Good morning – if I’ve managed to schedule this post – and as always, I hope that everyone who reads this had an amazing weekend. I’m sure people will be relieved that this blog has returned to normal as I didn’t spend the week eating out most evenings.

My weekend highlights included a spot of soggy parkrun volunteering, a successful shopping trip and some much-needed family time. Oh yes, this is a running blog, another highlight was a second longer run. The not such a highlight was not having my mobile phone all weekend. I hope it enjoyed its short weekend break in the office.

Week nine of my Couch to Half Marathon training plan looked like this.

Thanks to an impromptu drinking session in Birmingham the reality looked a little different. Normality will resume this week, my liver needs time to recover.

So, how did I find the ninth week of my Couch to Half Marathon training plan? Did I remember to use my exercise bike? Did I avoid picking up any niggles? Did I allow life to get in the way of training?

Monday – Rest

After my epic six-mile run the previous day, I was expecting to feel some aches and pains when I first dragged myself out of bed. I was surprised and more than a little relieved when I was able to walk to and from the bathroom without any issues. I’d love to be able to report that I made the most of my annual leave, but with the exception of a quick trip out with mum for a spot of breakfast, I didn’t bother to leave the house.

Tuesday – 36 mins intervals (Run 5 mins/Walk 1 min x 6)

Thanks to what could only be described as a ‘domestic emergency’ I ended up having to book Tuesday off as annual leave. It’s a good job the organisation I work for is incredibly flexible. Said emergency meant that I couldn’t leave the house all day. I spent the morning catching up on yet more adulting related tasks and drafted out a couple of product reviews.

I delayed my interval session until the evening. Without sounding a little strange, I much prefer running when it’s dark and the evening rush hour is over. I think darker conditions make me slow down a little as I can’t see where I’m running. At least people can see me!

Well that was the theory, the reality was a little different. I did an impression (in my mind) of Paula Radcliffe on my first five-minute running interval, ended up struggling to complete the fourth and fifth running intervals and ended the session feeling like I was going to collapse. To add insult to injury, I made the mistake of wearing a long-sleeved top I bought in TK Maxx and overheated. I failed one of the basics of running; always check you are dressed for the conditions!

Wednesday – 30 mins cross training

Yet more train related issues meant that I didn’t make it into the office. Much as I like being able to work from home, I do find spending all day in my office at home quite isolating. Call me ‘Contrary Mary’ but I find sitting in a busy, noisy office as stressful as having zero contact with people when I work from home. Definitely a no win situation, but if I had my own desk and a guarantee I’d have somewhere to sit when I get in the office, I’d be more willing to tolerate the train delays.

The one bonus of working from home is the reduction in distractions. I managed to get my inbox under control and finished drafting out presentations for the training course I’m meant to be running next year.

I logged out of my laptop and 4:00pm and decided to get my cross training session done and dusted before I could change my mind. I’d love to be able to report that I’ve finally fallen in love with my exercise bike but that would be a blatant lie. I’m still finding my exercise bike boring; I suspect I’d find cycling outside in the ‘real world’ a little more engaging.

Thursday – Rest

Thursday was a slightly surreal day but in a good way. I’ll try to set the scene; I’d just boarded a delayed train and grabbed one of the few empty seats. I got chatting to the lady sat opposite me – hello train Jen – and discovered we were both heading to Solihull. We ended up swapping numbers and arranged to meet up at Solihull station after work. We somehow ended up in the pub outside New Street Station and following a couple of drinks, inside the Kitty Café.

I tried and failed to take some decent photos during the short time we spent in the Kitty Café. To be honest, I found the concept of allowing cats to wonder around while people were eating slightly surreal. We escaped from the Kitty Café and went on the hunt for somewhere to eat. I can’t remember where we ended up eating – never a good sign – but the food was quite good. I said TTFN to train Jen and headed back home on one of the few trains that seemed to be running.

