My outdoor run yesterday was cancelled because the coach's little son had been ill and she didn't want to leave him. Instead, I went to the gym and made myself do 20 minutes on the cross trainer - blimey, I found that tough. It might be low-impact but it uses different muscles and they hurt. I followed that with resistance training, which felt fine, but by yesterday evening I was aching so much I doubted my ability to do W6R1 this morning.
I was still doubting myself this morning - although the aching was much less I hadn't slept well because the sinuses were sore and I had to get up and take painkillers in the night. Still, I had to try so I did the dreaded sinus irrigation to try and clear my head and stocked up on Airways Chewing Gum to take to the gym. During the five minute brisk walk, I still felt I was going to struggle and my legs were aching before I started the first five minute run. I was kind to myself and set the speed at 8.2, instead of the usual 8.4 or 8.5 I try to stick to and I dropped the incline too. By the time I got halfway through that run, I felt I could probably finish the whole session properly, although perhaps at a slower pace than usual. As I carried on, I started to feel less achy and more relaxed and finished the five minute run comfortably. The walk was spent blowing my nose, inhaling olbas oil, swilling Lucozade Revive and adding a fresh Airways ! But I was starting to feel better and was comfortable enough on the next run to gradually increase the speed. I was enjoying myself by now and could have carried on after the eight minutes but I followed the instructions, hoping to recover enough to do the last five minute run at a faster speed again. Again, the walk involved tissues, snorting olbas oil and swilling Revive but I was raring to go for the last five minute run and finished it with a minute at a speed of 10.5, which I was thrilled with. For the final five minute walk, I kept gradually increasing the incline to try and get myself used to hills, in preparation for next weeks outdoor run.
When I finished I had covered 4.5km, which I was chuffed to bits with given I'd been doubting whether I'd complete it at all.
I then did my usual stretches on the power plate, followed by resistance training and more stretches. Finally, I couldn't resist a little stint back on the treadmill so, in order to train for the great outdoors, I worked out how to set it to a "Rolling Hills" program - that slowed me down on the steepest bits, sometimes to speeds that I can usually exceed when walking on the flat, but I managed to cover 1.12km in 10 minutes, without dropping into a walk, so I was very satisfied with that.
Imagine my joy when the car wouldn't start, I couldn't remember the breakdown company details (it is through the insurance so I wasn't sure who recovery was with) and had to walk home to get all the information !! I then spent most of the afternoon waiting for the AA or "assisting" Tim the AA man with diagnosing the problem. Eventually, the car decided to fix itself, with the fault still undiagnosed. I'd got to the gym at 10.30am and finally got home at about 4.30pm !! Still, it got me out of cooking dinner 
W6R1 harder than W5R3
W6R1 - Better than W5R3?!
Post-grad run 9 - rural England tougher than Alps
Wk1r1 & I won't lie found it tougher than anticipated 
What speed is good at week 8?
