It's not quite going to plan...

[Miss_T_Ide]

So last week was Week 3, second time around. On Saturday we flew to Austria for a week and, like a good girl, I packed my running kit (except I forgot my jacket) and had every intention of running on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday as I have been doing at home. But then on Sunday morning my little boy threw up and was quite poorly. He spent most of the day sleeping, but he wanted his Mummy. OK, I thought, I'll do Monday, Wednesday & Friday. It's no big deal. On Monday my little boy still had a bit of a fever but was obviously feeling a bit better in himself and he wanted to be entertained. I couldn't take him to the Kinderclub as he was obviously still ill and it wouldn't have been fair on the other children so, yet again, no run.

On Tuesday we were all systems go again and we were able to take our son to the Kinderclub so I got ready for a run. Last year I ran round the lake (we went in June and I was on Week 5 Run 3 for my first run on holiday!), but this year I'm trying to avoid running on hard surfaces as I don't want to upset my back, so I decided to do my run on the treadmill. I had a nice view of the lake while I running, though.

Treadmills. What can I say about them? It's the first time that I've done any of these runs on a treadmill, as I normally run round the local rec (some people like to vary their routes to add interest, but I'm quite happy with my same old circular route). I liked that I could set my speed. I started my warm-up walk at 5.5kph but some of my walks were at 6.1kph. I was determined that I would run at 10kph as I want to be able to manage 5k in 30 minutes. In fact, I did the 90s runs at 10.5kph and the 3min ones at 10kph. But what I didn't like was that my transitions between running and walking took time. I couldn't just hit a button and go straight from walking to running or from running to walking. I think this meant that I actually did a bit more running as I went straight into a slow jog as I cranked the speed up to start running but I had to keep running when Laura told me it was time to walk again as the machine wound down.

Anyway. That was Tuesday. And I found it much easier than I had expected (must have been the four days rest since the previous run!) but I forgot to do my calf stretches afterwards. (I usually hang my heels off the bottom stair when I get home.)

On Wednesday I decided that, since I'd had four days off running before my last run it wouldn't hurt to do two runs on consecutive days so that I could get all of Week 3 into the actual week. And I managed it OK. Again, I did it on the treadmill and, again, I managed to walk at at least 6kph and run at at least 10kph. I even threw in a 1.5% incline on my final warm-down walk! (Get me!) But there is a reason that Laura keeps telling us to make sure we leave a day's rest between runs. My final run of the week was on Friday and I think it's fair to say that I hated every minute of it. I forced myself to keep going and I did complete it, but I had to slow down my last 3min run to 9.5kph.

Anyway. I completed week 3 in Austria. On a treadmill. Normal service will be resumed, running round and round the rec for the rest of the programme.

[waletta Graduate]

You showed great determination. Carried on despite the obstacles. That's a lesson in itself.