Mmm, running on Christmas Day. There were just a few people out and about, mostly those walking their dogs. Gloriously quiet and only a little bit of drizzle. I hadn’t actually intended to go out, but then I saw a couple of inspiration tweets from friends, including:

It’s starting to get quite tricky, and motivation to go out is hard. I gave it some thought and decided that the couple of weeks when I first stopped running quite so regularly were good because my body was like: “Oh, cool, I’m nice and rested, I’ll go faster.” Then, give it a few more weeks, and my body is now: “Oh, wait, you want me to go out? But I’m so used to inside!”

It’s been a pretty tiring week and I wasn’t really in the mood to go running today, but I pulled on my trainers anyway. Nice and foggy outside to really lift the spirits, but once I started it wasn’t too bad. It’s also been something of a frustrating week, so getting out there and clearing my head was kinda good. I wasn’t particularly fast, but I also wasn’t expecting my progress so far to continue forever. You can’t keep running once a week and expect to keep on getting faster every time.

After last week’s experiment/disaster, I was back on my home turf this weekend. I didn’t manage to run at all during the week like I had hoped. It was a week full of sleepless nights and so early mornings were something of a no-no. I find myself sitting at work and dreaming of how good it will feel to have done a workout for the day. The reality is something far different.

After my successes in the last two weeks, I thought I’d treat myself with a visit to the countryside. Rather than pounding the pavements and wondering whether people are looking out their windows and laughing at me, I decided to head towards the trees. This meant getting in my car, and for a while I worried that having to drive to a destination would lessen my enthusiasm - there’s something unavoidable about donning trainers, stepping out the door and being on the “track” already.

Two weeks into my new and sparse running routine, and somehow I am managing to run better than ever. I cannot explain this. Last week, I was desperate to go out, I was feeling all cooped up and ready to run. I wasn’t 100% sure how far I was going to go when I first headed out, because it was the first run I’d done for a while, but eventually I knew I wasn’t doing a short, fast pace, I was going for distance. So, a 5K it was.

I’ve been using the RunKeeper app for a while now, and aside from the odd GPS related issue (mostly to do with my phone), it’s been a dream. Not content with providing me with statistics, maps, graphs and plenty of motivation, RunKeeper went one step further and gave me a platform to share my story.

This evening, I came home from work and went for a run. It was a bit chilly out there, and getting dark, and it’s very clear that there won’t be many running hours left after work for much longer. Even with the impending time change. Mmm, GMT. This was my first run for twelve days, which seems like forever. Did I say I wanted to run more times than ever before in October? Ha ha ha.

This doesn’t really count as a week, it’s just one run. The final one. The 5k. According to the class, this is the race that we have been training for. I didn’t have a race, but I did 5k anyway. Walking intervals were not included, but the notes for this final run said we could do them anyway, if we wanted. I decided not to, and ran the whole way.

Typical that we get to the final week and I am delayed by… everything. First I went to the Steam Fair and took a day or two to recover from all that walking and all that sun. Then I was prepared to go out, got up early and everything and it was bucketing it down. Didn’t quite fancy it. Nevertheless, eventually, I managed to get Week 7, the final one, underway.

This week was over before I really knew about it, which is odd because it felt like a really mismatched weeks. Sometimes I thought I hadn’t been running for ages, sometimes it felt like I was tying up my shoelaces all the time. Nevertheless, the end of the Fitness Class is creeping up on me. After this week, there are just four workouts left. Goodness knows what I’ll do after that.

A pretty quiet week. The distances have been creeping up which I find disconcerting because a) I don’t really have the time to run more than 7km, given how slow I am and b) training for a 5k should not involve an 11k, should it? That’s not this week, but in a couple of weeks time. Bah! If I could do 11k just like that, then all that 10k related angst will be embarrassing. Nevertheless, on to this week’s fun and games.

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!

