The plan for this week (being week 2 of my training plan) was to do 7x 20 minute easy sessions, one of which was allowed to be hard.

{Catch up by reading the first post in the series, "I've decided to do a marathon this year" here and the second post, "How my marathon training is going (minimalist style!)" here.}

I'm doing these sessions on top of general activity, housework, etc. plus a walk with my love most afternoons.

I'm also attempting to fix my running form at the same time by implementing what we've been learning in Born to Run 2 (the book).

So, how did I go this week?

Monday 9th Jan - 20:07 of cardio as recorded by my Garmin watch. ⌚

Tuesday 10th Jan - I ran 2.81km to and from the post box to drop off a birthday card in 20:46. I was on a concrete path or road the whole way and it was more up or down than flat! My average cadence was 171 (I'm aiming for 180 steps per minute). It was also the middle of the day and hot, hot, hot! 🌡️

Wednesday 11th Jan - I ran 2.61km through the bush near our house in 20:16. It was less hilly than the day before but technically more difficult since it was almost entirely on trails. This time my average cadence was 177. ↗️

Thursday 12th Jan - 22:07 of cardio (according to my watch). This was a combination of a little bit of core and normal strength work and a whole lot of exercises from (the book) including the "5 minute form fix"... which I did for only 2-3 minutes... the length of one song on their recommended playlist. That was hard enough. 😂

Friday 13th Jan - My body didn't want more running and my mind didn't want more cardio so I opted for a fast walk. I walked a big loop near home, covering 2.26km in 21:31. And while my heart rate definitely stayed lower than when I ran, I walked as fast as I could without being a wanna-be power walker. 😉

Saturday 14th Jan - We went on a looooong drive to Dalby parkrun where I did a harder run for the week. I did 5km (or 4.94km according to my watch) in 27:52 in bare feet. Smashed it with the cadence: 184 average. 🙌🙌🙌

And this morning, Sunday 15th Jan - I ran with one of our local running groups, or at least I started with them, and covered 3.14km in 20:32 on mostly flat concrete paths and roads. I found it hard to focus on my cadence when running in sync with others and talking about life and running and stuff. But I kept trying to come back to my feet and... somehow magically managed to run 180 spm as my average cadence. 🎉🎉🎉

So, what's that in total for the week, Caroline?

Time-wise, I did go over, which is something I was trying not to do by too much. (It's so easy to over train). In total, instead of doing 140 minutes I did 153 minutes (ish!).

The sore lower back I was experiencing last week disappeared most of the week and only seems to be back today. So I'm taking that as a win. The soles of my feet are doing okay after yesterday's parkrun, so that's another win. And I finally did the "5 minute form fix" from the book (okay, an abridged version of it!) which was something I'd been putting off for weeks. So that's another win! Yay!! 🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️

Now, to reassess before next week!

I had on my original (scribbled in pencil on a scrap of paper) plan to do 8x 20 minute sessions (all easy but with one hard) for next week. But I've decided to swap that for 7x 22-23 minute sessions for the week as I think it's easier to just do one each morning.

I'm also going to take Brad's advice and not do cardio sessions as their own sessions in this but rather use them as mini breaks throughout each day. Since I spend so much time working from home, staring at a screen, that seems like a really wise way to break up my day. I can layer in a set up of push-ups here, a bear crawl there, etc into every day without too much stress and I think it will be good for me.

That will leave my 7 mornings for easy (high cadence) runs, fast walks and the occasional fast & hard effort.

Let's see how next week goes. Wish me luck! 🤞

All photos taken by me on my runs or walks this week using my Google Pixel 2XL.

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