C25K newbies support thread

[UnconsciousCoupling]

Hi

Has anyone recently started or just about to start? Would be great to have somewhere to check in and cheer each other on.

I've started very slowly and am about to embark on week 3. I'm spending 2 weeks on each week if that makes sense!

Look forward to anyone else joining in.

Thanks xmas.

I was on Week 5 for ages if that helps, there's no time limit!

I'm glad I stopped for a second breakfast. I got to work to discover that the lift was out & I had to walk up to the 5th floor.

My knees have forgiven me. I think.

w2r2 completed

going ok, but still fighting technology. just used the nhs podcast today.... but gonna get really annoyed with that music before long !!

Hep

I use an app to keep track of what I'm doing when, but I usually set timers on my phone so I don't have to listen to it.

i quite like the idea of running to an audiobook ....

oh no mother ! take care and look after yourself.

its a "rest" day for me today, but i was going to try to get to a yoga session at the gym.

oh no, injuries are horrible. Take time to rest up because running with something out of whack seems to make it easier to cause other problems because you're a bit crooked or are protecting a sore spot somewhere, etc.

I went out again today but still found it quite difficult. I did finish today's plan though. It's the stamina that seems to be the problem. Adding 30 sec at a time, but still finding it harder and harder - I live for the walking breaks, counting down the steps to get there! I can even do a little extra minute or two at the end, after my cool down walk, on the way home, but during the run itself every extra 30 seconds is such an effort. One of my shins hurts more than the other. Not sure if that means it's going to improve eventually or if I'm storing up damage. Hope not.

Crochet maybe take a break from running, but substitute with swimming to keep your fitness up whilst letting your shins recover?

unfortunately swimming tends to make my back ache, as well as my skin, eyes and hair absolutely absorbing chlorine and itching/smelling for ages. It's really hard to find something that does hurt. cycling sometimes, but hard on the knees and I don't find that I go far/fast enough to get a real sweat up like with running.

at least this is free, and I can fit it in whenever I can find an hour to go out, and 30-60 min after I come back to recover my colour!!

I hope that now I have orthotics, it will just take getting used to them very very very slowly. I can't count how many times I've restarted the programme over the years and quit from injuries, but I hope this time will be different :)

Hi all! Sorry I've been AWOL. Good to see you are all keeping at it.

I haven't had a chance to run since last weds (when I actually run 5k!) but will go out tonight. I ended up jumping from week 7 to 5k by accident as the app stopped working so I just did what I thought. When I mapped it I realised I'd done 4.99k so was well chuffed.

Have signed up to a half marathon today so need to keep it going now. Want to get to 10k by Xmas

Wow Basin!

Crotchet

thanks.

I was pleased that my Map My Run tracker app showed that including the 15 minutes of walking, the whole outing was supposedly 5K. I don't actually believe it, because when I zoom in on the map, the line wanders all over the place (into the river!) and loops around on itself a bit, etc., rather than just straight following the footpath! When I plot the same route online on the route-creator, it says it's only 4.7Km. So not quite as exciting knowing that - I think it needs another half loop to make it 5K. And of course I can't include the 10 minutes of warm up/cool down in the end. But still, it's nice to see that number and get a vague idea of how much 5K actually is. Wish the tracker was a bit more accurate though, but I read somewhere that there is a setting you can change to improve it, so I've done that need - will be interesting to see if it's any different when I measure on Sunday, which is when I'm next out. Feet/shins/ankles dependent, of course!

You sound so close, Crotchet!

W7R1 done.

Bat out of Hell came up on my playlist for the final stretch, which was perfect .

So is MapMyRun worth getting? I think at the weekend I'm going to scope out my route, find the 5K point and see how long the nice wide bit by the river actually is.

So i had a look at my resting heartrate....... after 2 weeks it has already decreased - from 64 to 60 !

motivation for w2r3 this evening. I think back to my music and just timing myself as opposed to listening to the prompts.

That's good! I think the increase in fitness is the reason I keep doing it - can't say I've ever got the endorphins or anything yet...

I don't feel very close yet - still 15 minutes of walking to turn into running, which seems like an awful lot! But I am making progress. Most of my outings are now about 50% running, 50% walking I guess, about 20 min of running in total. Just have to get the stamina up so that it's longer stretches at a time.

Map my run is good - but on an iPhone 4S like mine, it struggles a bit and occasionally quits - somethign newer would work fine. It is better to map the run with their online system, rather than trust the gps as you go. You can plot the exact route, along footpaths and everything, online and then it calculates the distance. It seems more accurate than the tracking as you go. Though there are some tips in one of the articles about how to make it more accurate, like making sure background refresh is on, that location services are set to 'always' for the app, not just 'when in use', etc., so I'm hoping those will increase the accuracy of mine next time (even though it means it will say that I have gone less far, and probably more slowly!!).

my motivation is fitness..... but also to help with stress/anxiety.
its funny but looking at my resting heart rate for the year, i can trace various incidents in the chart !

I am actually looking forward to my runs though ?? thought i would be dreading them.

I picture myself running over the top of all the work people who piss me off

That's really helpful, thanks Crotchet. I'll experiment a bit.

I know what you mean about being surprised to look forward to them, Kestrel.

A bloke at work today casually referred to doing a quick 5K in his lunch hour BUT he's in his 20s, plays football a lot & has much longer legs than I do!

W2 completed!
Unfortunately I can't run weds or Thurs next week, so think o might have to brave my first outdoor run this Sunday. Eek!

Still fighting a bit with tech. My crappy phone lost signal at the gym so it was back to the boring podcast. Good music makes such a difference!

Congrats Kestrel. You might find outdoors is more fun!

just had a look at w3 ...... 3min runs ???? more eek!!

Empress i hope i will like it, hoping i judge my outfit well for the temperature.

3 minute runs is where I started to struggle, and to create my own programme a bit - I used to do week 2 and add 15 sec to the runs, maybe a bit more on the last one, until I felt I was almost at the 3 minutes already, and then went to week 3.

Same for week 4.

And beyond that, I just kind of loosely followed it, and gradually increased it up to my 'stage 5' because the official program increased the time in far too big jumps for me.

crochet i was assuming it would be 2minutes, which feels ok to me. will see how i go.

Kestrel, I know, but you wait...

You'll get used to 3 min runs. There's no time limit.

And then 5 min runs will feel daunting but when you're ready you'll give them a go, maybe do them for an extra week or so if you need to, until you feel ready to try 8 mins... & then 10...

So I set up MapMyRun & walked my route this morning, and took a photo of the magic 5K point. It seems far further walking than it does running! I had to keep reminding myself that I'm two thirds of the way there so it IS doable.

As for outfits, I normally need far less than I think I do!