Again, I didn’t manage to run over the weekend which has put me rather behind schedule. Also, for this first one, I was slightly hampered by new-shoe-related injuries. Thing about taking some time off work is you forget how to wear posh shoes. Anyway, on with the running. Week 3, Day 15 Tricky run. My feet weren’t actually that much of a problem in the end, but I did find myself struggling in the final few running stints. That pesky thigh ache returned, along with a stitch, both on the right-hand side, so I suspect I might have been leaning over like the Hunchback of ND, or something. Because I wasn’t on top form, it took forever to cover the distance. I started to get my head around the conversion between miles and kilometres, which will definitely help in the future. I started to lose energy and motivation towards the end though. Could have done with one of those gels! (Not.)

Had to delay the long run until after the weekend, as I wasn’t feeling too good. That might also explain why it was a tricky one! Week 2, Day 8 Felt good to start with, but gradually got more and more tired. It’s quite weird having to run to a programme set in miles when I’m so used to working in kilometres, but it doesn’t make a difference either way really. I was a bit disappointed with the pace, really, but did feel pretty worn out by the end.

Here we go then, the first week of a new Runkeeper Class, and all fingers crossed that it’s going to be more successful than the last one. Just two runs to break into the first week gently. Week 1, Day 3 First workout was four minutes running, one walk, and repeat x3. You can see the bumps that are the walks, but overall it was a lot faster than any other runs I’ve attempted. Not quite my fastest average pace ever, I think, but a good start. It was pretty comfortable, but I’d expect so being that short. Mmm, twenty minute run.

Here’s a revelation. Trying to come up with your own running schedule, and more importantly sticking to it, is pretty darn tough. Today I said to Mr C: “I’ve been thinking about signing up for another Runkeeper Class, because it’s not working so well doing it by myself.” He replied: “I don’t remember the last time you went out!” Well, it was a few days ago, and the time before that was a few more days ago. I had set up my own workout in the Runkeeper app, a simple 5k and just ran until I reached the deadline, or felt particularly dead. That’s not exactly fun, fun, fun. That’s just… pounding the pavements and hoping for the best.

I ran this final run of the 10K class before finally admitting defeat. Week 5. Day 29. The long run of the week, and I felt good going out there. I’d lost my TuneBelt armband and was all ready to use that as an excuse not to go. But then I changed my mind and went anyway, and I’m glad I did. I thought I might be able to get past 5k, and I decided to lower my average pace threshold to the 9:25 it was before the break a couple of weeks ago. I ran and I ran, and suddenly I was at 7k. I did go up to 9:26 for a moment, but I was determined to get the longest distance I’ve done to date. And I did!

So, after my mini breakdown at the end of Week 3, I wasn’t really sure what to do. I knew I wasn’t about to give up, and I sort of knew that Gavin was right when he said that I shouldn’t force myself to stick to this Runkeeper schedule when I clearly can’t do it. Remember we are all different shapes and sizes and you will get to 10k – but maybe you might have to go your own way rather than rigidly follow a course without a personal trainer or buddy who knows you well enough to give you the correct advice. - Wise Gavin (RubberGoat)

Just in case there’s any confusion, the subtitles here are obviously the week of the schedule and then the day of the schedule as well. There’s no day 15 in a seven day week. But it’s day 15 overall. Week 3. Day 15. Argh! And indeed, I repeat ARGH! Today’s workout was a daunting one - taking on 8km when my best so far has been not quite 6.5km. It was tipping it down with rain too, but I felt pretty good when I headed out.

Week 2. Day 8. There’s quite the story behind this one. Was meant to run this one on Sunday, but it turns out F1 Sundays are quite busy for me. I probably could have squeezed it in first thing but there was some wicked wind happening outside, so I told myself I didn’t have time. Then I stayed up til 3am editing a podcast, so today, I was feeling generally a little under the weather. However, I was determined not to get too far behind on this course… not so early on anyway! Off I went. Oh god, the wind. I really, really hate it. As soon as I started, I knew that it wasn’t going to be a matter of being fast, it wasn’t going to be battling tiredness, it was more a matter of keeping the bottle up to finish the thing.

