Week four : Begin with a brisk 5-minute walk then 3 minutes of running, 90 seconds walking, 5 minutes running, 2½ minutes walking, 3 minutes running, 90 seconds walking, 5 minutes running.

Week five : There are three different workouts for this week. They are as follows: Workout 1: brisk 5-minute walk, then 5 minutes running, 3 minutes walking, 5 minutes running, 3 minutes walking, 5 minutes running.

Workout 2: brisk 5-minute walk, then 8 minutes running, 5 minutes walking, 8 minutes running.

Workout 3: brisk 5-minute walk, then 20 minutes running, with no walking.

The last 2 weeks have been quite mentally exhausting and I don't feel out of the woods yet.

There was a gap of about 3 days between week 4 runs 2 and 3 as a sickness bug tried to sneak its way into the house leaving me feeling very queasy and out of sorts. At the same time, the baby's nighttime sleeping habits took a nosedive (not that they'd ever been that great anyway!) and I found myself struggling to get through the days.

In those 3 days, I could feel my motivation to run waning, not because I found the plan too hard and too much for me (as I did in this post "to quit or not to quit" ) but because I didn't have the physical and mental energy to put on my running shoes and get on the treadmill.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I could feel negative thought patterns about myself and my parenting abilities creep back into my mind. I started to withdraw into myself and began to feel more and more emotional.  I thought I'd gotten past this earlier this year but I guess not.

I know I'm sounding all doom and gloom but stay with me, there is a happy ending. I forced myself to do my final run of week 3 and the exercise definately helped to lift my head into a bit of a better place and gave my body an energy boost. I kept the momentum going by doing a quick stretching and strengthening workout the next day and was able to enter week 5 of the Grr Argh! Challenge with a sense of trepidation that, on the whole, was outweighed by an attitude of "bring it on!".

I'm going to be honest. Week 5 was tough but what really helped me this week was having a good playlist to run to. I hit moments where I thought "I'm going to have to stop running and walk" but then Iron Maiden would start to play and I was able to dig deep within myself to keep going.

Run to the Hills is one of my favourite Maiden tracks and the trademark galloping rhythm made it a perfect running tune for me:

The Week 5 plan culminated with 20 minutes of non-stop running and I am so very, very proud of myself for doing this. At the start of the year, I would never have been able to do this and I can't believe how far I've come in just 5 weeks.

And as for those negative thoughts? well, exercise may help to keep the demons at bay but nothing can beat talking about them with someone. Don't keep them bottled up or they'll slowly eat away at you. Bring them out into the light. Share them with someone - a family member, a good friend, your doctor. I know it can be so very, very hard but there's no reason to feel ashamed of the way you feel and the relief you'll feel simply by taking that first step of speaking up will be worth it.

My husband has been a real support since I spoke to him. It was hard to open up because I was aware some of my thoughts weren't rational and I didn't want him to think badly of me, or worse, think I was "crazy" but he managed to be just what I needed - a calm, loving, listening ear without judgment. I still have patches of darkness in my mind but I'm no longer feeling mentally overwhelmed and even if this shifts the other way, I know I don't have to face things on my own.

This makes a big difference.

When Mary Key responded to my request for guest posters to say her family has a zombie escape plan, there was no way I was going to let her get away with keeping it to herself. So if you haven't yet started to think about what you'll do in the event of an end-of-civilisation-type catastrophe, I'm sure you'll find plenty of (non-human) food for thought here!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Mary, here's a bit about her family in her own words:

  

The Keynko Collective is a family with odd and eclectic tastes and pastimes. The crafting section is spread over 3 generations of mother, daughter in law and granddaughter. There is also a geek section, an outdoor mountain range branch office in Aberdeenshire and affiliate members spread around the country. Feel free to join us in our blundering attempts at parenthood, being adults, education and life in general. Looking forward to meeting in the ether!!

You can follow the Keynko Collective on twitter and keep up to date with their crafty (and other) shenanigans here on their blog.

