Starting Couch to 5k next week ( 17th May) and looking for company :)

Hello everyone

I agree that it is hard tokeep the motivation going. Once I had finished Rawbert I didn't really have anything to aim for, so I have just been running around for about 30m, at a VERY slow pace. But now I have started running with some of the mums from school and we are entering a 5K in Dec to motivate us and give us a goal. Hurray. I sort of miss Robert but did not like his music and did not really see the point once I was just running for 25 m at a stretch. Good to know we can always revert to him if we fall off the programme.

I am ill today so cannot run and am quite annoyed about it. Perhaps I am addicted after all.

Hope to run with you again next week.

Hiya, Kiwi, Nobiggy, Loler, nice to see you're still on the thread!

It's very late, and I should be tucked up in bed but I just wanted to say hi.

I had a really dodgy can't-be-arsed September - my runs were getting so lazy, I was giving up at the first sign of exertion and started to get really cross with myself. I have lost a stone now, gone down to a size 10, and achieved a level of fitness that I have never had before, and I was worried it was all going to fizzle out, and the unfit, slightly lardy bird was going to come back again.

I think part of the problem lay with knackering my knee AND going on holiday so soon after finishing the nine weeks - I never quite got into the 5k routine.

Sooooo....I made a decision this week. I realised that I needed Raw-bert back in my life, and have decided to repeat the last few weeks of the programme!!

I went back to Week 5 this week and did all three runs. It's so odd, I found it so much easier to keep going for the 20 minutes with Roberts spacy music and "way to go" comments than with my regular running mix tracks. It was great to have a bit of structure back.

On to Week 6 (Take Two) next week; I'm determined that this is not going to be just a flash in the pan but a full-time life-change!

Keep going all of you, try not to lose momentum, but if you have a week or two off, Raw-bert is waiting for you......!

kiwi/nobiggy, there must have been something in the air last week, I seem to have managed to miss ten days, and have just not been in the right mood. Went out this evening supposedly to do another w7 25 minute run, gave up after 16 and just walked the rest. Mostly psychological rather than couldn't physically manage I think, though it has got a bit humid again. Anyone got any good tips on getting remotivated?

Good luck poppy, it is very satisfying to move up the levels (at least it was until now :( )

I'm going to try and get out tomorrow early. Been off for a week and I don't feel like a runner any more. Must force myself.

PoppyAmex, there's an NHS podcast? I don't know if I could change from Rawbert now, we've been through so much....

Mind if I join? Starting this afternoon here in Sydney.

Have checked out all the podcasts and don't think I could stand that Robert chap, so decided to go for the NHS Couch to 5k Podcast instead.

It's the same program, but nice female British voice and the music (especially during the walking bit) is much better.

Wish me luck!

I've been ill, following my dd2's bugs last weekend, and not run at all this week. I hate losing momentum... it's so hard to get back!

Well done Sybil... we were once running at the same stage. I like seeing your progress because it shows me I can get there!

Hope you are in better health now, N4NNY. All the best with the 10k run.

N4NNY, if you are fit enough to consider a 10K you will regain your fitness very quickly. bad luck on the colds though.

Nobiggy, good luck for th emoonwalk. I did it a few years back and it was lovely.

Did my 35m this morning. And did 5 runs of varying lengths over the last week. I am really getting into it now but am so slow. Think I am getting worse. Is there anything I can do apart from keep going and hope i'll get faster as I get fitter?

I'm having a nightmare ive not been able to run for 2 weeks due to cold and bad cough i had one night without medication and last night started sneezing again and have another full blown cold again.I am now less then 3 weeks away from my 10k run that i have raised £119 for so I HAVE to do it but i feel so not ready. I'm hoping to get running again at the end of the week.

Desertgirl, Moonwalk is a sponsored walk, that happens at night, you're supposed to walk it in a decorated bra and the money raised goes to Breast Cancer charities. I've got my place on the half marathon distance, and I hope to do it in 3 hours, I was disappointed with 3h57 last year. My foot has been dealt with, I mustn't get it wet for the next week, and no running. Hopefully week after next, although it's three weeks until my next appointment.

well done everyone - nobiggy what is the moonwalk?? hope you can get your foot fixed without too much intervention.

loler, I have an armband thing that is technically for an ipod/iphone, but I started putting my running podcasts onto my phone, so the phone is with me, then discovered sportstracker too.

