Upping the training week and reflecting on lessons learnt, as former GB international Colin McCourt works towards a sub-16 minute 5km to avoid getting 17 tattoos

What's up everyone? Things have gone really well this week, we are now 170 days in!

For the first time in five years I have done three sessions in a week and ran twice in a day. I did a tempo, a track session and hills.

My training week looks like this: Monday is tempo day and at the moment it's 2x7 mins off 2 mins recovery - this was good and I felt strong. Then Tuesday and Wednesday are steady running days so a 6 mile Runch (copyright still pending), that is a run on my lunch! Then at 5pm I run a few stops down to get the train 4 miles away. I have been trying to slow this down, I even have a running bag on but I find myself 6:30 miling all the time.

We then move to Track Thursdays. I have done 8x200m of 30 seconds, 3 minutes recovery, 4x400m 3 mins, 8x200m off 45. It was a good session, I struggled in the middle running 65s for the 4s but I managed to keep all the 2s at 31-32 throughout.

On Friday it was just a 6 mile Runch and I ran a lot harder than I planned. Then on the hills on Saturday. I was supposed to rest but I was bored and wanted to find a good hill to train on so I ran to a hill 2 miles away and it is a bit of beast. It starts fine, just a little incline, then the last 50m is like the travelator from Gladiators! It's good to get up to speed on then really work hard for the last 50m, so I did a mini session just 4x90 seconds then 4x100m.

I enjoyed it, the only thing was that I had eaten far too soon before it and yes it came back to get me. I was sick throughout! Guess I should have known better.

Finally, we get to Sunday, just a nice 10-mile run. I will start extending this out to about 15 or 16, possibly even 18 if I can find a big enough off-road route round by me. It’s a lot of road round Hamilton!

?? Happy Saturday guys?? So after 170 days I now am now at 72kg from 94kgs, I look back at that photo in the top left and laugh I can't believe I was so big! I am running better than ever and I feel amazing! (Mainly cos there is half of me now) I am not going to lie it's been tough, but it has also been so much fun. I have a new love for running! I would do it it all day if I didn't have to go to work. This shows anyone can do it as long as you just do something everyday! That's how I started, 170ish days a go I could only run for 20mins once a day! At well over 10minute a mile! Now I have ran 4.51 for a mile in training and I can throw in sub 6 minute miles for fun in my runs! I am well on my way to sub 16 for 5k then on to the next challenge! Have a great day guys you can all make a change that can change your life but it's up to you ???

A post shared by Colinmccourt (@colinmccourt) on Jul 22, 2017 at 4:18am PDT

I learnt this week to treat each day separately, forget what you did the day before. Whether you are tired or feeling good, that can change from day to day.

I used to put all my eggs in one basket, trying to feel good every day and I struggled when I was having a bad day to run well, like most people do. I  think I struggled because I didn’t push through my bad days or have a strong enough base. That even when I am tired and mentally shot I can 7:30 mile and on my best days I can sub-6.  I need to close that gap.

So a bad day isn’t really a bad day, it’s just a normal day where I might have been more tired.

I was told by multiple people when I was younger “you are in control”. It's hard but try to let go of the little things. One or five bad days of training are not going to destroy your dreams or your fitness.

Forget about it and move forward.

Try not to hang on to that bad session or run, that baggage will hold you back and negatives don’t help anyone.

Keep moving forward. Your only limit is you.

» You can read more on Colin’s challenge here. Look out for regular blog posts from Colin here, while you can also follow his journey on Instagram here

» Colin will be running the Simplyhealth Great South 5k on October 21 and will be sharing updates on his progress at greatrun.org