Into double figures and also into the fourth week. Again I woke up early, so I decided to do a pre-breakfast run. There is something enjoyable about being up early on a sunny summer Sunday morning and being out doing something before most people are awake.

I wasn’t up quite as early on this particular Sunday morning as I would have been a few years ago when my friend Mike and I used to take part in the London to Brighton Cycle Ride. That involved getting up around four in the morning in order to be up at Clapham Common in time for a six o’clock start. I used to enjoy the ride up. Apart from others making their way to the start the streets were normally deserted apart from the occasional survivor of a heavy night clubbing trying to find their way home. The fifty-eight miles down the Brighton usually took between four and a half and five and a half hours, depending on how often we stopped for a cup of tea and how enthusiastic we were. We would then find somewhere for lunch. I would normally cycle back, Mike usually got the bus back. It was a good day out but we haven’t done it for a few years. Maybe next year.

That hasn’t actually got a lot to do with my Couch to 5k progress. It’s getting serious. The runs are now distinctly longer than the walks. A three-minute run with only a two-minute walk, followed by two, four-minute runs with a three minute walk then another three minute run to finish. I am managing it, and I think I am getting faster. I overtook a seventy something lady and her West Highland Terrier yesterday – going uphill.