Over to you Mary...

To really understand how and why we came up with our plan, you probably need to understand how the Keynko Collective works.

We have friends and family spread far and wide across this great nation and so many hours of holidays are spent in traffic jams and thundering along motorways with nothing much on the radio. On trips as far flung as South Wales and Inverness, when we are bored of singing, we plot and plan the future - how would we spend a huge lottery win? If we could go anywhere in the world where would it be? How we would organise our own country if we owned one? Did Cromwell have the right idea about the monarchy? Does anyone actually like Bruce Forsyth? How would we survive the zombie apocalypse? and so on and so on.

When a family comprises of geeks, wargamers, Sci-fi enthusiasts and children with vivid imaginations - these discussions are long and complex and sometimes involve diagrams!

So the zombie plan....

Allowing of course for our survival during the initial onslaught, (would love to throw my neighbours to the horde, retribution for the drilling and drunken rows at all times of the day and night but we may not be that lucky!) we plan to move our family and selected friends to a better location for longer term survival and rebuilding of society - Mad Max-ish but without the drunken behaviour and antisemitism.

Our advantage, I hope, comes from the fact that we live in a house full of hobbies. Therefore a wide selection of medieval weaponry and armour is available for defense. We also live in a terraced house (hence the neighbour issue) so it is possible to move from house to house without leaving the building by simply going through the loft and past the frankly shoddily built fire wall. We then have access to other peoples larders and exit routes! All supposing of course that the locals have been bumped off - and to be fair they're pretty stupid so it’s not hard to imagine!

The plan is really to head for in laws house. They have an easily defendable position and being rural, less population etc. This is also the meeting point for those other members of the group before phase 2 begins.

Once at in laws, stock up on supplies, tools (as father-in-law has a huge collection of tools (aka weapons) if needed) and a chain saw and head for the river which is fairly close by.

With a large population of London barges close on hand we make for the sea and away from the zombies. To be honest none of us have any sailing experience, but how hard can it be? I’m also figuring that Zombie fear will be a great incentive to learn, and FAST!

Friends have been chosen for a variety of reasons, strength, skills - builders, engineers, nurses, fitness levels, aim with a cross bow etc etc.

We then head north - staying close to the coast so we can, if needed, go ashore for supplies and of course for navigation and after a brief stop at Aberdeen to collect my son and his university friends (rugby and hockey teams would be favourite) on we go.

We are heading for north of Inverness where we have friends. They have a good view of the firth from the house so we can signal our arrival. Once there, we have an easily defended position, a very small population (so less chance of being over taken), land to grow crops etc and a selection of people to protect us, build defenses, grow food, clothe us, nurse us, cannon fodder (rugby and hockey teams!). We also have an ex-royal marine commando - what more could we need???

I am being told at this point that dear husband has already informed the friends we are going to what the plan is and the signals we will give as we enter the firth so they know it’s us coming! Not that we over think these things at all!

The plan has evolved over many boring car journeys and several late night silly conversations and I’m sure will change again. Any suggestions are gratefully received as are applications to the new commune which will begin in Scotland.

On thinking about it maybe we should take more cannon fodder, do you think the cast of TOWIE fancy a trip to Inverness?????

But like my esteemed host here, I doubt I could out run them in the first place, and how would I manage the physical tortures of the boat trip, or hard life ahead. Whilst I have lost weight in the last year, there is no fitness or muscle worth talking of (other than in my texting thumb of course!), so inspired by her example I too am going for the C25k programme - in the interest of survival!

Maybe we should add her to the list of people we’re taking?! Slayer - can you sail a boat, or milk a cow???????

One of the things I love about twitter is the ease with which you can connect and chat with people who share the same interests as yourself and my guest poster today is one of those people.

