Frustratingly I think I might have to have a week's delay in completing - just one week from the end.
I've had niggling back pain this week, probably from raking up the leaves on the lawn on Saturday. Despite my fun 4k fartlek outing on Monday I had some discomfort. Then yesterday I contemplated doing 9k, but opted for 5k with the plan to do 9k on Friday. (Can't do Parkrun on Saturday due to other commitments).
Now I think it might be wise to delay the long run for a week, as the back is still a bit painful - not debilitatingly so, but probably not a great idea to risk exacerbating it.
So I took it very steady last night. However, the figures represent progress of a sort. It was a pretty slow time for 5k at 39:22, but slightly faster than my first Parkrun that I did in August at 39:57. But what is of interest is to compare the average heart rate, which was 163 in August, but last night was 146. In the August parkrun I was at full stretch, but last night, due to not wanting to exacerbate the back, I was holding back quite a bit.
Even last Saturday's parkrun, which was a best time for me at 34:29 only had an average heart rate of 157.
So it looks like my cardiac fitness has improved a great deal, even after graduating from C25K.
Next week we have a very belated summer holiday! We had to cancel our true summer holiday because my mother was poorly and in hospital and we thought she might not make it (she did), and then a later week off got cancelled due to a business deadline that was dropped on me. So ... November summer holiday, yay! So a break from running might be a good thing.
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
week 2 begins! 
