Good morning, fellow C25Kers,
Greetings from the land of the hills. I trust you're all in good form and are enjoying your runs, or quite, rest days?
This morning saw me tackle the second run of week six. Logic would dictate that two lots of running for ten minutes interspersed with three of brisk walking would be easier than the straight twenty minutes of running which W5R3 contained, but no, if anything, today was tougher. It was a hill start but to be fair, I think it would have been a push no matter what I'd started with.
Anyway, the usual morning routine of getting up at 0359 and a rather organised, competent get-ready this morning. I was hugely impressed with myself. The usual rice cake/peanut butter (crunchy, always) breakfast (see attached photograph....) and figs breakfast, accompanied with sparkling water, a quick get changed and I'm out the door.
A nice cool morning today, but it's a bit too cool as myself and the fine Laura embark on our brisk warm-up walk. It is cool as well; I'm shivering a tiny bit but I know I'll soon warm up. Nice and quiet this morning so far, not much traffic about. Surely today will pass without incident? Well, you'd like to think so, but who knows?! Soon enough, Laura tells me it's time to start running, for the first of two the ten minute runs. Okay, Laura, you are the boss! 
A couple of minutes in and I'm wondering if this is my day; it feels a bit of a struggle already; I think it's the hill. Onward I push and it's not really getting any easier. As ever, my phone cuts the sound to one headphone as and when it sees fit; as a treat when I graduate I AM getting a proper MP3 player as this carry on is preposterous! At around four minutes in, I go to waggle the headphone jack, which sometimes helps evenly distribute the sound and then..... nothing. Not a thing. ?! ??!! ? 
It seems Laura is on strike, for some inexplicable reason. She really is a l'il minx. Well, I can do sod all about it now; I've just got into my stride and I'm not stopping half way through or I won't get going again! Perhaps my phone REALLY dislikes Laura's musical choices?!
Luckily I use my stopwatch too to monitor how things are going so I decide to just press on and sort it during the recovery walk. So, on I go in silence, which feels really, really strange at first. I can hear..... everything. The birds, what little traffic there is, my footsteps, my laboured, dreadful breathing. I'm not entirely sure I like being able to hear everything! At least if someone comes up behind me wielding an oversized bratwurst or something, in a freak sausage attack, I'll hear them. Be just my luck that, as well. I'm settling into it now, thankfully. Those first few minutes weren't easy! A quick look at my watch shows it's 7m 35s, not long to go now and the hill has levelled out and will descend shooooooortly...... there we are, descending. Thank goodness. Nearly ten minutes now; hang on, Laura, I'm a -coming!
Ten minutes finally arrives and I reset the stopwatch for three minutes, for the recovery walk, extract the phone and see what the bloody hell has occurred. I hope it doesn't require a restart. It's paused. PAUSED! It seems my emphatic grabbing for the headphone jack (not a euphemism!) has somehow paused the thing. Right, no major emergency, I'll just get to the correct part of the recording; I'm sure Laura appreciated her impromptu rest. I scroll through trying to find the right part and when I find what I think it is, three minutes are very nearly up. Ah well, Laura will be telling me to run now and by the time I've put the phone away, I've been walking for three and a half minutes. I'll start running now; Laura will be telling me to do so shortly anyway.
About fifty bloody seconds later, Laura pipes up. Well, I got that wrong, didn't I; talk about poor timing! Anyway, I keep running, I can always stop after ten minutes if I want, going by my watch. The second bit of the run goes okay; I mean. it's not easy as such, but I'm enjoying it and feel like I'm settling into it now. I feel I'm doing well and a glance at the watch reveals that ten minutes is nearly up. Yay! At almost ten minutes, Laura informs me there's just a minute to go. Shall I stop now, or carry on for the fifty-odd seconds? Sod it, I'll keep going; this whole mess is my fault anyway, I think. So I do and almost eleven minutes later, it's now time to go back to walking briskly. Phew. That was hard work, but I got through it. I'm unsure how Friday's big run will go after today's performance, but Friday is, after all, another day.
On my warm-down walk back home now and two young ladies on the other side of the road look over. I look back and raise my water bottle in acknowledgement. One of them then pipes up: "GOOOOOOOO ONNNNNNNN BABS!" rather emphatically. I quite liked that. I'm still a bit breathless (and quite probably a bit beetrooty) to I give them a thumbs-up and a smile. I seem to be attracting hollering folk, lately.
Soon enough, I'm home and time for the recovery home-concocted chocolate milk, report in to you fine folk here, stretching and bath. I dunno where the time goes!
So, rest now ready for run three on Friday; a little apprehensive, but it WILL go better than this morning. It's bloody got to!
Good day to all and to all, a good day.
I hope your W6R2 went well other than that! I think I pre-empted the problems by double-checking the run timings and setting my stopwatch before each segment, something I'd recommend to everyone should similar occur, that way at least one has a better idea of where in the run they are and what to do next! Ten runs to go; good luck for Friday, Nelly! 
Glad to hear that you opted for more suitable under-attire today though poor you; Mr Mousey should have more sympathy: it's a very serious problem for the skimpy-underweared runner! 
Week Six Run Three
Week Six. Run Three
Two 5k runs in a week - yay!
