Couch to 5k 2011 Part Four: Post even if you haven't run!

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Yet more space for us to talk about our progress on the Couch to 5K programme, the stuff we wear, the music we listen to, the gadgets we use and our nail varnish.

New runners are warmly welcomed - come and give it a whirl, you know you want to! There has been a lot of success on this thread, both in the UK and internationally, moral support is abundant, and there is always a kick up the arse for anyone who needs one!

Some of us are on our second time round now, so don't worry that you will be behind, just jump in whatever stage you are at.

Oh no Linzer, how awful. I think Jillian has a lot to answer for - my knees felt worse after shredding as well, and I have also rediscovered an old thigh injury that I picked up playing softball 10 years ago (which might have been triggered by one of the moves in the Jillian yoga DVD I bought).

I'm not at work today so DH and I are going for a hike upstate, hoping to see some nice autumn scenery.

We watched the marathon yesterday. We found ourselves a spot in the sun at mile 25, and saw the elite athletes sprint (literally) past, followed about 10 minutes later by the top amateurs. We clapped and cheered encouragement (runners put their names on their vests so you can say "come on Bob, keep going" and so on) for five hours in the end, it was so gripping we couldn't tear ourselves away until it got really cold and almost dark. It was a great atmosphere and now I'm a sort of runner I have even more respect for real runners, because I understand how hard they've worked to get to where they are (I used to understand at in an abstract way, but now it's more concrete for me).

I am sure the walkout planks were responsible for my bout of sciatica the other week.....

I would love to do the NYC marathon. My brother lives in Manhattan so would love to run it with DH once DCs are old enough to be left with DN or more to the point when I can bribe DB into having some quality time with his nieces and nephew

Re knees :(
Good for me to have another excuse to avoid the shred

I would suggest strengthening quads to protect your knees. Standard squats or leg raises are good. Leg raises are when you sit on a chair and lift your leg until it's horizontal and hold. Repeated with foot pointed straight up, to the left and to the right.

I had some knee pain at the start which was helped by supportive shoes as was very fat

Touchwood I haven't had any knee pain since.

Molly I will look after your DC's while you run the marathon!

I will try the strengthening you suggest. My knees were complaining when we were hiking up- and down-hill today, not helped by slipping in some dry leaves and bashing my knee on a pointy rock - so I bruised it in one place and grazed it in two others

Hello, just popping in to say hi to all the speedy gonzalezes over here. I've been hanging out on the new starters thread, but am into W9 and starting to look ahead.

Disaster has struck! My lappy has died so have only just managed to nip on for five seconds onto this ancient old contraption which will also probably conk out in a mo.

Hope everyone is well, and the running and nail painting going well too, and injuries improved.

shredded I've got my Strawberry Margarita on today, tils luffly thank you. :) Has your parcel arrived yet, I posted it a week past on Friday.

Will try to pop on later to catch up with you all.

Oh no, Nell - hope you manage to get it sorted soon. All the more time for running and nail painting though. My Crystal Lilac is starting to chip so I'm wondering what to put on next. Possibly Oyster, as it will remind me of London. As I told Pistey and WhoKnows, I felt like a proper Londoner with my Oyster card.

molly Must try the leg raises; was also reading online about exercises to protect your knees which sounded similar, only you hang a bag of books/cans from your leg.

Was talking to a running friend earlier today about injuries (she has a leg injury atm too and is also feeling very frustrated); she said she has the same knee pain sometimes and that it comes and goes. I wish mine would do that rather than seeming to get progressively worse! Must start doing some exercises asap; my lack of stretching after runs probably hasn't helped either. Will probably give running a miss tomorrow; apart from wanting to give my knee a rest, I don't really have time (and have only just washed and straightened my hair, and would like it to last for longer than a few hours).

Linzer - more proper than me, no Oystercards out in the sticks here. Yes, you must prioritise hair knee over running.

I have nail problems, my thumbnail has broken, split at the side, so I've had to cut it extremely short. Then, a black biro leaked in my bag today and I got it all over my fingers and nails, can't get it all off the nails, so my plans for some new nail varnish tonight might be on hold (they were bare when the black ink disaster struck). Luckily my lovely bag only got stained in the lining

I ran yesterday, a short one again, probably only 3.5k, I couldn't find my armband so didn't take my phone, it was nice but a tad boring, hence only short. My sciatica is twingeing again today, need to do my back exercises.

Have just had an inspiration on the nail front, got a little bottle of this upstairs, Black Pearl

Ooooh nice WhoKnows, put it on! It will hide the pen. But woe is me to your lovely bag! Was that the sparkly one in the pic? Hope it's ok. And your sciatica too - tis a painful thing to have. Before I had my back op (discectomy) I had terrible sciatica from a slipped disc pressing on the nerve and it was excruciating.

Linzer your poor knee. I do hope it is on the mend soon. at real Londoner. If I came down from the sticks you'd all have to meet me at the station in case I got lost and ended up on Platform 9 3/4.

Night all, happy running!

Just wanted to tell you ladies I did c25k last summer/autumn. Scottish snow scuppered any running in winter. Running generated migraines moved me onto my bike BUT..

2 months ago I started running again - amazingly it hadn't gone - was able to run a week 9 (asprin seems to be banishing the migraines ) pretty much straight away. On Monday I had good legs on me, so thought I would see how far I could go - did 8.8k in 1 hour!! Which I though was a distance I could never do..