So far I have only used sportstracker once and am a wee bit disappointed - I run on a 3km track, which is marked every 50m with distance (I run at night when the kids are in bed; there is a very erratic provision of both pavements and streetlights where I live - and there are always plenty of people at the track, walking, running, cycling (on a separate cycle track) etc, so feels safe)

Anyway, I had sportstracker on for the 5 minute warm up walk and a 25 minute run. I know exactly how far the run was, as it is marked out - sportstracker said I had gone 750m further; I just don't believe that, (a) it seems like about 4-500m, and (b) that would mean I was walking at the same speed I run... which I wasn't.

Tried to do a more specific check when I went out yesterday but somehow managed not to turn it on in the whole palaver of trying to get it and the podcast going at the same time - hope it was just one of those things and it is now going to work perfectly but am currently thinking it is perhaps more approximate than it likes to make out.

well done loler!!! And nobiggy for getting your place. Your training will take a different form shortly.

loler... I run holding my mobile phone in my hand. I've got quite used to it and it felt odd the one time I went without.

haha - working from home today - would not inflick this stinking mess on anyone!!

20 minutes hurts!

loler, sorry if this is personal, but if you run in your lunchbreak aren't you minging when you get back? (Posting from my bath just now!)

Also want to add my winter hates - the cold seems to make my eyes/nose run, always forget tissues. I guess if wearing gloves could have a double use! Tried my first run in the dark - like to have the dog with me, I ended up dragging her most of the way as s kept stopping to smell things! My normal run along the canal is very flat so the addition of a hill was a shocker! Coming home was a treat though (all downhill).

As someone else said - the cold air is going to take some getting used to.

I'm on work lunch - just ablout to go and do the dreaded week 5.3 20 mins.......I may be some time!

Well done nobiggy and good luck with the feet. I use the app from sports-tracker.com on my (not very flash nokia) mobile - it tracks you and gives steps per min/calories used/does the route on a map. It was free to down load - has motivated me loads. My only issue was where to stick mobile as have no pockets - it goes in my bra at the moment - better ideas would be welcome!

Thanks Sybil, very strange thing, went out this morning (thinking I won't be able to run for at least a few days after the chiropodist has a go tomorrow), felt really slow, you know when you feel as if you're scarcely moving forwards?

After 29 minutes I'd gone 2 miles, it was my fastest run since the 3 x 5 minutes back last month

So I'm pleased with that!

Has anyone else noticed that in week 8 when Rahbert says you've done 28 minutes you've actually only done 27? Or has everyone else ditched the 43 year old guy?

I got the Moonwalk entry in, should have confirmation by Monday. And I want a wrist GPS for Christmas

COr, nobiggy, you are doing brilliantly! Well done on nearly finishing. I am going to concentrate on just keeping up the running and perhaps being faster than my current 13 min miles, so respect if you can progress to 10K. Hope you got in to attempt the moonwalk. I did it a few years back and it was FAB.

How is everyone else doing?

good luck with your entry in the morning nobiggy .

Well, there's a question. I may do a few weeks of 30 minutes just to keep my hand in, I may investigate the programme to take it to 10k. Not that I'm desperate to run 10k, but I imagine it would make 5k easier, having the capability to do more, and obviously I'm not at 5k yet having done C25K.

I'm going to try to get into the Moonwalk tomorrow, so I'll have to get in a bit of power walking practice before then (but that's a way off), and the potential spanner in the works, I'm seeing a chiropodist on Friday who may do a little light surgery

coool, nobiggy; you're almost there! what are you going to do when you finish the programme? (or should that be graduate?)

Week 8, 28 minutes, 1.9 miles.

My sister is a big runner and she said that you need to get gloves - that is the key to cold weather. Wouldn't really have thought of that.

When I did the parkrun on Saturday is was 4 degrees on my car at the start - my nose was really cold! I am up north though! I'm going to get a thin long sleeved top and wear it under my T and may a gilet style jacket. They are pretty cheap in Sports direct at the moment

I liked the weather this evening. Apparently it was 31 C as I was driving home after running :) might manage to run without clutching my bottle of water before long!

wrap up warm all of you cold people

sybil - I wondered the same thing this morning. I wore dd's thermals under my t-shirt this morning but I was very cosy! I found the cold air difficult as well.

I wondered if there would be different podcasts desertgirl? I'll find out tomorrow . Huge congrats on running for 25 minutes!!!

What are you wearing to run in the colder weather? I have a long sleeved jacket thing -will that do?> Am worried about wind and rain as I fear I may be a bit flaky. It's easier in the summer when it's now blowing a gale and pissing down.

Any suggestions gratefully received.