With my Runkeeper Fitness Class all signed up and paid for (about £6 for 16 weeks training), I had to wait to get started. I tried out the first run a little early to get used to how it all worked, and although just a simple run, it was fun. (Also, it was hard, but that comes from only running once in a week.) Week 1. Day 3. I find it weird that the class begins with two rest days, so that you don’t actually start until the third day, but hey… I am not in charge!

Here it is, the final week! Drum roll please. Week 10, Day 1 Run 22 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x2. Two runs ago I would have given anything to get under 9:25, and today I was disappointed when I got to 9:04. How things change, and how quickly! Still, I had enough in the tank to speed up again towards the end. The distance isn’t so good, because the total running time was 44 minutes rather than 54. It’s going to escalate over the next couple of days though.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve realised that running for a longer distance means starting to look after yourself as you go. I’ve found myself super thirsty towards the end of a run, and suffered a headache a couple of times. The obvious answer is to take on more fluids as I go, but that’s not something I find particularly easy. Keeping upright as I’m jogging along is hard enough, let alone managing a water bottle as well. Nevertheless, I invested in two different bottles to see if I could make it work.

A week that seemed it would never end. Full of ups and downs but ending on a high note. Just one week left after this, and clearly, the fact that I am nowhere near 10k shows just how slow I am. Will have to ponder what is next for me. Week 9, Day 1 Run 18 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x 3. I was really fighting the odds with this one. It was supremely hot, I had a new water bottle as a glorious distraction, and a niggle in my left ankle from the previous run (and/or the walk I went on after it). It wasn’t prohibitive, just annoying.

Getting back from a mini-break away, I was a bit antsy to go out, but not really motivated to do a proper run, considering I had to get some food and sort out all manner of post-holiday chores. Mr C suddenly suggested that I should just run to the shop, get food for today and run back again, with a big shop planned for later. I instantly discounted it. That’s not part of my training plans, I’d have to pause the run midway, it’s a different route, it’s not a good idea… but then I thought about it. No one is making the rules that I run by except me, and why shouldn’t I just go for a bit of a run, just because?

I ended the last week a little dispirited, although not put off altogether - it’d take quite a lot more to do that, I think. I took a couple of days to think about it (thanks for the nice comments, all) and geared up to start again. Rather than dive into the 17 minutes at a time, I figured I’d start with a shorter run to get back into it.

In 2004, I said: So, I’m watching the crazy people running the London Marathon, I do not understand how anyone can manage to run that far… I have trouble running to my car when it’s raining! I think it’s great though, all those people raising money for charities and coming together to do something worthy like that. I really just want to note this day down in history, because it could be the first day in my entire life that I don’t think the people running the London Marathon are completely mad.

Ahead of this week, I came to the conclusion that it was okay to find the running difficult. If it was easy, that would mean I wasn’t pushing and wasn’t getting on any further. However, as you’ll see, by the end of the week I have come to a completely different conclusion. Week 7, Day 1 Run 15 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x 3. Tricky run today. I had an aborted start, after less than half a kilometre. The second attempt was hard because all my legs felt tight and seized up. By the end of the run, I had to give up worrying about how slow I was going and concentrate on just getting the distance.

Another piece for my journalism course, this time a feature article about an outdoor leisure activity. Luckily, I have one of those, which is a step up from this time last year. Now I can pretend to know what I’m talking about! Why the correct running shoes can make or break your hobby It seems like the simplest thing in the world, strap on some shoes and head into the great outdoors for some fresh air and some free exercise. Whilst running is one of those brilliant hobbies that doesn’t have a large barrier to entry, one of the things you do want to take care with is your shoes.