So glad I did c25k - it has totally changed me - gone from a size 16 to size 12. DH loves my "skinny" new legs. It must change you for good. I was amazed that my body hadn't "forgotten" all the work I put in last year - but it obviously hadn't.

Sermon over!

Morning

Just popping in to catch up and read everything.

Carpet lungs have been very bad recently, not so sure why, but am not giving up on the idea that I will return to running!

Morning everyone.

Completed week 4, run 1 this morning at 6:30am!!!

Was a little scared as it seems like a big jump, running for a total of 16 mins, but I did it and didn't feel too bad. Although I expect my legs will feels tired later.

Hi all

Haven't been about much, really busy with work, 5 cities in the last 5 days, I also twisted my ankle last Tuesday, so made the sensible but sad decision to stay off it for the week.

First time out tonight, and it felt good. definitely loving the prsp. Can't believe how much I missed it.

Hope everybody is well and keeping going

Well im no expert as only a few weeks ahead of you. But if it were me i woudl just keep doing that run until you can manage it without feeling like you are dying. I read somewhere that beginners like us need to run slower than we think and shorter than we thijk but more often. Woudl it help you to go back to the last run? There is no point In being afriad of the next run, you will just put off doing itvand eventually stop altogether.

Bridgeandbow, thank for posting that, its v encouraging. I also live in scotland and dont plan to be running in the snow either. So its good to know ill be be able to start again when the snow is clear

Well done everyone! Sounds like lots of progress is being made.

Nell - no, nothing in my letter box

Pistey - sorry to hear about your carpet lung

Linzer - I'll leg raise with you

Whoknows - like the black pearl

Bridge - thank you for posting. Great that you have got back into it

Prince and Bafana - enjoy your prsp

ristretto - you will get there, just keep at it

jelli, sybil - where are you?

I couldn't face going out in the drizzle this morning, but did a quick scoot around after work - 3.3 miles, further than I thought it was going to be.

Keep running everyone!

Morning all. Laptop is indeed dead. Hopefully will be resurrected next week and I'll be able to blether on like normal.

Sorry to read and run this morning, well not actually run. . I'm still procrastinating.

Arrrrgh at no parcel shredded, will contact PO today and see if they can trace it - although am a bit worried now as a friend in Australia recently sent me some nail varnish (quelle surprise!) and the parcel was returned to her because sending nail varnish is prohibited due to the flammability (is that even a word?).

Will pm you later when I get back.

Happy running!

Morning all,

A quick scoot round in the drizzle for me as well Shredded probably about 4km but I still haven't found my armband so didn't take my phone. Am finding it a bit boring without music now, must find the armband.

Ristretto - I often find it difficult to get going again after a walking interval, it is OK when you are only running for a few minutes but the longer ones are hard. Why don't you try W5R3, the 20 minute one, but maybe run slightly more slowly, make sure you have got a nice flat route, see how you get on with that.

Better go, need to do some stretching and shower. I went to my bad back class last night again and now have loads of exercises to do for it.

Nell - I think I had to sign something to say that there was nothing dangerous or liquids that could leak in the parcel I sent to you. I worked on the assumption that they'd already come through the post to me, were bubble wrapped to death so could not leak, and - most importantly - you needed cheering up

WhoKnows - armbands are only a couple of quid on amazon. If you order a new one you will magically find your old one, just like I found my keys this week as soon as I decided I'd have to fess up and get some new ones cut

Ristretto - WhoKnows has good advice there. The 20 minuter is not that bad. It's more a psychological barrier than a physical one. Good luck!

Shredded - yes, I was thinking that, the one I have lost was only about a fiver. Same happened with DS's school jumper, he lost one the first week of term, managed with just one through to half term as it was mild, just before half term I bought and washed a new one, on the last day he brought home his PE kit and it was in there all the time.

I was wondering about getting a belt for my phone instead as it might be easier to use with a jacket through winter (also easier to hide phone from potential muggers). Has anyone tried one?

Hello ,

I am here. I haven't run or shredded much this week - it was all a bit hectic and a whole week seems to have passed by before I kind of got the hang of it!

So no exercise to report on but DS did very well in his school play [proud mum emoticon] !! .

On another high note, my nails are recovering from their trauma last month and it's going to be time to wear nail garnish again soon - hurrah! I also found some fab pink running capris in TKMaxx but I had a sensible caption and didn't buy them as I'll only be wearing long legs for a few months.

The thread seems a bit quiet this week - I hope everyone is well.

Oh oh Hello!

I am on week 1 day 2. Er. Can I still join?!

I posted a question earlier on this topic bit - do you mind awfully if I reproduce it below?

Hang on

This was my question...any advice really welcome :)

I have a BMI of 32 and need to get it down to 30 for Fertility Treatment reasons, which is about 18lb. There is a chance that I could get pregnant before FT starts.

I am unfit in a moderately fit sort of way, if that makes sense: ie I am 3 stone overweight and couldn't possibly run longer than about 2 minutes, but I walk a great deal and think nothing of a 10 mile country walk as long as there is beer and pie at the end

I am doing the C25K programme.

DH is a touch worried about my doing it when a) I could just be pregnant already for all we know (unlikely but one remains an optimist!) and b) I might get pregnant naturally in due course.

I have told him I believe it's safe. I'm not running so hard I have an asthma attack and throw up, for goodness' sake - at the moment it's 60 second bursts!

Some thoughts would be really helpful and obviously if I do get up the spout I'll be asking the GP, but it'd be nice to have an informed view beforehand...