Couch to 5K - Week 7

Now I know that this post is ever so slightly late, but I shifted my week around last week, and what with it being my birthday as well hadn't quite finished this post at my usual time. Having now completed week 7 I'm on the final stretch... with just the final two weeks to go, which feels rather odd because I don't feel as though I've been running for all that long. Although I suppose for proper running people, 7 weeks really isn’t that long.

 

Week 7 carried on with the increased periods of running that have become more and more common in the past few weeks. All three runs for week 7 are comprised of the same aim; run for 25 minutes solid. It sounds like another big step, and I'll be honest, I feel like the app has missed some weeks. Obviously I'm not a personal trainer, but to move from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, up to 25 minutes in the space of 5 days (assuming one rest day between each run) feels very optimistic. Too optimistic really. I feel like a week of 15 minute runs to bridge the gap wouldn't have been a bad idea.

 

 

Run One

To be honest there was nothing particularly special about this run. As I’m still working from home I’d got into my gym kit earlier in the day so was ready to go the moment it hit 5pm – I’ll be really sad when I have to commute again.

 

It was rather warm and my hay fever has been going mental so my chest had felt quite blocked up most of the day and was very apparent while I was running. Even so, I managed to keep a fairly reasonable pace with very few instances where I needed to slow to a walk.

 

Run Two

It’s amazing how much your mood can impact your performance in sport. I set of for this run over an hour late, because I’d stayed past my finish time to try and help a client who seemed to want to do nothing but be aggressive to anyone and everyone he interacted with, despite his problem being completely his own fault. So it’s safe to say I was feeling pretty pissed off, but that seemed to help with my energy levels through this run, and I even managed an extra mile and a half on the end.

 

Perhaps angry running is the way forward..

 

Run Three

When I set out for this run my hay fever was going absolutely crazy, the reason for which became apparent when I got to the field I run round. It was in the process of being harvested, so there was a lot of dust in the air. Luckily for me, the farmers had started from the outside and were working their way in and were happy for me to still run laps around their field – I had a brief fear that I’d have to run around the estate where people can see me.

 

I don’t know if it was the recently cleared field or if I was just having a good day, but this run went really well. I still can’t run for 25 minutes solid but I can run for most of it, and my breaks where I slow to a walk are typically no more than about 20 seconds. I felt like I had some energy left after this one, so I added another mile to the end.

 

 

All in all this week has gone pretty well, with extra miles being added to 2 out of the 3 runs. I’m tracking my running on Strava and I’m getting much quicker, which in turn is meaning I’m covering more distance within the time. I’m beating at least one personal best each week, which is doing great for my motivation as well.