We are into the long runs now, no more breaks and starting with a re-run of 25 minutes. So it was back to the local park on a blisteringly hot Thursday evening, I tend to be favouring the park because of my full-time dog minding duties, it means I can be in and out in 45 minutes.

Usual types at the park, mostly flat out on the grass. It was pretty damn warm. I’d made sure I’d had a good glug of water before heading out, anticipating it might get a bit sticky.

I’m a bit embarrassed to talk about any form of incline having just watched Geraint Thomas win the Aple d’Huez in a spectacular sprint finish after climbing a mountain for most of the day, in the process securing back-to-back wins and holding onto the yellow jersey. But today’s run was definitely an uphill battle.

To mix it up I decided to run clockwise around the park, I tend to favour anti-clockwise for no particular reason. The park itself is on a slight incline, so for about a 1/3 of the run you are going uphill, doesn’t matter which way you go round, there’s a 10-metre difference according to Google Earth. Anti-clockwise is steeper but shorter, while clockwise is shallower but probably twice the distance. Having run both now I absolutely prefer the short sharp shock as opposed to the prolonged grind. But it’s good to mix it up I guess.

All the usual warnings from Laura about pacing and off we go. We hit the 5-minute mark and I’m still settling in – i.e. probably going too fast and having to back it off. Amazing to think in earlier weeks 5 minutes was a target and now it hardly counts as a warmup. Laura chimes in at the halfway mark, the negative voices have been trying the old “not even halfway, and it’s going to get harder” routine since 10 minutes. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to stop a couple of times.

Instead, I performed the mental status check I did on the last run, tell me why I should be stopping:

• legs – not ideal, my thighs are burning more than usual, seems to be the result of going down the steeper downhill. But no show stoppers although I might want to take it a bit easier downhill next time round.
• feet – no problems
• stomach – no real problems, the dial is just nudging the red, particularly on the uphill climb, take it easier
• lungs – having to work quite hard going uphill, but I am able to recover to a degree going downhill

In conclusion, the usual bunch of issues to manage but no show stoppers. Get your head down, crack on and check back in 5 minutes.

Laura chimes in at 20 minutes, it’s fair to say I’m not having fun but I’ll be buggered if I’m going to quit a 25m run at 20m, even if the latest status check is indicating the legs are starting to suffer quite badly, a couple of staggering steps testify to my fatigue and the lungs are slowly failing to fully recover on the downhill, so it’s all getting a little bit choo-choo.

Luckily the last 2 minutes was all downhill, that was a bit of a break. 60 seconds to go, Laura is tempting me to step it up again. I’m thinking I could probably pick the pace up a bit, but let’s not go mad, I know how long 60 seconds can last when you hit empty. So I pick it up and got to the finish line fairly strong.

This session was harder than the last 25m session, I think because it’s difficult to completely eliminate the overconfidence at the start of a repeat run. I know I’m doing it and I dial it back but it’s still quicker than the super tentative pace the first time around. I also really felt this one in my thighs, more than any session so far. Hopefully, it’ll translate into more stamina next time.

This outing was the usual running playlist the only new track on it was Killing in the Name – Rage Against the Machine. It kicked in the last 5 minutes, there really isn’t a “running” message in the whole track, except the last minute’s worth of “F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me” coincided perfectly with the last uphill slog when my body was pleading to stop. Guess what my response was!

Run Rating : 

I’ve had a go at summarising the overall ratings of each run over the course of the C25K program, just to see if I could spot any patterns. The rating is a summary of  my general feeling about a run, bold rows are the first run at a new time. There are at lot of factors that ultimately decide for me if it was a good or bad run, including (in order):

• mental – by far the biggest factor (75%+) in any run is my mental attitude going into and during. I’ve turned up to races already defeated and turned easy runs into a waking nightmare.
• physical – I have over done it on a few occasions on the rest days only to regret it the on the next run, e.g. went walking for 10 miles, spent 2 hours on my hands and knees gardening.
• food/water – I need a good 4-5 hours between eating and running to avoid any issues, in the same vein I try to avoid turning up with any unnecessary extra weight if you get my drift. I don’t think I’ve run far enough that hydration has really made a huge difference to me, even if I am sweating from the start.
• weather – not a huge factor unless it’s high humidity, muggy weather tends to sap the strength out of me pretty quickly (it’s just nasty). Similarly time of day in the end didn’t make any difference to me, although I have a preference to get it done early in the day, just got get it out of the way.
• kit – so far hasn’t made a huge difference to the outcome of a run. Obviously running shoes are the most important piece of kit to get right, Be careful breaking them in, that you don’t end up breaking yourself, as I almost did.

