Taking The Fifth

5th week

Here is the schedule for week 5 of training.

Monday: run for 30 mins
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: run for 40 mins
Thursday: rest
Friday: run for 50 mins
Saturday: rest
Sunday: rest

I've gotta stop drinking on a Sunday! Had a few beers in the pub with the lads on Sunday night and got through the day at work on Monday feeling ok. Got home and put on my running shoes. Met Rick and off we went. I was scheduled to run for 30 mins, but we decided to run 4 miles. Not too bad, only about 35 mins. It's close enough to the time and I feel my fitness levels are increasing to cope with it. We went on the route that takes us up the nice slippy cobbled hill. My energy levels were totally down from the lack of sleep and excess of alcohol. As we approached the bit where I leave Rick and run home I couldn't face the strain of running down the steep hill cut through to my side of the valley (too much stress on my already flagging calves) so I kept running down the more gentle hill to go around. Ok, it's further and I had further to run up hill on the other side, but I needed the initial downhill at an easy pace to recover. Thing is, it helped. I managed to detour through the estate near my house too, also adding some on to the run and I actually ended up running 4.64 miles (map below) in 42 mins 28 secs. A bit extra on top of a 30 min run there. Although that last mile was not the striding feel good sort of my previous run. It was the small step trudge that you can't help but do when you are hitting your limit. Hence the slow time in comparison with last weeks 4 mile run. By the time I got home my knees and calves felt like concrete. I walked in the front door and managed two words to Sharon, "It hurts!!!" After tea we went shopping and then I sat down to watch TV. I started nodding off. At only about 10pm. VERY unlike me. I went to bed and slept right through my alarm til 6:40am. That is a LOT of sleep for me!



Fortunatley my secret weapon against the concrete muscles and joints worked it's magic and I felt ok on Tuesday. The weapon is this.....

Simple really. After a run I have a shower and scrub my muscles with it and it loosens them all off. Sharon says it's something to do with massaging the lactic acid out or something. I put it down to real live magic. Best thing I've ever bought whilst bored in an airport. Was a completely random impulse purchase in Samford Airport in Florida when trying to spend the last of my dollars a few months ago. "Such an odd purchase", we thought as I lugged it around an airport and on a plane at the time. I'll tell you this though, I'm glad I did it. It is worth it's weight in gold to my muscles.

On Wednesday I went to an IT exhibition at the GMEX. It meant I didn't have to be in work til later, so I got up early and ran before work. It is a good feeling running first thing in the morning. You're so full of life and haven't had a day at work to sap your energy levels. I managed 5.12 miles in 44 mins 54 secs. See the route below. Very happy to have broken the 5 mile barrier. And very happy to have kept my time below 45 mins (just). It was a fairly comfortable run and I kept a nice consistent pace. Recovered very quickly afterwards too.



Friday's run felt like real progress. I covered 5.62 miles (that's 9km... nearly there... with 2 weeks to go! Route below) in 51 mins and 3 secs. This is the furthest I have ever run. I did a similar run about 6 months ago when I had a go at running. I really wasn't ready, but dragged myself round in just over an hour. So to be doing that very same run and noticing that I was approaching the end after only 45 minutes was a great feeling. Was going so well I had to detour through my estate to increase the distance so I could get my time up to 50 mins. After only 5 weeks training my fitness level has improved greatly. There is a hill in the middle. It is quite steep. It hurt. A lot. I managed to keep going but the stiffness in my calves gave me pins and needles in my feet towards the end. Not the best feeling. I got home feeling pleased with myself, only to find I had locked myself out. Fortunately I had my phone with me and my Dad was able to come round with a spare key. Not what you need after running for nearly an hour. I went for a walk in the 20 minutes I was waiting for my dad and had fully recovered from the run by the time he arrived. Fortunately I had taken a bottle of water on the run with me and I have an outside tap. Meant I got to drink a pint of water whilst waiting. I don't mind not being in my house for a while, but I need hydration after running (I am now covering the sort of distances where I need hydration during running too, hence the bottle).



All my runs this week have been more than I was scheduled to do. I have just felt able to run further, so I have. In only 3 runs in one week I have covered over 15 miles. This is a big improvement on week one when I managed about 9 miles in 3 runs. It is actually a big improvement even over last week. I ran just over 11 miles in last weeks 3 runs.

Sponsor me and help the kids http://www.justgiving.com/craigwtonks