I think it’s safe to say I didn’t manage to complete my interval session.

Friday – Rest

I felt a lot better than I probably deserved to when my alarm woke me, so I headed into a virtually empty office.

Unfortunately, by lunchtime I started to feel a little ‘peaky’ and made the decision to head home. I figured I spend the afternoon working from home. In my rush to escape from the office I left my mobile phone on my desk. Not ideal when I was on barcode scanning duty at parkrun but not the end of the world. I won’t share the lowlights of Friday – I was a little bit unwell – but the highlight of the day was booking myself a place on the Marathon Talk run camp 2020 which takes place in Derbyshire. I have no idea how I’m going to get to and from the venue and will worry about the details nearer the time but roll on February!

Saturday – 30 mins cross training

You all know my Saturday morning routine, so I won’t go into too much detail. The weather first thing in the morning was perfect for a spot of parkrun volunteering; sunny, calm and not too chilly.

And then it started to rain, and I had flashbacks to the previous week. I was on barcode scanning duty to start with. I was impressed the Volunteer App seemed to cope with most of the sodden barcodes I was handed. I was also impressed I didn’t destroy the iPhone I’d ‘borrowed’ from a friend. I managed to avoid the official photographer, but this photo summarises how wet and miserable it was at the finish.

[Photo: Peter Heafield]

Once the two tail walkers had been scanned, we packed away the finish area in record time. The Event Director very kindly gave me a lift to the post-parkrun meeting point and several members of the Core Team helped me sort through the barcodes which were a tad wet. It took me quite a long time to warm up when I got home.

The rest of my Saturday was quite mundane. I spent a couple of hours preparing meals for the week ahead and trying to make the house look a little more respectable. I laid out my running gear and headed to bed at a sensible time as I wanted to give myself the best chance of completing my ‘longer’ training session.

Sunday – 6 miles (Run 4 mins/Walk 2 mins)

Last week’s six mile interval session was what I would describe as a confidence boosting run. Exactly the same training session yesterday was unfortunately the opposite; I had to walk a couple of times during the final run interval and the whole session felt like a slog. At least I dodged the rain and didn’t cut my run short. I got home, made myself drink a pint of Nuun, had a hot shower and then headed back to bed for a nap.

Somewhat longer than anticipated nap complete, I made a list of household chores I needed to complete. Top of the list was defrosting my freezer as it had got to the stage I couldn’t close the door. An hour, a minor finger injury and a lot of bad language later, my freezer was ice-free and clean. It was dry and sunny, so I decided to spend a couple of hours in the garden making the most of the daylight. The second I stepped out it started to rain so I abandoned my gardening ambitions and headed inside to watch some of the New York Marathon. If I don’t get a ballot place in the Chicago Marathon I may well enter the ballot for New York.

The rest of my Sunday was even more mundane so I won’t waffle on for any longer.

I’ve just checked out Week 10 of my Couch to Half Marathon training plan and all of the training sessions look achievable. The interval sessions on Tuesday and Thursday are identical; 36 minutes of 5 minute running intervals followed by one minute recovery intervals. The distance of the longer session on Sunday has been reduced from six to four miles; this seems slightly strange to me but I guess all training plans include cutback weeks. The duration of the recovery intervals has also reduced from two minutes to one minute.

Training totals

• Runs: 14
• Time: 9 hrs 0 mins
• Distance: 46.22 miles

Niggleometer

• Right knee: 3/10
• Left knee: 2/10
• Right foot: 2/10

Did you have a good weekend? I hope the weather wherever you were was better it was in Four Oaks.

Would you visit a Kitty Cafe if one opened near you? Have you visited a Kitty Cafe?  While I like the idea of cats getting used to people while they are waiting to be re homed, I found the whole concept a little strange. A couple of the cats didn’t seem to be very happy.

Have you booked a spot on the Marathon Talk run camp in February? I really home I know someone on the run camp!

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