My rating would typical take into account all of these factors.

Well, this run had been a long time coming, between failing week 6 run 2, fixing that and then going back to re-run week 6 days 1 & 2 again to get over a back injury, I finally ran out of excuses and had to grow a pair and get out there and DO IT!

I’ve been living the waking nightmare of a new puppy for the last week and a half and it’s been full-on, to say the least. The opportunity of getting out of the house and not dealing with the darling little fluff-ball for 45 minutes filled me with so much joy I practically skipped to the park.

In terms of mental preparation, just the usual run every 5 minutes at a time, don’t go too fast, just focus on the running NOW, not 20 minutes from now, tomorrow or the next run. Right here, right now in the words of Fatboy Slim. The park was oddly full of teenagers not sure why I’d run the 7pm slot a few times last week and there were none to be seen it was just families. Maybe the Pokemon were out in force, who knows. It didn’t matter I had 25m of running to get done.

So off we go, Laura gave all the same warnings, go slow, don’t stop just keep moving (echoed by Sia 5 minutes later). Laura chimes back in at 5 minutes, I’m not even breathing hard everything is well under control, nice slow steady pace, it looks like I have really found a running rhythm finally.

Into the 2nd 5 minutes, seems to be going well apart from going on a bit, then Laura chimes in with you are now halfway (12 and half minutes) hang in there. Very clever I see what you did there and it worked. The negative voice that was whispering “ONLY halfway” shut up instantly. I was at the 15-minute mark in no time, I had found myself running periodic status checks every few minutes, that went:

• legs – good, feeling a bit heavy at this point but fully functional
• feet – nothing major, maybe some slight numbing in the right foot
• stomach – no problems, amazing, not a twinge or any sign of the ever-present threat of nausea
• lungs – starting to breath harder, slow it down a tad, still under control

Laura chimed in at the 20-minute mark, I’d hoped she wouldn’t because I knew I would take it as a cue to come up with new reasons to quit. But I couldn’t believe it a quick mental status check still came back all systems go.

I’d finally reached a point where even my brain was having to admit that there really was no reason to stop running, a complete mindset change. I was no longer wondering if I could make the next 5 minutes but instead asking what could stop me running the next 5 mins. A total game-changer, no more negative thoughts, no more visions of nightmares to come. I was just running and I could definitely run for another 5 minutes.

Rather annoyingly a fellow jogger overtook me at the 23-minute mark, my first thought was the usual negative “see a proper runner” and then I noticed he wasn’t sweating at all, he’d obviously just started, I was already 23 minutes ahead of him, slacker. I floated on …

With 60 seconds to go Laura chimed in again, I was very tempted to up the pace and finish the last 60 seconds quicker, but deep in energy management mode I correctly decided to just bank this one. I’ve got 3 more of these runs next week, plenty of time to experiment with leaving it all on the field in a spectacular sprint finish.

It was over, Laura chimed in with congratulations and then added: “I think we can say you’re a runner at this point”. Yes! FINALLY, where’s my medal? I’d have to say this is the first session where the burden of proof had shifted, from “you can’t do this, there’s no proof you can do this” to “i can do this, where’s the proof I can’t do it”. Not only did I do it, I didn’t have to wreck myself to get there either, in fact, I think I could have made 30 minutes if I really had to (e.g. outrunning a tiger, catching an ice cream van etc).

I’d added a few more “inspirational” tracks to the running playlist as I was starting to get bored of Sia’s demands to keep on running, effective as they were:

Where is My mind? – Pixies

A question I often ask myself when running and an excellent running track. Especially on this run, it kicked in about 15 minutes in and I used the lyrics for my own purposes:

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
But there’s nothing in it
And you’ll ask yourself

Where is my mind
Where is my mind
Where is my mind
Way out in the water
See it swimmin’

Basically a reminder to just focus on running, no other thoughts, stay in the moment. Way out in the water in my head was way out in this run and still, swimmin = still running.

Float On – Modest Mouse

I really like this track, I heard it on some advert a few months back and it got added to my general playlist, and now promoted to the primetime running playlist. I particularly liked the rhythm of it, as it seems to match my own natural pace. particularly the chorus:

And we’ll all float on okay
And we’ll all float on okay
And we’ll all float on okay
And we’ll all float on anyway, well

Pretty much speaks for itself, I’m trying to literally float around this field and it’s going to be okay.