Rob and I started out exchanging tweets about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which then progressed to other tv programmes and films. So when I decided to start my Grr Argh Challenge and temporarily dedicate my blog to all things fitness and zombie-related, I knew I wanted him to write a guest post for me. Lucky me, he agreed.

Rob blogs here and you can find him on twitter here and on facebook here. Just don't ask him about his views on twilight!

Anyway, enough from me, over to you Rob... 

Zombies. How can they be that threatening? I mean really, they're dead, so plus one for you straight away if you aren't one of them; they're rotting and falling apart and hopefully you aren't unless you are some form of leper. They don't possess the higher brain power that you, me and anyone else who hasn't appeared on a daytime chat show does so ideally we should be able to outsmart them.

But wait. They don't need to sleep. They're hungry buggers that's for sure, and I'm pretty certain a 6 Nugget extra value meal from MacDonald's won't satisfy them. They're relentless, and unfortunately, they're gonna have the numbers. Let's say you live in Leeds. Leeds has a population of 500,000. Then, 90% of the population get infected and become 'Dead Heads'. Those sheer numbers suck. That means you're gonna have to do an awful lot of legging it.

So this is where "Zombieland's" number one rule kicks in. Cardio. I'm a slight chunky monkey, therefore if I can do up a mobility scooter before the wrath of the undead are unleashed upon the world, I'll be good. However, if you like your survival chances to be a little bit more natural, a tad more predator/prey than shambling corpse + car = splat, then cardio is for you.

You're going to need to shift it between safe houses, shopping malls and possibly to a boat (Seeing as how being on a cruise liner in the middle of the ocean would prove to be a much safer place to be than say in the middle of the dales, with no petrol, no food, only a lighter; a half eaten snickers bar; a rolled up copy of the daily mail as a weapon and a looted copy of Twilight to keep you sane whilst the population of Blackburn is romper stompering after you for a light snack) and therefore being fit, having suitable stamina and an iPod full of zombie ass kicking and leg pumping tunage is a necessity.

Therefore, what would be your top ten, "Imma runnin' for my life from the walking dead" songs to get you from Greggs to JJB Sports to a safe place? Since this is me writing, I'm going to treat you to mine.

In at ten, like a banjo to a decomposing face, "Metallica - Seek and Destroy" with it's heavy riffs, James Hetfields gruff, gravelly vocals and neat Kirk Hammett solo, what better way to pummel your way through hordes of the great undead (or unwashed if you live in a University town) and pound some pavement than to 80's thrash?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7awMJwjhc4c

Number nine on my Zombie Holocaust soundtrack for the end of days would definitely have to be "The Misfits - Scream". If I'm jogging for my life, which admittedly, would be the only time you would fine me jogging, and I'm pretty scared, I may as well express my fear through a song about being afraid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGUWla4OVrY

Shuffling in at number eight, would have to be "Kernkraft 400's - Zombie Nation" with it's beat and punchy repetitive vocals of "Zombie" it would definitely serve it's purpose to get you a) doing your cardio and b) remembering you're in a zombie holocaust.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSJQLCImV18&ob=av2n

Urghhhhing around at number 7 is Harry Belafonte with Zombie Jamboree, yes that's right, some good ole Caribbean zombie beats. I mean, just because the dead are chomping down on the living and there's no internet or living TV to watch re-runs of Maury on, doesn't mean you can't break out the BBQ and get slightly lashed on Rum. In all honesty I think there's no better time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdRI2Y8fGcI

At number 666 on the zombie survival playlist of magnificence (Nothing like being self important!) goes to those Ska loving, quirky punksters, The Aquabats with "Fashion Zombies", a song resplendent with quirky keys, quirky vocals, a nice quirky riff and quirky harmonies. In short, it's quirky, fun and cheesy as hell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLJJMBa0s6o

No zombie soundtrack would be complete without a nod towards a George A Romero film, so this is where The Murderdolls' "Dawn of the Dead" drops in at number 5. Yes, Schlock rock, with shoutyness, guitars and a tongue firmly planted in cheek.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SOj3F--DEU

