Week Two, Day One - Monday

Run 30 secs/Walk 4mins 30secs - 20 minutes

My lungs are burning, my nose is running, my eyes are watering and I can't feel my fingers. It's absolutely freezing outside! I know, I know... I'm from Scotland - I'm not meant to feel the cold, but obviously I'm aclimatising and a Brisbane winter now actually feels like a proper (as in Scottish) winter. In my defence they did report on the news tonight that Brisbane was headed for a particularly cold snap over the next couple of days - they're not wrong!

Today is the start of Week Two. The training schedule for this week is the same as well one in terms of days running/cycling. However, this week is when I start adding some running into my run/walk mix. So for this week I do a warm up walk (I've found ABBA's Take A Chance to be a good warm up song) and then run for 30 seconds, walk for 4 minutes 30 seconds. I repeat that 3 times (for a total of 20 minutes - I'm getting gooderer with my counting!) and then a walk for a cool down. 

I surprised myself with my running tonight. I was a bit excited when I was setting of on my first run and I thought I'd set off a bit too fast. I completed the 30 seconds with ease. I actually felt like I could run a bit longer - I know it was only 30 seconds, but lets not forget I've been sitting down for the last X years! After finishing the run it didn't take me long to recover, and although I was breathing fairly heavily I was never out of breath.

The first and second runs went really well, but by the third one I was taking much longer to recover although I recovered well in advance of the end of the walk. I don't think it helped that run three was actually up a slight gradient! Thankfully, run four took me down a very very slight hill and that made it a surprisingly easy one to complete. 

What I'm really surprised about is the distance that I managed to cover. The circuit that I went round on Saturday night took me maybe about 25-30 minutes to complete (that includes warm up and cool down walks). Tonight I completed the circuit twice (including warm up/cool down). I have thought about doing the longer circuit but I quite like the idea of keeping it a bit closer to home. Plus, by running the same circuit its going to let me keep a track of my progress more easily. 

HID joined me tonight! Well she came out after the first 10-15 minutes and walked in the reserve direction to the one I was travelling. I met up with her just before run three and told her to keep walking round so I could meet her on the home stretch. She was waiting for me at the end of run 4 and walked with me for the cool down. About 2 minutes before reaching home she headed off ahead to pop the kettle on for me....  bless!!

the blob - to the finish line, and beyond...