Alright, Already
And we’ll all float on alright
Already we’ll all float on alright
Don’t worry even if things end up a bit
Too heavy we’ll all float on alright

And a reminder that even when my legs get heavy we are all just going to keep on floating, ALRIGHT! ALREADY!

So onto week 7 and three more 25 minute runs, I won’t make the mistake I made at week 5’s 20 minute run of thinking it will be easy. It won’t, but there’s far more evidence suggesting I’m going to succeed than fail.

Run Rating : 

I ended up re-running week 6 day 1 and 2, as I managed to put my back out at the weekend. We were picking up a new puppy (Archer – see other posts) and the plan was we were going to train him to go in an outside doggy toilet. So I got up early on the Saturday Delivery-Day and spent 3 hours digging and generally getting his latrine sorted. We then went down to Folkestone picked him up and as I went to get back in the car something in my back when twang. By the time we got home my back was spasming at the slightest provocation and I was reduced to shuffling around after the new puppy.

We had family round (it was the day of the England quarter finals in the World Cup) for a BBQ and I was struggling to move around let alone deal with a new puppy that needed picking up every few minutes. So it took a couple of days before I could move around without my back complaining. So between that and the demands of a new puppy it was almost a week before I could get back to running. The interesting thing is I wanted to get out and run, partly I suspect because I was cooped up with a furry terror for 24 hours a day (he can’t go out until he gets his second set of jabs, which is another 4 weeks – so we are both grounded).

I had left off at W6R3 and I thought (after a week out) I had better ease myself back into it, rather than go straight to the 25m run. It was a pleasant Friday evening run around the local park, it had been warm during the day but there was a cool breeze by this point that made it nice and fresh. I always assumed come the evening the park was full of drug dealers and teenagers up to no good, there have been a few stories in the past, but in reality on a delightful summer evening it was full of families out with their kids, the usual dog walkers and a number of OAP’s.

Week 6 – run 1 (12/07/2018)

I fired up the app and setup W6R1 again (5m+8+5m) and shoved my regular running playlist on. I was hardly breathing hard after the first 5 minutes, I had ensured the pace was very slow to ease myself in. Recovered in probably less than 30 seconds. Onto the 8 minutes run, and found an even longer route around the park, making a lap now closer to 12 minutes at my current pace by my estimation.  Again paced myself and was happy to get through to the last minute in good form, I was actually enjoying it. It took about a minute and half to recover. Onto the last run another 5 minutes, easy in fact picked a route that was a little more uphill to try and make it harder for myself.

Two weeks ago I had run this same session and it had been a living hell, today it was probably one of the best runs I’ve had and I honestly enjoyed it. What changed? It wasn’t my physical capabilities if anything I’d probably gone backwards in the last week. Better pacing for sure made a huge difference, if I compare the two runs that’s a big factor. Over confidence was the main problem in the previous run, this time I was confident but I was also super critical that I didn’t hurt myself doing it. That seemed to make a huge difference.

Run Rating : 

Week 6 – run 2 (14/07/2018)

I re-ran W6D2 (2x10m) in the baking midday heat on the Sunday, with a new puppy to take care off I take my chances to run where I can. I popped up to the local park, lots of people out all of them in the shade of the trees. The first 10 minute run was pretty easy, generally getting out to 8 minutes before getting a bit panty. Recovered within the first minute of the 3 minute walk The second run I got to about 6 minutes before I started to feel it. The last couple of minutes were very slow in comparison to my earlier pace. but whatever it takes.

My running form continues to improve, I noticed a few times that I had a nice rhythm that was very easy to just keep going without a lot of mental or physical effort. I still find it helps to break these runs down into 5 minutes sections and just tell myself to run that 5 minutes.

I still get negative “why not quit” thoughts but it’s easier to ignore them the more times you do the same distances. These thoughts are generally at their worst at the start of the run and they tend to elude to how far it is and how difficult it will get. it’s fairly easy to ignore them when you can get to 8 minutes without struggling. I tend to just go back to focussing on now.

My feet don’t hurt anymore in the walks between runs which is a major bonus. I still get a touch of nausea, in this case in the last 2 minutes of the second 10m run, I take it is a sign I’m digging deep, on longer runs it’s a danger sign and something I’ll need to actively manage,  i.e. I shouldn’t be digging deep when there’s a lot of time still to go. much better to slow down and back off.

The next run is W6D3 a 25m straight run. Should be interesting, I’ve still got a mental block when it comes to these “long” runs, I’m honestly not convinced I can do it. But I definitely should be able to get to the 20 minute mark and I’m hoping having got there I’ll have enough to push on for another 5 minutes.