"But wait Rob. This soundtrack seems to have a very rock/guitar/shouty/rahrahrah kind of vibe to it" I hear you cry! Well fear not intrepid reader, unless there's an undead ghoul drooling down your window holding a sign requesting you come outside for a cat scan, then fear away, but fear not! Number four on this list goes to none other than Michael "Shamone" Jackson and "Thriller". Yes, you can shuffle your way round the hordes of rotting monstrosities whilst simultaneously getting them to shuffle along with you, hand claps and all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG6oy46qKE4

Okay, so blatant piece of cheese over and done with, number three on the list. And it's a return to the divine secrets of the Rahrahrah sisterhood with "Living Dead Girl" by Rob Zombie. Yes, the bearded lover of all things weird, wonderful and down right out there makes it into my list. And if you really get off on the whole zombie thing (anyone who has watched "Zombie Strippers" would agree) it could always be used for some zombie themed lap dance. If you're that way inclined. You freak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsMPOfblfg&ob=av2e

Let's think carefully now. The population has been slightly decimated a little bit (complete understatement Rob I hear you say) and the streets a wee bit empty. There's no cars. No trains. No planes. No cyclists. No annoying teenagers listening to repetitive "umpcha umpcha umpcha" music on the backs of buses. Heck, there's no buses. Just the distant groans and moans of the living dead in the distance. It's almost like the place where you live is a... "Ghosttown" by the Specials. Yes, a lil bit of two tone for this playlist wouldn't go amiss. With a haunting trumpet and nicely punctuated brass section, you can skank your way through the city streets, contemplating nicking Sony Bravia's and watching DVD's of Friends, Seinfeld or Buffy whilst the minions of the underworld shuffle about the place in your own post-apocalyptic world. And people say I'm a pessimist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhhSBgd3KI&ob=av2n

Let's hear that drum roll, or a head roll if you're morbid. Number one. the song above all other's that's a pre-requisite for the Zombie Apocalypse. The crap has hit the fan. Life's a bit more brutal, perhaps shorter. But don't worry, always look on the bright side of life...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

And it's with a whistle at my lips, a smile on my face and a sturdy cricket bat in my hands that I shall leave you. Use this list, or make your own, and when the zombies come, keep your wits about you. Good night, and good luck. (Insert evil Vincent Price laugh here...).

Rob Draugr is a Zombie nut, a 27 year old child with a liking for video games, movies, good quality TV shows and books. He's the size of a small elephant, with the bladder of a peanut. He currently resides in Yorkshire, but classifies himself as SouthernBrummieEastAnglianYorkshireman and quite enjoys a cup of tea and a digestive once in a while. If you enjoy his ramblings, then check him out at his Blog here and let him know what you think.

Week 3 : Begin with a brisk 5 minute walk then two repetitions of 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, 3 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking.

Grr Argh!

This week's plan seemed like quite a jump from the plans of Weeks 1 and 2. Gone are the days of doing more walking than running. We're getting serious now.

What really stood out to me this week was the insidious little voice that suddenly appeared in my head and started to tell me how easy it would be to quit. "This is hard". "You're finding it tough". "You can't do this". "You could just quit".

From experience, I know how easy it can be to dwell on those poisonous little darts of negativity that creep into your mind, and before you know it, you've talked yourself out of either starting a project or carrying on with one. I can definitely be my own worst enemy and I didn't want that to happen this time.

So I shared the murmurings with my husband and acknowledged I was thinking about giving up. Giving them a voice out loud took them out of my head and I found I could look at them more objectively. This, along with the fact I can be a stubborn old mare when I want to be, helped me realise these thoughts weren't real; they weren't the truth of the situation, just an attempt to sabotage myself.

And just like that, the voice has gone.

I did my 3 runs.

I'm back in the game baby.

