Couch to 5K - Run 1 done...

Just done week 3.5 again (MrsG style) & I’m shattered. Doing 3 mins/4mins is the right level for me right now & I WILL move up once I can run 4 minutes without losing the will to live. It’s really surprised me how much of running is mental. So many times I wanted to give up but I told myself “no, you can do this”. The perfect message for everything we are going through right now

Forgot to mention my legs hurt so much more when I'm walking. I think it's my Achilles down the back of my lower legs that suddenly feel really tight. Should I be stretching them before hand or after? I've just been relying on the cool down and wArm up.

Realised today how thick I am 🤦‍♀️. I completed week 5 today and DH asked me how far I'd run (he did the London marathon a couple of years back). I showed him the photo I took of the treadmill and said 2k. I'm so far off 5k. Then he tells me the treadmill is in miles not km!! So actually I've been running about 3.5k and I thought I'd only been running 2k. I am so much happier now!!

Week 6 is done, woo hoo! I covered 3.5K in 25 mins so am hardly the speediest, but I'm really enjoying the longer runs.

Today is supposed to be a rest day, but if the DC keep whinging, it may drive me to start W7.

I use strava - it records time, distance, location and it's free. I have that, a podcast and C25K app running while I do.

I’ll be finishing week 2 tomorrow hopefully!

I read this interesting article about c25k and I thought it might be useful to share.

Especially relevant to those worrying about the longer runs -

“By varying your pacing, your body is forced to adapt to different speeds, your heart and lungs have to adapt to various levels of strenuous activity (and get stronger/healthier as a consequence).

As a result, you actually burn more calories and get better prepared for a race then compared to just training at a constant speed.”

www.nerdfitness.com/blog/couch-to-5k-crucial-things-to-know-before-you-start-training/

Week 3 run 2 done, felt great again and I'm finding the longer running sections easier than the short bursts. Just have to keep going to the next lamppost.

Another 2.7km which was disappointing as I was trying to keep the walking pace up. I know my running pace is slow.

If your app doesn’t record distance you can use apps like runkeeper or strava to record your distance.

I use a treadmill, so that records it but some apps also record the distance. The Fitness22 app I use for c25k records distance for outdoor runs (it uses location services so it can’t do it for indoor runs).

W1R2 complete. Not too bad today :)

How do you see what distance you have covered? Or do you need to use another app at the same time?

Well done guys. It’s great to see those of you further ahead in the plan.

W1R3 done .
3.166km. I may have kept jogging on some of the walking bits, hence the distance.
Feeling good and looking forward to starting W2.

Very inspiring @resipsa - I've just done W4R2 and loved it. Feel like I'm just getting into my stride at the end of the 5 min blocks so weirdly actually looking forward to running for longer next week! It was raining too but I actually found it quite refreshing!

@resipsa - fantastic job!! Mid-March doesn't seem that long ago so it's incredible that you're now running for 25 minutes. Brilliant.

It's become a bit of a joke in our house about just how many headphones I have. I keep buying different ones which are either uncomfortable / fall out / you can't change the song / can't change the volume / aren't loud enough etc. It turns out I am very exacting in my headphone requirements!! I bought some recommended upthread (Kamrton) which are pretty good and work well with Zoom meetings as well, but now you have forced me to google AirPods Pro and if I end up buying them it will be entirely your fault!! 😂

Back running tomorrow & will try to stick to my version of W3.5 😂

Aw thank you guys, was well chuffed. First day I have run without dd, she had blisters, so was able to go at a better pace.

Still had that internal battle towards the end, bargaining with myself that I could just stop as dd wasn't there, as it wouldnt count etc etc

Really is a mental battle rather than a physical one

Run 3 starting now!!!

My thighs are killing me from yesterday and scheduled to run again tomorrow. Should I wait until Saturday or just go for it tomorrow? Don't want to do myself an injury, but sure it's just (very) underused muscle pain.

Wow @dancemom that is great! I can't imagine running that far even when I am running 28 mins!

And yes, definitely slow your pace @happytobemrsg.

@HappyLemonSadLemon, I’ve done this programme in the past and I’ve repeated runs that have been a struggle or unsuccesssful before moving onto the next one. Sometimes I even repeated whole weeks before moving on if I felt I needed to. It worked for me and I didn’t mind that it took me a bit longer to complete the programme. I’ll do the same this time if I feel I need to. Listen to your body.

Yes I know what you mean about talking yourself out of it!!

I tried early morning today. It wasn't meant to be a run but I'm back at (remote) work as from today and needed to take the dog out early. As it was soooo much quieter than in the evening I thought I might as well give W4R1 another go and see what happens. Managed it this time!!! Yay.

Early morning runs will only work for me in the summer though because I live in the sticks and there is no road lighting near me.

@dancemom - well done. Week 8 is impressive stuff.

Did week 8 run 1 today, 28 minutes and came out about 4.3KM I think.