It occurred to me, when I was doing that 5k interlude, that in actual fact I didn’t run a full 5k because there was the warm-up included. For this week, I decided not to include the five minute walk, and that means I’m looking a bit backwards on distance but a bit further forwards on average pace. This week someone told me about a 10k race they were doing, sort of asking if I wanted to come along. Crazy talk. They can do a 10k in just over an hour. I’m running 45 minutes and still haven’t hit 5k yet.

Moving on to the sixth week of this 10k programme, I was in two minds whether to do the scheduled 10 minutes run/1 minute walk, or stretch it to 11 minutes jogging. I felt like I could probably manage the extra distance and that would accelerate the process a little. I couldn’t decide right up until I started running, so I figured I would wait and see how I felt when I got to the 10th minute.

Despite the fact I accidentally started week five at the end of the last week, I decided to repeat the run for the legitimate week five. Week 5, Day 1 Run 9 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x 4. So, this was the first run after a bit of a break. It was appalling and I was disappointed. I wasn’t bitter about the run, really, I chalked it up to one of those bad days, but I had so been looking forward to it.

Overall things are going well. I had a bit of a setback at the end of this “week” but I’ll tell you more about that at the end of the post. I’m starting to ponder if I really do want to go all the way to 10k, or if I’d rather start looking at improving speed and fitness and all that stuff. I know I’m not ever going to be fast but if I keep on pushing the distance, I’m not going to have a chance to focus on other things. I’m still in two minds on that front.

A while back, I think perhaps over the Christmas break, Mr C and I discovered these crazy-cheap albums - 101 Running Songs and 101 Running Songs Lap 2. See what they did there? For less than a tenner, you’re getting 100 songs which is complete madness. You’re not going to like all of them, but who can argue with a price like that? On the sequel album, there’s five continuous mixes of about an hour each, and I thought I’d give them a whirl this week. I very much enjoyed there not being any gaps in the music so I didn’t have to hear my erratic breathing, although I must say the songs are not so much mixed as just smooshed together (wasn’t expecting too much at the price, though).

Had a bit of trouble with this “week”, thanks to a pretty awful January. Week 2, Day 1 Run 4 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x 5. First half was all good, the second half was really hard. Just ran out of energy, I think. (Note: You can almost hear the dramatic music here. “Just ran out of energy. Dun-dun-duuuuuuh.” Because then I came down with the flu and well, you know the rest.)

I went for my first run post-flu today and it did not go at all well. I’ll save the story for another post, because what it did inspire me to do was to decide how I’m going to blog this next phase of my running journey. As you can see, I have created a rather whimsical banner to highlight the running posts, and I intend to blog each “week” of the Ease into 10k app as and when they are completed.

Here we go then. My attempt to get back into running. I’ve picked up the 10k app because I want to continue moving forward with help from the training app, not necessarily because I’m intending to run a 10k. I think my main aim is to complete a 5k in a better time than before. Previously, I have used the My Tracks app from Google, but the Runkeeper Pro app was free during January so I thought I would give that a try. I’m glad I did. The graphs are amazing, and it’s great at keeping track of your stats and letting you know your own personal records.

I’ve made lots and lots of New Year’s Resolutions before, both on the blog and in my head, and very few of them have worked out. This year, I changed the concept around completely and debuted the Life List - a long-term set of goals and things to aim at. Some are crazy, some are impossible, some are easy and most will take time. I figured a quick review for the year would be appropriate, with some thoughts on what is next.

A note from my dad: Congratulations to Christine for completing the 5k run. Only a few months ago she couldn’t even run to the end of her garden. She was showing me the picture of her crossing the finishing line and I thought that at last she has managed to grasp the idea of a race. I was remembering a certain playschool sports day in 1987 or 1988. I have attached a couple of pictures I took. In the first picture Christine is lined up with her classmates waiting for the starting whistle. In the second, as you can see, they have all gone and she is stood there on the starting line all on her own. The expression on her face said “Where have they gone?”

