Do the Couch-to-5k running plan at half speed

Still deep in a college project, so dipping in quickly to blog this. Apologies to everyone to whom I owe replies – bear with me, normal service will resume as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway.

An après-boulot run again, and this time it felt like I was really covering some distance. Again, only 1.78 miles, but a lot more of it was running rather than walking, so it felt like more. I’m up to three-minute runs with no bother at all now. I’m barely out of breath.

My thighs are toning up remarkably fast. Or rather, getting dancerly muscular. I can’t decide how I feel about that. I am annoyed that none of the rest of me is changing shape at all, but then I’ve only done ten runs, less than 18 miles, and burned under 2000 calories, so I can’t expect the moon on a stick. At least I am feeling fitter and calmer.

OK, back to work.

Around the park, with all the ducks and the geese and the cute families out to play. This week’s runs involve intervals of three minutes, and they were amazingly easy, although admittedly I did do half of one downhill. But then again, I did one of the 90-second runs up a very steep hill, so swings and roundabouts.

Highlights of the run – seeing a squirrel! I got so excited I shouted out, “Look, it’s a squirrel!” much to the amusement of passers-by. I blame the aerobic rush. Also, bumping into my friends Tash and (the inactive 43er) SweetCherryPie, with their daughter who is now almost two and cuter than a pieful of kittens. When you ask her what time it is, she says, “Hammer time”, and she demanded a kiss from me before I went, and shouted “bye bye” until I was out of view. Adorabiggle.

Another post-work run, and another low-energy veeeeerrrry sloooow one. In fact, I cut this one a bit short, partly because I arrived back at my starting point five minutes sooner than I expected, and partly because I was afraid that if I didn’t get to a loo soon I’d have a trouserial accident. It must be something to do with the bouncy gravitational pull making things want to move downwards and out of my body. OK, I’ll stop talking about my insides now.

Right, I think I’ll move onto week three tomorrow. I love my weekend runs, they’re so much more fun than the weekday duty runs.

Straight after work. A bit of a slog, this one, but done nonetheless. I’m going to do another week two on Thursday before attempting week three on Saturday.

Knackered now, body and brain. I have work to do and I just want to eat my spicy pumpkin soup and collapse in front of a film.

Out this afternoon and into the park. Easy peasy again. In fact I inadvertently and experimentally wound up running for five minutes – minus about 20 seconds to throw a ball back at some kids who’d kicked it over a fence – and it was a bit of a push, but fine. Felt like quite an achievement, which I guess it was. I was very pink and out of puff when I got home. Next run, homework allowing, Monday night after work.

Completed after work tonight, in a light refreshing drizzle. I quite like running straight from work – I keep the energy momentum going after a day at work but it still acts as a marker to divide work from my own time. Plus, running in the upmarket and well-maintained suburb where I work, I’m a lot less likely to get mugged, murdered, fall over a discarded piece of bloodstained two-by-four or tread in dog poo than in the ghetto where I live.

For a week two run, this was really pretty easy. I took the 90-second intervals nice and slowly, and barely got out of breath. Ace. Next run will be Saturday.

I went out straight after work, bounding out of the office in my running gear, and as I am knackered from a hard day, decided to stay on week one for this one. Glad I did – it was exhausting! Turns out a lot of the streets round where I work slope gently uphill – not enough to notice when walking but it makes a difference when I’m running alright. I measured out the right distance on Gmaps before I left, but the hill slowed me down so much that I wound up walking about an extra ten minutes to get back to my car after the intervals finished.

Still, I was home at 6.15pm, and most of the traffic had cleared, so my journey was actually way quicker than usual. Worth doing, I’ll probably do this again.

Edit: to say look at my ace Freudian slip in the title!

Done, in the lovely crisp cool air. Pretty easy, again – I like this running-slowly lark. I also love the new Podrunner Intervals podcasts I’m using. Much better than someone shrieking Europop in your ears.

Not so sure about the new sports bra. It felt OK in the shops but there seems to be significantly more movement in it than in the old one. Then again, the old one was three cup sizes too small so the girls were pretty squashed. I may get something else to wear over the top of this one to minimise bounce further, because it did seem to cause a fair amount of consternation amongst passers by.

Gosh. I think I’ll move up to week two next week.

..I set the alarm for 6.45pm, not am, nor that I barely slept last night. But it did help to know that Evenstar was going to run alongside me, albeit in a different country. I hauled myself out of bed and texted her at 7am when the second alarm went off. Somehow it took me 15 minutes to have a wee, put on my running gear, drink a glass of water and eat three pistachios, so it was 7.15 before I was out of the door, but hooray, I did get out, and I ran a fairly easy and enjoyable loop through the chilly streets. I don’t know if it was the comical sight of fat girl running (God loves a tryer) or what, but a bunch of builders took it upon themselves to urge me on loudly and whoopily, which was somewhat disconcerting. My cursed bladder forced me to head for home early, so I missed the final interval off but, astonishingly, I think I might actually be ready for week two on week two.

It really helped to know Evie was relying on me getting up and out this morning to get her up and out too. I knew I’d committed, and if I didn’t do it or, worse, pretended I had, I’d be letting someone down besides myself. I’d be happy to make this running buddy arrangement a regular, and if anyone else fancies joining in, the more the merrier.

I’m calling this week 0 cos I’m still not using the proper intervals, just alternately running and walking sides of the block. I took it fairly easy this morning – I think I’m finally getting the hang of not starting out too fast – and I really enjoyed it. It was a dull, drizzly morning so there was no sunrise to speak of, but I did get to see the sky lighten several shades as I ran, and was lucky enough to dodge the showers. It definitely helped to know Abs was running at the same time, too – thanks for the inspiration, m’dear! :o)