so I contacted my bank and discovered that my account had been frozen due to fraudulent activity. Not ideal and slightly worrying, especially as I only had a limited amount of money to last me until my replacement card arrived.

Tuesday – 30 mins cross training

I had a training course in Birmingham which was ideal as it meant I could complete my interval session in the morning. My plans changed when I was woken by the sound of torrential rain, I love running in the rain but didn’t see much point in running in torrential rain and ending up with soaking wet trainers and running kit. I got soaked during the walk to the train station and to Millennium Point and ended up spending the day with wet feet. The first day of the training course was great and catching up with some people I hadn’t seen for 10 years made me forget about my soggy feet.

The day flew by and after a quick detour to the local shop I got home at 7:00pm. As my stomach had clearly not appreciated lunch and was feeling what I’d describe as ‘suspect’ I decided to switch my Tuesday and Wednesday training sessions around. I didn’t want to risk running and felt a lot safer peddling on an exercise bike. Once again, I was reminded that I’m not the best at cycling and I had to split the half hour into three lots of 10 minute sessions.

Wednesday – Rest

The second day of the training course was scheduled to start at 8:30am so when some train issues meant I was still in Four Oaks at 7:40am I started to panic. I felt guilty because I’d arranged to meet up with a colleague at 8:00am, luckily she waited for me and we arrived at the training venue with a couple of minutes to spare. Please tell me I’m not the only person who hates being late for anything… I felt stressed because I knew I was going to be late meeting my colleague and I had no way of contacting her.

The rest of the day was far more relaxed and once again it was a case of time flies when you’re having training course fun. The training course finished at 4:00pm and I popped into Birmingham with one of my old colleagues for a spot of shopping and a proper catch-up. I got home at 5:30pm and decided not to attempt my interval session as I wasn’t feeling great.

Thursday – 28 mins intervals (Run 2 mins/Walk 2 mins x 7) and 30 mins cross training 

I think the highlight of the day was booking Friday and Monday off as annual leave. Perhaps a little last minute, but I have so much annual leave left I’m in danger of not taking enough this year. Switching on my out of office and shutting down my work laptop felt great.

In an attempt to avoid having to play dodge the cars and pedestrians, I decided to delay my run until quite late in the evening. This approach paid off and except for a slightly scary moment when a runner dressed completely in black crept up behind me and then overtook me, I had a great interval session. I felt so good after my run I decided to complete a 30 minute session on my exercise bike. I took it easy but still covered the same distance I did earlier in the week. I have a feeling the distance measurements aren’t that accurate as I put in a lot more effort.

Friday – Rest

My long weekend got off to a calorific start as mum collected me at 10:00am and I treated us both to a cooked breakfast at the local farm shop cafe. It was good to spend an hour or so chatting. Apparently mum had seen me running on Wednesday evening and felt offended when I didn’t acknowledge her wave. I’d love to know which random female runner mum waved at! I received a message from HSBC letting me know my replacement card was ready to collect so I decided to risk getting rained on. I managed to dodge the showers and paid in a load of change and a birthday cheque and collected my replacement debit card. I was told I had far too much money in my current account and advised to use my credit rather than debit card online.

Once I’d opened a second savings account, I spent the afternoon watching the first session of the World Athletics Championships while trying to catch up on a couple of slightly overdue blogs. Blogmin complete – I do love writing rants and raves blogs – the weather was so miserable, I decided to treat myself to a takeaway from one of the better local Chinese restaurants. Leaving the house wasn’t an option. After a spot of housework I decided to stay up and to watch the women’s marathon.The course looked ‘interesting’ from the distance but I’ve never seen so many drop outs, it was carnage. Apparently it was 33.7°c at the start and 73.7 per cent humidity. Brutal!

Saturday – 30 mins intervals (Run 3 mins/Walk 2 mins x 6)

Rather predictably, I didn’t feel great when my alarm woke me at 6:30am. I struggled to get to sleep after watching the conclusion of the women’s marathon and ended up getting less than five hours’ sleep. I actually felt quite unwell almost jet-lagged, so decided to leave the house earlier as I suspected I’d have to walk across Sutton Park to the start of parkrun. Luckily, I started to feel a lot better as soon as I got outside, well enough to have a go at my interval session.

The top end of Sutton Park was so muddy, I decided to hold off running until I reached the road which runs through the park. I found the interval session a little harder than I expected but I got it done and even managed a phone conversation with a friend during one of the three minute run intervals. And then I realised I’d made a bit of a clothing error. By the time parkrun started I was so cold, I could hardly feel my fingers, not ideal for someone timekeeping using the phone app. Luckily, the rain stayed away and I felt much better after treating myself to BLT in the Communitea Café in Boldmere after parkrun.

The rest of the day was quite mundane even by my standards. I think it’s safe to say I’ve now officially reached middle age. I just need to find a dressing gown that’s long enough and some new fluffy slippers. Anyway, I remembered to book myself a slightly overdue hair appointment. Watch this space for complaints about my hair being too short to tie back. I tried to enjoy the athletics but struggled to; I don’t like the feeling that some performances are quite literally unbelievable.

Sunday – 4 miles (Run 2 mins/Walk 2 mins)

When my alarm woke me at 6:30am it was pitch black, wet and windy outside. I thought about delaying my four mile interval session for a couple of hours, checked the forecast and told myself to HTFU! Ten minutes after being woken up, I was outside trying and failing to warm-up. At least the torrential rain woke me up.

The interval session felt exactly the same as it did last week, definitely a case of same session same struggles. I found the first two miles quite tricky and struggled to complete one of my two minute running intervals. The second two miles felt far easier, perhaps I’ve turned into a runner who takes 20 minutes to find their rhythm. Highlights of the run included a dog who clearly wasn’t enjoying being walked and some epic puddles. I was so wet, I decided to run straight through every puddle, dodging them was pointless.

I’m still trying to dry my trainers out now.I got home, struggled to get out of my running gear and had a hot shower. Once I’d warmed up I headed back to bed for an hour or two. After my sneaky nap, I caught the final few minutes of the Berlin Marathon. Can you even begin to imagine what missing out on a world record by two seconds must feel like? I mean two seconds! It sometimes takes me two seconds to stop my Garmin watch at the end of a run.

Thanks to a somewhat unexpected migraine, the rest of the day was unfortunately a complete write-off. I hate wasting my weekends.

Week five of my Couch to Half Marathon training plan looks quite straightforward. The duration of the running intervals on Tuesday and Thursday increases from two to three minutes. I’m looking forward to this as I’ve been finding having to walk every couple of minutes after running a little frustrating. The run on Sunday stays the same at four miles, at least I’ve found myself a four mile route around Four Oaks.

Training totals

• Runs: 11
• Time: 6 hrs 9 mins
• Distance: 30.88 miles

Niggleometer

• Right knee: 2/10
• Right foot: 2/10

Have you ever missed out on setting a PB by two seconds or less? I can’t even begin to imagine how Bekele must have been feeling at the end of the Berlin Marathon.

Have you been watching the World Athletics Championships? I haven’t watched as much as I have in previous years. I’m not sure if it’s because of the empty stadium, that fact I don’t always believe what I’m watching or the fact I don’t recognise most of our athletes any more.

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