Couch to 5k

Wow, that was basically awful. I skipped a planned run last week because I was just overwhelmed by urgent work stuff, something I try not to do. And then today was one of those inexplicably bad runs, everything was a struggle, I could barely force myself to keep going for 10 minutes at 7.5 kph, dropped to 6.5 kph but didn't really recover, so I took a walking break after a further 10 minutes. That gave me a rather pathetic time of 3.4 km in 30 minutes. I'm proud of myself for doing what I could manage rather than giving up or attempting something that was beyond me, but still, bleh.

Only one more episode of the original series of the zombies; this one ended on a total cliffhanger!

Well, that was emotional! Gradually building up my continuous 7.5 kph time; this time I managed 12½ minutes at pace, then 5 minutes at 6.5 kph, then 7½ minutes at pace, and inserted another short 6.5 kph recovery section before finishing the final 2½ minutes at pace. Felt like hard work, I had to really push myself to keep going. Anyway still 3.6 km in 30 minutes.

Had a really awful cold the second half of last week; I was actually ill, not just making excuses not to run. Weekend I was away and didn't manage to fit a run in, though I did walk about 5 miles each day so that still counts as exercise.

Today I ran at lunchtime, increasing from 5 min intervals at my 7.5 kph goal pace to 1 km intervals, ie 8 minutes at this pace. This was manageable if hard work; I definitely needed those jogging breaks, which I'm taking at 6.5 kph currently. The biggest limiting factor was the discomfort of running in torn leggings, really need to get round to replacing them. Total distance 3.6 km, giving me a overall pace of 8'20'' /km, which is starting to look respectable again.

I missed the only slot I had available to run in the second half of the week because I had a panic morning and forgot my leggings. This morning I found it really hard to drag myself out to the gym; I think weekends can be a problem that way because there isn't a set time when I have to go running so it's easy to procrastinate. But I made it in the end and I'm pleased I did because I had a good run.

I managed to keep going at 7.2 kph for the whole 30 minutes, hard work but never seriously uncomfortable. So 3.6 km overall, and I feel good in an endorphins sort of way, as well as feeling psychologically good that I'm making steady progress again.

Annoyingly, though, my leggings split right down the inseam. (This always happens to me, and having thigh muscles isn't making it any better.) So I'm going to have to get some new leggings, partly because the gym won't let me run in normal clothes, and partly because the torn leggings are no longer able to keep my thighs from chafing. This on top of needing to get new glasses as I managed to snap my main pair in a fashion unrelated to exercise. With teaching starting on Monday it's a hassle I could do without.

Two quite similar treadmill runs on Friday and today, just managing to squeeze three runs into the week even with being away at the weekend. Both days I did 3.5 km in 30 minutes, mostly at 7.2 kph with a 6.5 kph jogging break in the middle. Friday was 15 minutes at 7.2 kph then 10 mins break and finishing at the faster pace again. Today I managed a whole 20 minutes at 7.2 kph continuously, and picked up to 7.2 kph again for the last five minutes after only a 5 minute slow jog. So a definite improvement even if I didn't actually run measurably further.

For both runs my legs felt like jelly by the end. Lungs-wise it was just on the edge of what I could cope with. On Friday I really did have to take a break half-way through, and I needed most of 10 minutes at the slow pace to feel recovered enough to speed up again. Today definitely felt more manageable, to the point where I'm not sure if I should have tried to push on past the 20 minutes at the faster pace. But I think I'm getting to the point where both my lungs and my muscles are limiting me, so I feel better about building up gradually.

I feel very proud of myself for managing to drag myself out for a run on Christmas eve – I'm not going to manage three runs this week but at least one was better than using the festive season as an excuse to break my routine. jack came with me and we ran along the river to Fen Ditton and back in a small loop. Some of it is paved track, some was across fields, and there was a headwind for much of the way back. I was also being gentle with myself because it's on the edge of too cold to be safe for my lungs. I paused the timer when we actually had to go round a huge waterlogged mudbath and through a hedge, but a few times I was slowed by dealing with smaller amounts of mud than that. So overall quite a bit slower than what I've been managing on the treadmill, 2.8 km in 27 minutes, but I think reasonably good going considering.

It was interesting doing the zombie chases in the real world. The first one I set off way too fast and couldn't keep going for the full minute, but the second one I actually won even though it was right at the end of the run and I was pretty tired. The story for Mission 11 was one of the most emotive yet, really getting in to this!

I bought a bumbag big enough to carry my oversized phone in order to play with the zombies without getting into trouble at the gym. I was hoping that I could manage putting the headphones in, starting the episode and getting the phone into the pouch towards the end of the warmup, but that ended up being a bit faffy. I'm sure I'll get used to it after a couple of tries.

The accelerometer options are hand, armband and pocket; I tried pocket as that seemed the closest to having the phone on my hip in a bumbag, but it turned out that the phone was completely unable to detect my stride at all in this setup. I think this is partly because the whole point of wearing a phone like that is that the waist is fairly minimally in motion while running. So I didn't get any zombie chases, but completed thirty minutes at a steady 7 kph, making 3.5 km in an arithmetically obvious way.

Physically, I found the run... neutral. It wasn't enjoyable, but it wasn't painful or horrible either, it was just this mildly unpleasant chore that I had to carry on for what felt like a long 30 minutes without the zombie chases to break it up. Mission 9 was really emotive; I continue to be very impressed with the quality of the writing! It's also really long, more than 50% longer than several of the earlier missions. I stopped after my planned 30 minutes and listened to the rest of the transmissions as I was getting changed, but the sudden jump from under 25 minutes to over 35 is a bit disconcerting.