It was really too cold to run today, but it was also such a lovely sunny day that I really wanted to be outside at lunchtime and really did not want to drag myself to the gym after it gets dark this evening. So I attempted the two 8-minute runs in the park, going really slowly and laboriously. The first run I had to pause briefly and pant at about 6 minutes, but I didn't stop for more than a few breaths, so I'm counting this as mostly a success. I think I wasn't really properly warmed up until about half way through the second section; at that point it got back into reasonable hard work territory, rather than struggling for breath.

Overall 2.8 km in 27½ minutes, so an average pace of 9'45'' / km and thus a bit faster than last time I tried week 5 day 2, even though it felt like I wasn't doing as well.

I tried a new thing: I finally got my ducks in a row to run with a podcast playing, and used the NHS C25K podcast, which consists of inoffensive music and a voiceover from a lady who says occasional encouraging things like "you're halfway there, you may be tired but keep going" and "you're doing brilliantly, just a few more minutes". The inoffensive music was not particularly to my taste, but it was definitely useful to have audio cues giving me the timings so I could run without clockwatching. And the affirmations did make me feel good about myself, even though I know full well it's a crude brainhack of a recorded voice and not meaningful praise.

I'm going to have another go at the scary 20 minutes at the weekend. Keep me accountable, lovely community!