So I mentioned already that week 3 was intense and that I was beyond tired by the time I headed home after classes on Monday. I therefore wasn’t expecting to run on Tuesday really although I hoped I might. I didn’t. I didn’t run on Wednesday either. It just somehow never happened. I know that sounds ridiculous given that I didn’t have anything else to do but I just didn’t get out. On Thursday it looked like it might be more of the same but Kath suggested walking ‘up’ and running down. So after both nearly falling asleep when Kath finished work, we got changed and set off. It felt stupidly hard work just walking up hill and my legs fatigue really quickly – that’s new. In previous iterations of my running adventures it was usually my lungs that would give up before my legs. Now both just feel uncooperatively dead. I just have nothing at all going up. Anyway, after about a mile of up everything started hurting. Ok so I am being dramatic, but it wasn’t a pleasant walk. At 1.5 miles I gave up and asked to turn round and try running down.

Running down was no worse than walking up but the lack of fitness was so frustrating. Even running downhill I was slow and while running more continuously, I still needed several walk breaks on our 1.5 miles back down. Once back I just laid on our living room floor feeling sorry myself for a little bit before stretching a little (not enough) and getting changed. I guess a run is a run and it’s another ticked off.

Friday it was wet and windy, not really an excuse not to go out but I was going to have a rest day anyway and I could feel my quads – that would be the downhill running then. I was full of excuses on Saturday. We went out for breakfast and then had a nice walk and then crashed a bit and I wasn’t going to go and that I would just have a nap instead but after the nap I couldn’t think of a reason not to go. So I set off. It was sort of uneventful. Creaky and slow but uneventful. Until I got to 19 minutes when my right hamstring decided to twinge – it wasn’t a crippling twinge, just a warning shot but it was enough to make me wince. I kept going to 20 minutes and then admitted defeat, stopped the watch and then crawled home. So Run 2 was 10 minutes short but with a walk up the hill. So done.

Today all I have managed is a walk round our sheep loop and at the end of that my ankles and feet were tired. I am trying not to be grumpy and just take it a day at a time. There are added incentives to keep moving and get back to fitness. We have talked about doing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks for ages and have never done them. We have had our Pen-Y-Ghent adventures of course but we haven’t done the others and we have not strung them together. We keep talking about it but then there is always a reason not to – weather, anxiety about navigation, too tired…. excuses. So to rule out the majority of them we have booked a guided walk for next spring. I am excited about finally doing it and maybe just not having to worry about navigation and logistics beyond getting to the start point will keep some of the anxiety about this challenge at bay. After that there are 2 Lakeland Trails events in June and July and in September we will be walking Hadrian’s Wall finishing in Newcastle for the Great North Run. So I need to keep these adventures in focus and remind myself that these are all things I want to do and I want to enjoy them – and enjoying them is really contingent on getting much fitter. So that’s the aim. Bring on week 5.