#nightrun

The only miles I logged last week were during Ragnar Trail Michigan.

I could’ve been more prepared, but with the hills - the likes of which I’ve got nothing around me - it probably wouldn’t have helped much. As it was, Vanessa’s son had offered to run anyone’s miles for them, so come Friday morning I took him up on the offer so he ran my roughly 3 mile loop.

@coffeeandmuscles​ posted pretty much any of the pictures that I would’ve posted (since the whole team shared) - except for this one - my wife happened to text me during my evening run asking me how it was going (she didn’t know I was running (ok, hiking) at the time):

Tuesday. OMG! I can’t believe we’re on week six!

We are still VERY tired from our 20 minute run on Sunday, muscles aching and the lot! But I had an animal crossing party to attend after my duties for the day, so we had to hop to it!

Today was 5min run, 3m walk, 8min run, 3m walk, 5min run. I wasn’t too worried after last week, we felt prepared to do these runs.

We were at quite a brisk pace today on our warm up, and when we set off, headphones in, we found the 5m was quite quickly over. Apart from some socially close teenagers, we didn’t have much trouble. We seemed to be going a little further than usual, and worried we might have been a bit too quick on our first run. We recovered quickly and continued chatting, then began our 8mins.

Sarah was soon saying we were half way, and our worst concern was navigating every dog walker, runner and couple in Worksop, all who seemed to be on Gateford estate! We won’t be out at this time again! Way too busy!

We did a bit of off-pavement running on the grass and as we ended the 2nd run I was starting to feel a bit tired. Pat told me I was running quite quickly, so I think I need to find more mellow tunes to run to!

The next run seemed to come around quite quickly, and although my breathing was okay, my legs were burning a lot as we started up the incline that is usually our finishing point. This was a very odd feeling and it made it very hard to keep on going for another 3 minutes when we we normally were just finishing our run, not starting it! Those last few minutes were agonisingly slow, but we kept putting one foot in from of the other.

We finished our run being egged on by a fellow jogger, which was great! 🥰 We continued to our 5minute warm down and finished nearly exactly outside our front door! I checked and on Sunday we did 2.7km in the solid 20m but today we 3.2km in 24m with breaks, so we are keeping an even pace.

We were so close to home, and I was rushing for a bath before the party so we forgot our sweaty selfie! Silly old us!

Two of my friends and family have told me that because of our success on c25k, they have started/are about to start running, which is great! I really hope they find the sense of achievement we have!

Week 6 Run 2

Friday...after saying “maybe later.....” 3 times since Thursday morning and calling off our run because of the rain, we bit the bullet and went for it.

Today was a 10minute run, 3min break, then another 10m run. The rain was definitely falling but it wasn’t too heavy. The problem was we went for a run just after having a meal - won’t make that mistake again! We both had gurgling tummies most of the way round.

It was a little tough getting going, and nearly as soon as we started I was out of breath and Pat’s legs were hurting! (I blame the food!) Sarah told us we were halfway through the first run, and I was very grateful we were nearly there. Around that time my legs started to burn but my breathing was easier. One stops, the other starts, typical! No reprieve haha! Despite the difficulty, we both recovered quickly in between our runs and when we started again I think my music helped my mind wander a little and not focus on the running too much “just 2 more songs to go Jordan! You can do it!”.

As we got part way through the second run I realised I was beginning to feel a bit of muscle ache in my thighs which I haven’t really felt before, only my calves. Pat thinks this means we’re opening our strides up a little more, although I did feel like I was shuffling the whole way round! 😂

Pat must be right though as it we have made good progress - we did about 3k over the 23mins which isn’t a bad time.

We basically finished our walk at our doorstep again, so we forgot to take a sweaty selfie again! We’re going to have to add some distance to our run so we remember!

We’ve got a 25 min run on Sunday, so we’re going to try and take what we have learned and throw it into that! STRETCH!! Water, but no food right before! Don’t forget to pace yourself!

Week 6 Run 3

I still can’t believe we’ve been doing this for 8 weeks guys!!

I had a late night last night, so I got up just after twelve (and missed buying turnips on Animal Crossing! Damn!) and had a day of mooching about on the sofa, watching tv and playing games with Pat. We said we’d go for a run later, when we knew it wouldn’t be busy outside. We had tea and said we’ll go in a bit when our food had gone down. We promptly forgot about our run.

So, at 22:20, we set off! And in our rush to get out before midnight, we forgot to stretch! We looked a bit of a sight doing lunges and stretching our legs on the warm up walk. 😂

Today it was a 25 minute run. While I wasn’t looking forward to it and I knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park (😉), I also felt like we had it in us to do 25minutes. We did 10x2 the other day and 20 last week so I thought: we can do this!

This first five minutes seemed to go relatively quickly. I kept a good pace and was pleasantly surprised when Sarah M started talking at the 5m mark as my breathing was fine and my legs weren’t too upset. However, the next 7.5mins, getting to half way (12.5min) through the run, were very long!

We were on a very very slight hill, but I always feel it in my calves, not as much as usual today, but it was still a little burn-y. The next section (to the 12.5 mins) seemed to take forever! I had started to get a stitch - I think we ran too quickly after eating again 🙈 - so I was breathing deeply to try and take it off, which messed up my running rhythm. After that, about halfway, I purposefully slowed down a little to try and get back on track. Pat did really great all through this - he kept an even pace and didn’t struggle. 🎉

Soon we were at halfway, and we were starting the long straight climb that we always used to end on. The gentle incline was fine, both Pat and I were much better with this than usual. Other than an excess of sweat because the weather was so close we were doing well, breathing evenly, legs doing okay too. As you come to end of this stretch the road banks upwards and we always slow down and it kills your calves because you’re already tired, but we both kept up a ~slower~ but regular pace rather than dragging ourselves up the “hill” as usual. I did have a small stumble here, but I’m blaming that on the street lights being out. 😂

Sarah M. told us we had 5 minutes to go, where had that time gone?? Great! We had just crested the hill where we normally finish running and turned up another hill! Luckily, this was was really nice and gentle and we kept on going. “I am Moana” came on my headphones and Moana and her grandma sung encouragement to me until just after Sarah said “One minute left”. I went for it (a fast jog!) and really ended the run on a breathless high! It was “Run-derful”!😂😂

We are really proud of ourselves! The point of C25k is to run for 30mins, and we just did 25! We both felt we had a little bit more left if we had needed it, so it’s somehow actually become an achievable goal!! Crazy!

We ran about 3.15km in the 25m which is a little slower than we did the other day, but I’m happy with that! I think it’s the longest time I’ve ever run in my life!

Don’t worry, we added a bit on the end of our run so we remembered our sweaty selfie this time!

Peace out ✌️ (Lol!)