We’re now on the second page of the calendar for this class. It started in July and ends in August, and that means this is the home stretch. Kinda. I’m still a few days behind schedule, so it’ll probably be September for me, but still. It’s going okay so far. Unusually, this week has four runs, with the last one being a 5k - presumably to see if you’ve got any faster. I’m not holding my breath!

Week 4, Day 22

The weather was still hideously hot, but as the point of this run was just to go for one mile fast, without any of the walk intervals in the way, I decided it was worth going for it. I tried my best, and thought I’d gone a route that was quite flat - clearly I was wrong. I like that the graph is quite steady and flat, but it’s not exactly speedy. I always say that I know I’m not built for speed, and I don’t care, and that’s true, I’m not and I don’t. But sometimes I fool myself into thinking a switch might flip and I might find myself posting some less embarrassing times. Not so far!

No complaints from me though, it was a good, if short, run.

Week 4, Day 24

Okay, so it has been a few days again, excuses, excuses, blah, blah, and now I’m officially a week behind, but I have good news! I thought this run was going to be awful, thought I’d be all rusty, but it wasn’t. It was great, a better run than I’ve had for a while, in fact. I took some water out with me, which may have made a difference, and thankfully there was a cool breeze which also helps.

Compared with the last run that was exactly the same as this - 6 x 4mins run/1min walk - I’ve improved! There are a few more of these same runs over the next few weeks, so perhaps I can try and drop the average pace below nine minutes. That would be good.

Week 4, Day 26

I really enjoyed this one. It was drizzly to start with, and such a refreshing change from the humidity of recent weeks that I found myself wishing it would keep on raining. It dried off towards the end, but still, with that and the addition of my water bottle, I found it quite comfortable. Compared to my last run of a similar nature, obviously the distance is longer, but also the pace is a bit better too. More progress.

What I am finding with the faster intervals is that I can really feel the difference between up and downhill now. I used to dread going uphill, but overall it never had a massive effect. Now, there are moments where I think I’ll never be able to run another step, and another interval can feel really good, and the difference is almost always the incline.

The next run is the 5k race practice, and whilst I don’t have an actual race in mind, I’m still kinda nervous about this. Will I still remember how to run 5k without stopping?

Week 4, Day 22

I have not forgotten how to run 5k in one go. Woo! I think I started to fast but I do love how smooth the graph is in the middle. I had enough left at the end to speed up, and I noticed that I was more aware of how soon I could speed up and how much energy I had left. These intervals are not for nothing, then.

I was disappointed when my average pace fell to 9:01 which was just after the 4k mark, but I managed to claw it back again. And compared to my last 5k of a similar nature, it was silly to get mad about it anyway!

To Work On

The previous items I have succeeded on include walking the intervals with purpose now, it’s really just a matter of concentrating and trying to do well, rather than just getting through. I also managed to find my TuneBelt armband, which is pretty embarrassing because it was somewhere that I already checked a couple of times and didn’t find it. Those running gremlins.

• Do my best to not get any further behind. Running can be fun, there’s no excuse.
• Next week will include my longest run to date. Just focus on not being freaked out by that.
• Try to find a celebratory 5k route for when I’m done, somewhere nice.