Second run, Friday 10th June. Third run, Tuesday 14th June.

So week two is now over - if you have been reading the other posts, you will know that I have been running for 3 weeks, but repeated week one's plan so now am just completing week two. Still awake? Good!

My third run of week two was scheduled for yesterday, but when I woke up with stomach cramps and for want of a nicer phrase, a 'dicky tummy' at about 6am, I had a feeling it might not happen. I managed to sleep off the cramps, but spent the whole day feeling completely weak and lifeless - I can only attribute it to a mild bout of food poisoning. Which might well explain why today’s run was so completely horrific? I mean, I know there was an unintentional three day gap between runs, but this has happened before. Every step of today's ninety second runs felt like a mile. I found myself enormously out of breath and completely flagging after every run - which was not my experience during the second run of this week.
Run number two was difficult, but the hardest thing I found again was the heavy tired legs. It wasn't even that I felt massively out of breath with each run during the second 'sitting' it was the heavy legs that felt like they were holding me down - literally. The semi-success I felt after run two was completely crushed by today's efforts, I guess I thought I felt better because my stomach felt better - but it seems that the weakness and lack of stamina was still there. And now I am left feeling like there is no way that I can progress on to the heavier requirements of week three - which is a much bigger leap than weeks one to two. I made the (perhaps) mistake of letting the podcast play out a little longer on my walk home during my second run, and I now know that week two requires me to run for 90 secs, walk for 90 secs, run for THREE MINUTES and walk for three minutes. THREE MINUTES - WHAT? After today’s poor effort of feeling like I could gladly sit in a heap and cry after ninety seconds, I don't know if I will ever get to running for three minutes. It's twice as long for goodness sake (I realise that this is obvious!). So currently , I am toying with the idea of doing week two again, at least, maybe repeating a couple of the runs in week two to make me feel more ready for the metaphorical mountain that is week three. But is this a bad idea, should I just get on with it and make the next leap. It's so difficult to know whether pushing myself, or listening to my instincts is the right thing to do at this stage.

This brings me again to the question of running style. Am I to just follow what feels natural for me. As I have previously said, the podcast suggests running with heel down first - but this felt completely un-natural to me and I think that it was also causing more leg pain than my natural style. I have been so puzzled with this that I decided to as Google. Google and YouTube tell me that I should run on the outside of the balls of my feet, and that they will naturally roll in and my heels should always touch the floor. This definitely sounds a bit more like my natural style. I found the video below online and thought it was quite informative (if you can get over the un-inspiring voice over!)
At 04.52 there is a specific section about the placing of the foot that I found quite helpful. It seems to massively contradict what my podcast tells me. Whilst I understand that I walk from my heel  - any other way would look simply bizarre surely - for I am not a ballet dancer by nature or physique! Running that way just feels heavy and clumsy. There MUST be a better way - and I think my body knows what the better way for me is, so at the moment, I am going to stick with that as my best option.
So - a decision on week three? You'd better watch this space. I think I need to sleep on it!

 So, I made it - it was touch and go this morning, the grey, wet pavements didn't help to pull me out of bed, but I did it and I am  really chuffing proud of myself!

Today, I ran the whole way on pavement. My previous runs have all seen me running the latter portion of the podcast on grass, and I certainly felt a difference at the end of the programme today. My legs felt pretty tired and I felt like I could tell a difference, though it could be the delayed effect of all the fizz I drank on Saturday night (I had scheduled myself to run yesterday, but was suffering the effects of Saturday night - not even a hangover either really, I just felt exhausted, must be how booze affects you when you're over thirty!).

Having done the final run of week one (eventually) this must mean my time has come to progress to week two of the plan. I have to admit to still being apprehensive about this. Running for 90 secs and walking for 2 mins for a total of twenty minutes with a five minute warm up and cool down either side. I am not sure yet if I am up to running for an extra thirty seconds each time but I guess it's like learning to swim, you have to take that scary little extra step, and move slightly towards the deep end to learn what it feels like to tread water (someone remind me of this analogy when I feel like I am dying after seventy five second on Wednesday!)

As I rounded my final corner in the cool down walk to the front door, feeling pretty pleased with myself, I was bought swiftly back down to earth with the sight of a heavily pregnant woman of indeterminate age with smoke billowing from her mouth and a fag in her hands. I don't want to get all soap box here but... Grrrrr! I wanted my post run high to give me the guts to express my feelings of anger on behalf of her unborn child, but I quickly realised that I really do value the fact that all my bones are in the places they should be, she had a pretty scary middle-aged bloke with her and my running skills have not yet progressed to sprinting away from angry chavs. So to that unborn baby, I would like to apologise here and now that I was too cowardly to stand up for it. I am sorry baby!