Week 2 : Begin with a brisk 5 minutes walk then alternate 90 seconds of running with 2 minutes of walking, for a total of 20 minutes

See how happy and content this cat is? That's me, that is.

I'm 2 weeks into my Grr Argh! Challenge and I'm feeling more energised than I have in a long time. The progression from running for 60 seconds to 90 seconds wasn't tough and I was surprised to find I'm already a lot more capable and fitter than I was a couple of weeks ago. I even added in a couple of extra workouts this week; a short but intense circuit of core strength exercises and a 30 minute power walk with the dog. It just goes to show exercise really does breed energy.

But by far the biggest transformation has taken place in my head. I mentioned in my previous post "Beginnings" that I'd started feeling happier and more relaxed. Well, that's moved on a step and I've found myself experiencing a constant low-level buzz of motivation; a desire to do more than collapse on the settee and zone out in front of the television after the boys are in bed. The only downside to this is I'm struggling to know how to fill those few precious child-free hours in the evening.

I have a few tv programmes I absolutely cannot miss and outside of that, I can normally be found with my head in a book but I'd like to have a go at something new; something that requires me to engage mind and body and which I can put down at the end of a night with a real sense of achievement. Some of the recommendations I've had from twitterland are:

Macrame or extreme potholing from Trifle Is My Nemesis

Hang-gliding from Claire Deeming

Stalking from Swallowsbird

Gardening or Terence Stamp collecting from SAHDandproud

Ninja pirate from Unsednamed

Quite a mix of suggestions, underlining I really should have set out clear parameters when I tweeted for ideas for a hobby!

So, what do you do in your free time? How do you relax? And do you have a hobby (or two!) you can recommend? I'd love to hear from you.

"Look! There's a ready made perimeter we can defend"

"We can pick them off one by one from that vantage point up there"

These are just 2 of the things I've said to husband recently. What am I talking about?  the zombie apocalypse, of course.

You see, if we're going to be overrun by hordes of the undead then I want to be prepared and that means, as a bare minimum, I want to have picked out a safe haven we can head to in order to reduce the risk of us becoming zombie fodder.

Except, I realised the other day there's a flaw in my plan. There's no point in having a zombie apocalypse action plan if I can't actually evade them in the first place. After all, it's highly unlikely that when a plague of the undead begins, we'll all have time to leisurely troop to our cars and make our escape. What if I'm in town with the boys in the double pushchair? How am I going to keep us all alive then?

It pains me to say this but the answer is I have to be able to run, potentially at speed, potentially carrying the extra weight of the boys, and without getting a stitch or collapsing. Crap.

I have what is described in healthy living quizzes in magazines as a "sedentary lifestyle". I don't exercise at all and although I'm not averse to starting some form of exercise, I find it hard to figure out when I will fit some in and to motivate myself to get started.

So it's time to be honest with myself. I'm unfit. I'm severely lacking in both stamina and endurance, and without wanting to sound overly dramatic, I'm setting a bad example to my children and I'm ultimately putting my health at risk.

Running is the last thing I want to start doing. I find the whole idea of it boring and uninspiring and I just don't get why so many people are so "into it". But, I'd rather run than have to sacrifice myself to the undead so the rest of my family can make their escape because I'm slowing them down.

That's why I've decided to set myself a fitness challenge and for me, it really will be a challenge.

For the next 9 weeks, I will be following the Couch to 5k plan devised by the NHS (or, as I've "affectionately" named it; the Grr Argh! Challenge). The idea behind this running plan is to get people off the settee and help them build up to running a distance of 5k (or for 30 minutes).

The plan is much less daunting than a full-on running programme because (1) it starts off by alternating short bursts of running with longer periods of walking (2) it's initially only for 25 minutes and (3) you only have to run 3 times a week. It's also a big plus that I don't need any special equipment (apart from a decent pair of trainers) and it doesn't cost anything.

I'll be posting a weekly update every Sunday to let you all know how I've been getting on.

Wish me luck.

Grr Argh!