Today I can cross another item off my Life List, as I only went and completed that pesky 5K race. It feels like I’ve done nothing but talk about running forever, but in actual fact, I only picked up the Couch 2 5K app in June. Since then, I’ve built up my stamina, and my patience, and certainly improved a lot, but I can tell you one thing for certain: I was not built for speed.

I am ridiculously nervous. You might even call it “freaking out.” It’s not so much the running, although it is a little bit the running. The last few attempts haven’t been as good as I might have hoped. They do say that a bad dress rehearsal signals a good opening night, though, so I’m pinning my optimism on that. So, yes, it’s not so much the running, as the running in front of other people. The only mid-exercise interaction I have had with others is when people walking their dogs take a wide berth as they pass me by.

I completed a couple more runs and they were at my usual level of about 45 minutes. I went about my normal routine, but on one outing, the My Tracks app got stuck halfway round. I know I completed the distance but it told me otherwise. Far from being annoyed, it was an excellent way to break the cycle and I suddenly started thinking about what I was doing. After stressing out so much last time, it occurred to me (plus Steven said so) that I was being far too hard on myself. This was only ever meant to be a crazy hobby. I didn’t even start running to get fit, it was just something to get me out of the house, to be a bit of a challenge, and because, surprisingly, it was fun.

I have just discovered this rather handy tool from the Good Run Guide - the RoutePlanner - where you can map out a track and find the correct distance. This is really useful when Google Maps only wants to give you directions and distances for the road routes or more obvious pedestrian areas. I figured it was not just for runners but would actually come in handy for measuring any distance that you need, and if you create an account, you can save your work and revisit it whenever you want.

This definitely was a crazy idea. But still, sponsor me, won’t you? Lots of very kind and lovely people have sponsored me already, and I am very grateful. Although that does mean the pressure is on. The numbers are moving in the right direction, but it is still quite rubbish. T minus 30 days Total distance - 5.02km Total moving time - 45:49 Average moving speed - 6.57km/h Really terrible run. Didn’t feel energised and legs hurt almost straight away. Also appear to have injured something in my right ankle. Still, it’s my third official 5k distance.

The last few attempts at running have been a little difficult, and I must admit to have been getting a bit dispirited by this whole 5k thing. That race that seemed so very far away is now looming closer and closer, and I am still being overtaken by people taking their dogs for a walk. Last night, I had a dream about the race and it was a bit of a revelation. I thought these kind of dreams only happened to religious types, but there you have it.

I have a question. I’ve been thinking I should really graduate from running about in tatty t-shirts, as it worked wonders on my feet when I treated them to some proper equipment. So… when did sports wear become quite so complicated? I haven’t been in an actual shop yet (that’s a whole other bridge to try and cross), but browsing about online, I found this very pretty vest. I don’t intend to wear a vest, I’m all about the long sleeves, but this looks like standard running wear to me.

I figured I had gone on about running a bit too much for a little while, so I saved two weeks of the programme to go up at once. Here goes nothing: Week 7 Day 1 I don’t want to say anything that is going to jinx the next few weeks of running, but this was relatively easy. I wonder if having a goal - a race to actually train for - has made a difference? We shall see.

Hey, look what I made! You’ve all been incredibly generous so far - so much so I’ve had to up my target total. I was not expecting that. I notice everyone has donated the same amount, so I hope no one is put off if that isn’t the amount they want to give. I’m happy with 20p, too. I realised that I wasn’t that sure how far I was actually running in the allotted time, so I scouted around and had a look for GPS type apps for my phone.

Yesterday, I was just possibly thinking about signing up for a 5K race. I couldn’t have made that tweet more unsure if I tried - and I really did try! Somehow, today, I’ve taken it that next step. I signed up for the race and I set up a Just Giving page. Oops. I have written more information over on Sidepodcast (as the charity is a Grand Prix related one), or you can get all the information on the sponsorship page.