Well, that was an epic fail of a week.

Due to a little thing called the General Election and my madness in staying up for 40 hours to cover it, I turned up on Saturday looking like the living dead. 

It was a six-minute bonanza, with three minutes walking three times and stupidly, we all listened to Margaret who took us up Parklands. 

Doing that hill for the first six minutes was pure torture and to be honest, my heart wasn't in it and I didn't really put much effort into it - so much so that I did the session again on Sunday, in the privacy of my own home, on my treadmill. 

Monday was the big seven-minute night. I didn't make it.

I fell asleep on the sofa after getting in from work and apparently couldn't be woken up (election after-effects).

Felt guilty and even got an email from Sam, asking if everything was okay. 

There was no accusatory tone to her email, but it prompted me to rashly say I'd try to be there on Thursday for the session that you're supposed to pay extra for (again, bad day for me work-wise).

She was happy for me to do so and said I wouldn't have to pay. Failed again. 

Didn't get there. But my inner voices (mainly my mother) told me "I was only cheating myself" so I set off on Friday to conquer the seven-minute run.

Wanted to go to Siddick Ponds (who'd be there on a miserable Friday afternoon?) but was persuaded by the other half to do Black Path as I could walk there as a warm-up. 

He was coming with me as a minder, so it was rude to refuse. 

It would have been okay, except I didn't realise you couldn't use the entire path due to the new sports centre, so had to do laps on the path from Borough Park to the fence. 

This also would have been okay if there wasn't a fair on the Cloffocks and workmen on the sports centre site. 

I must have looked like a complete loon (hubby had slinked off at this point) but as I hit halfway, I felt great and also provided the good people of Workington with a bit of entertainment. 

It has to be said, I don't feel as stupid as I did running in public - it's given me a great confidence boost and I've dropped a dress size. 

It's not bad for four weeks' work and a little change to a diet that can be a bit take-away heavy.