I feel like this is the last hurdle, todays run was the last with breaks in the program and like a reluctant horse approaching a big jump I keep balking at it. I need to get my shit together and get used to it, it’s the new norm from next week, just like 1, 3, 5, 8, 10 mins all became norms.

Run Rating : 

I came too around 6:30am and my first conscious thought (other than I need a pee, yeah I’m at that age) was I need to run today. Followed by the realisation that the sooner I got it done the less time I’d waste worrying about it, I crawled out of bed, threw on my running gear and headed to the local park. A glorious summer morning, not too warm yet and a slight breeze perfect running conditions.

Walking up to the park, I replayed the last session. I told myself this was going to be bloody hard, it was not going to be fun and I would at least do more than 14 minutes. I mentally broke the run down into 4 x 5 minutes in my mind. The thought of the next 25m run raised its head and I angrily stamped it down, I was here to run today’s run. Not a marathon.

The local park was strangely busy, I had been here a few times now and this was the busiest I’d seen it. So this is where all the fit people are, they are in the park at seven in the morning. There were several runners, wannabes like myself and even a couple of real runners. One lady, who looked like she was part antelope passed me and I was envious of her gliding effortless pace. In spite of her stature, she was running at a truly stunning speed, very close to what I would consider a sprint. I put it out of my mind and got my head down.

The first 10 minutes weren’t going to be too much of a problem I knew that, I focussed in on the moment, just keeping my form and not thinking. I noticed a few of the runners were running a longer path around the park, I hadn’t even spotted, which also had the benefit of being in the shade. That extended the run around the park from about 5 minutes a lap to close to 8, my brain was already doing the math’s to calculate where I had to get to too stop.

I got to the 8-minute mark and was starting to feel it, so I just eased back a bit. Laura chimed in with 60 seconds to go and I tried not to take it as a cue to change anything. Just keep the same pace. At the 10 minute mark, I was ok. I realised at about a minute into the 3-minute walk that my feet weren’t hurting. They usually kill me in these walks, this time however pretty much nothing. Well, that was progress. I was recovered by the 90-second mark and took the remaining 90 seconds to get some deep breaths in and stretch a bit in my walking.

The 10m run starts and all I’m thinking is get to 5 minutes at least that would be better than last time. Constantly trying to keep a slow steady pace and not waste any effort. The 5-minute mark came surprisingly quickly, I had to remind myself I was here to run today not tomorrow and keep putting the 25m run out of my mind.

The last 5 minutes I was under no illusions was going to be tough. My breathing was slowly spiralling out of control and my legs were getting heavy. My brain had calculated the likely finish line and it was far on the other side of the park.

Before coming out for the run I had watched a news bulletin about 12 Thai kids (and their coach) stuck deep in a flooded cave, the story had been running for a few days after the miracle that they had been found. This mornings update was all bad news, a Thai Navy Seal had died delivering oxygen to the slowly suffocating kids buried 4km underground. And here I was on a lovely sunbathed morning, sucking in fresh air thinking I was in hell, f**** me!

I got to to the 8-minute mark and knew I had done it. I also knew the next 2 minutes was going to be unpleasant, my breathing by this point was very much like the noise of a chugging steam train. The last-minute as advertised was not fun but I was still berating myself for thinking “I” was having a tough time. Pussy!

I had finished it. Yes, it was tough but in the BIG scheme of things, it was a walk in the park. I was annoyed again that I had failed it the first time, more annoyed than on the day. A firm reminder that this was very much a mental game with some physical elements.

Of course, I didn’t even get to the gate before the thought of the W6R3 – 25m run was back, I wish I could just somehow celebrate the moment, these small victories. With the exception of the 20m run, my only thought after every run is “right, what’s next”. Actually, it’s probably a good thing because the only time I ever did give myself a pat on the back I managed to convince myself I was Mo Farah.

Here we are again. I’ve read that the brain has an extraordinary ability to find patterns in things. But for some reason in this instance it can’t join up the dots, this is the same mindset at the start of every new run and every time I’ve found a way. Every single time! So why am I sitting here writing this convinced it’s impossible.

Walking back I’d almost convinced myself I should re-run today, you know to build up more stamina, get more metres under my belt. Which is utter nonsense, it is better to try and to fail than not to try at all, I won’t be beaten before I even make the field. So the next run will be W6R3 and we’ll see what is out there, ideally, it will be only me running.

Music-wise today I went with my “running” playlist of inspirational tracks, I’ve commented on all of them before so nothing new here I’m afraid. Although that bloody Flames track by Sia still stands out at the moment for being on message.

Run Rating :