• 4-10 May 2026

Again don’t worry too much about the pts not adding up as that’s on the assumption Sunday’s 10k will be a little below full 10k effort and that’s sensible right now. If you need to swap anything around let me know. We have the back up now of a home workout and we could replace one of the stair sessions with a bike ride. But keep that consistency and hopefully this will be another strong week. You’re doing great Sarah.

56 Points Achieved

MONDAY

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Rest Day

0 POINTS

“Rest days are key. Our body adapts and gets stronger when we rest & recovery. Have a good one!”

Legs felt fine this morning and held up for JITG – nice to see Jax drumming away like a true professional as the procession wound its way up Croft Road. Not much sleep last night as I get wired after an event so tiredness overtook me by late pm but I was able to rest and will have a quiet evening. Nice theme for the blog Simon – friendship with fellow runners. That woman ‘possibly in my age cat’ yesterday was really nice. I’d never seen her before but I went to say congrats to her after the finish and we had quite a chat and will look out for each other in future events. (She was actually in age cat below mine.)
Pleased to hear you had a nice day. Thanks for reading the blog, yeah I really enjoyed yesterday and it meant a lot that the people can come up an approach me and say hello at the events. Carole from BRT was so happy she ran such a strong race and it makes me so happy she wanted to come over and tell me. So it was nice of you to chat to the lady you ran with too.

TUESDAY

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9pts | 20 Mins Stairs

9 POINTS

A great form of cross trainer for us runners. Take a few minutes to warm up at find your stride but then push hard. You can real bang for your buck with just 20 mins on the stair climber. I hit around level 10 when doing these but find the right speed for you that you can maintain, but you find this tough.

10pts | Sarah Gym Session

10 POINTS

This is a session designed to work the key muscle groups and not inflict more pain on the back. I really hope it works.

19 Points
All done. Home gym was fine; legs were a bit creaky early on but much better after I’d finished. Stair stepping was good; HR was not getting up v quickly so I put effort to 9 and that worked well. I feel I’m regaining fitness!
That’s impressive that you can get up to level 9. But I like the thinking and that’s what we want to be working with. How can I get the best out of this 20 mins? And my getting the intensity right and heart rate up early you can do that. I did exactly the same for my own stairs today. Cranked up the level early on to get the HR up and then dropped it back as I started to tire. Great work Sarah and glad to hear you are noticing a difference now.

WEDNESDAY

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Rest Day

0 POINTS

“Rest days are key. Our body adapts and gets stronger when we rest & recovery. Have a good one!”

Apart from an hour of strenuous gardening early on, I was able to have a restful day.
Glad to hear it. For the first time I focused on my rest day, getting the bus too and from town and going to the movies instead of walking 15km like we normally do. It can make a difference.

thursday

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9pts | 20 Mins Stairs

9 POINTS

A great form of cross trainer for us runners. Take a few minutes to warm up at find your stride but then push hard. You can real bang for your buck with just 20 mins on the stair climber. I hit around level 10 when doing these but find the right speed for you that you can maintain, but you find this tough.

10pts | Sarah Gym Session

10 POINTS

This is a session designed to work the key muscle groups and not inflict more pain on the back. I really hope it works.

19 Points
Home gym went fine. Some exs are becoming easier… After, I walked to gym – no pain apart from very slight pinching below glutes, only 2/10. Stepping was good; I started on level 8 for five mins, then level 9 for five mins, then level 10 for ten mins. All good. Felt fine walking home.
Those levels on the stair machine are excellent. I am very impressed. Well done on the S&C too. A very good days work. Keep it up Sarah

FRIDAY

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18pts | 60 Mins Run

18 POINTS

Keep that RPE down. You want to be able to run and chat, speaking of which, joining a group can add to the enjoyment here.

18 Points
Bit fed up as my weekly weigh-in showed an upward trend :o/ 56.1. It’s true I comfort eat when feeling low and this week I’ve had a setback with the house sale and have another skin cancer worry…. So I prob just ate a bit too much. Or maybe it’s all that extra muscle I’m adding with my new plan! Anyway – today I ran very painfully (7/10) to the park for Steve’s run. It was making me yelp, horrible pain mostly in hips, but I clung to the belief it would wear off, which it did. Then a pleasant sociable run, albeit with a little back pain (2/10). After I left the group to head home I thought I’d done an hour but it was only 52 mins so I did another 10 mins run after that.
I hope the skin cancer worry is nothing major. Please keep me posted. Well done on the run and glad that the pain did improve as the run progressed. I wonder if we do some stretches as a warm up if that would help? I had a quick search online and exercises like the Child Pose, Cat Cow, knee to chest are all coming up multiple times. So if none of them cause you pain, perhaps we do 5 mins or pre run stretching (if not already being done) to perhaps ease the pain at the start of a run. Well done on the run though Sarah. And thanks for making up the extra at the end.

SATURDAY

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Rest Day

0 POINTS

“Rest days are key. Our body adapts and gets stronger when we rest & recovery. Have a good one!”

Thanks for your concern re my skin cancer latest Simon, I’ll keep you updated. Thanks too for the suggestions re stretches. I do those stretches and others ‘daily’ first thing – but sometimes that slips, I run out of time, etc, and as I recall I did not have time to fit them in before my run on Friday. It has been an exhausting couple of days because of house issues and I’ve needed to do a lot of DIY and chores – albeit with Andy’s help – but I clearly overdid it. Today I was in agony and cd barely walk to the West Hill. I’ve managed some rest this afternoon so I hope I’ll be ok for Horsham as I’m not doing anything else today.
Sorry to hear that you have struggled today. I hope it all goes well tomorrow and the house stuff doesn’t cause too much stress. It’s not easy moving house at the best of times.

SUNDAY

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45pts | 10K Race

45 POINTS

2km WU @ Easy Pace (RPE: 2)
8 x 100 metres Strides (RPE: 9)

10km @ 10km Pace (RPE: 6-8)

2km CD @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

Control what you can. The warm up, strides, getting the early pace right and staying positive when it gets tough. You got this!! If it’s a hilly route do your research.