It’s finally arrived I’ve done everything I can to prepare (mostly fretted about it), had a yoghurt for breakfast and a few sips of water. Decided to get it out of the way early at the country park as I suspect it isn’t going to be pretty.
It turns out there’s an interrogation room in hell reserved for wannabe runners and I just spent 3 minutes in it being asked some very difficult questions. The first 3 minute run, no problem was feeling good, looks like the extra run last week might have paid off.
The mountain which was 5 minutes was doable right up to the the last minute. That final minute was torture and I don’t mean figuratively I mean actual real, physical and mental. My legs were dead, my old friend nausea is back and I’ve got Florence (& the Machine) telling me to basically lay down a die. Damn these playlists!
But I just managed to scrape through. My next thought was I don’t think I could do another 5 minutes, rapidly followed by shit I’ve got to do another 3 minutes in a few seconds, the 2 and half minutes recovery walk had shot past. I just about managed to pull my self together and made it through the new norm of 3 minutes. That’s right I now consider 3 minutes the new norm after one 5 minute run, that kind of caught me out.
And then there it was the 2nd 5 minute run towering in front of me and only seconds away. I had almost recovered from the 3 minute run so I knew I had at least another 3 minutes in me. But after that there was going to be 2 minutes back in the interrogation room and this time I’m not sure I was going to have the answers.
I got to the half way way mark and I was struggling, physically my legs felt like lead weights and mentally my mind is playing every trick it can think of to give me a reason to quit. The only bonus was at least Florence was back on side with lyrics I could twist to a more positive message. I’m desperately trying to keep my breathing controlled, a battle I’m losing rapidly as my lungs decide fast rapid panting will surely do the trick. It really doesn’t!
Then Laura chimes in with 60 seconds left and almost on the point of quitting I managed to convince myself I could hang in there 60 seconds rather than undo all the good work in todays session. Laura also throws in this is where it counts if you want to improve your fitness, which strikes a chord (see Ali’s quote from week 3). It’s time to suck it up, fitness costs and this is where you start paying (to paraphrase Fame!).
By this point I’m not even convinced I was going forward, the legs where moving (just) but I couldn’t have covered more than 30 metres in that last 60 seconds. But finally after what seemed like an eon (I swear a glacier tore across and receded across the field) it was over. Not that I was celebrating I was too busy trying to turn my stagger back into a walk and fighting down my old and constant companion at such times, nausea.
Then Laura chirps in with well done you just ran for 16 mins, you ran longer than you walked in this session. My god, she’s right I had never considered it, does that mean I’m a runner now? I certainly didn’t feel or look like it. So I staggered around the field for another extended 15 minute cool down walk waiting for the endorphin rush to kick in. Still nada.
The thought I always have in these warm down walks especially after the day 1 step ups is, christ I’m not sure I could do that again. In many respects ignorance is bliss. It’s like the interrogator saying now you know the cost let’s see if you are willing to pay it next time.
Well let’s find out in run 2 back in the interrogation room.
