Starting January 2013

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  • How's everyone doing? Week 2, day 1 was on Monday for me so I ran in the snow! It was virgin snow on paths so OK to run on and slowed my pace down, which was probably helpful! But today (week 2, day 2) the paths were slippy so I ended up running round the playing field - much slower but at least I did it!

  • Hi. Can I join you please?

    I have never run before and I'm badly out of shape as excercise has never been appealing to me. Main goal is to lose a bit of weight and generally get fitter to help my general lethargy. I take steroid medication for a health condition and it makes me hungry all the time so I end up eating and gaining weight.

    Last Tues I downloaded the free rundouble app on my mobile and gave it a go. I only managed half (and not really doing the full intervals) and came home feeling like a half-success and half-failure. Determined not to give up, I googled "C25K Too Hard" and found others who just couldn't do it. Their advice was:
    Jog, don't run. A jog can be almost walking pace.
    Walk if you can't jog, walking through an interval is OK.
    Work up the intervals, Perhaps starting with 1 or 2 of them our of the 8 and adding one at a time when you're ready.
    It all made sense to me.

    So, Friday I went back out there and jogged 5 out of 8. But my feet hurt and my earphones kept falling out. Went and bought some running shoes and earbuds.

    Saturday, jogged 2, walked 1, jogged 2, walked 1, jogged 2. Felt great!
    Sunday, jogged 3, walked  1, jogged 2, walked 1, jogged 1. Felt satisfied.
    Tuesday, intended to jog 4, walk 1, jog 3. Managed to jog 8. Felt amazing!
    Today I did wk1 day 2. Tomorrow is rest.

    Calves are stiffening so I need to be dilligent about stretches.

    I find the rundouble app is great. Not only is it free, it uses your mobile GPS to record your map route, displays a graph, records distances etc. You can customise what notifications it tells you. You can use your own playlist. Only thing is run double doesn't talk you through stretching.

    So, before I do day 3 and move on to wk2, any top tips? 

  • For rest days, I'd appreciate to hear from anyone who has some motivational tips on maintaining motivation, momentum, willpower and enthusiam.

  • I read recently in Women’s Running magazine that your cardiovascular system gets fitter and stronger quicker than your frame (bones, ligaments, muscles etc.) so even though at the end of each session* I feel I could do more I’m holding back to avoid injury. It’s a little bit frustrating but I know if I stick to it I’ll be able to run (jog!) without stopping for 30mins within a couple of months image

    Once I’ve got there then I’ll start working on increasing my jog to a run over the following few weeks. Then I’m going to follow a 10k running schedule and then a half marathon one. Got my calendar mapped out from now until October!

     *I’m using 0-30mins in 8 weeks

  • Beanie1977 wrote (see)

    For rest days, I'd appreciate to hear from anyone who has some motivational tips on maintaining motivation, momentum, willpower and enthusiam.

    Beanie,

    This will vary depending on what motivates you; everybody is different.  Personally I've done a bunch of "stuff" in an attempt to keep on on the straight and narrow.

    1. Weight Loss - Mrs N takes a photo of me in my pants every month.  A driver for me is weight loss and how I look.  Having a visual reference month on month is a good (personal) motivator.
    2. Body compesition - I have a cheap body composition monitor that measures Body Fat, Body Water, BMI etc.  This is useful as a backup as on some occasions I wont lose weight over a week or two but my body composition will change (hopefully for the better).
    3. Weight - goes without saying
    4. Training diary - I measure distance, time and average pace.  I'm a real slow jogger due to back problems so little speed increases really keeps me going.
    5. I started blogging my progress (www.theplodderblog.co.uk), by making it public there's nothing to hide behind (even if nobody is reading).
    6. Reward yourself - set some realistic goals for distance, time, repeat of intervals.  When you success treat yourself to a glass of something nice, a cake, new running hat. (CAKE - maybe only do this one on occasions)
    Hopefully a few ideas image   Martin
  • Jules Selby wrote (see)

    I read recently in Women’s Running magazine that your cardiovascular system gets fitter and stronger quicker than your frame (bones, ligaments, muscles etc.) so even though at the end of each session* I feel I could do more I’m holding back to avoid injury. It’s a little bit frustrating but I know if I stick to it I’ll be able to run (jog!) without stopping for 30mins within a couple of months image

    Once I’ve got there then I’ll start working on increasing my jog to a run over the following few weeks. Then I’m going to follow a 10k running schedule and then a half marathon one. Got my calendar mapped out from now until October!

     *I’m using 0-30mins in 8 weeks

    Speed is an interesting one that I'm still to work out.  I started running last June time (I really can't remember), but have had to take a few breaks due to various injuries and life events.  I guess what I'm getting at is progress has been slow.

    However, I've found that all of a sudden my endurance has just taken off.  I've gone from huffing, puffing and struggling with a continuous mile to jogging a constant 4 miler yesterday (which felt awesome btw).

    What I have noticed is that this run was pretty much at the same pace as I'd complete a mule (late 13m/early14m miles).  Distance therefore doesn't make me any slower.

    The advice I was given is to just keep increasing your weekly mileage (arough 10% and not by the mile a week I've been adding :S ), and the speed will start looking after itself.

    I think a little interval training would possibly help also.


    Martin

  • Thanks Martin. I went out on Sat PM and this morning. I haven't let the snow get in the way of my momentum yet. I was worried that 2 days off would lead to three, four.... I like the idea of the photo in my pants. Off to find my wide angle lens now. Cheers!

  • I found it got easier to stay motivated as I improved; the benefit of rest days does become apparent, you do come back stronger as your endurance and therefore distance increases.

    I also filled those early days with some books (as I'm a reader), I found them to be real inspirational.

  • Yes, I am seeing the benefit of the rest days. I'm trying to go out Mon/Wed/Fri. Just started wk3 of C25K today and despite thinking I couldn't do it...I did it! Yay. I needed 2 days rest for my knees.

  • I know my lungs can do it , but my legs refuse to sync with them lol

    I am also xcurlytwigx on Twitterimage but I don't tweet often and also random none running stuff - lots of cycling tweets - but feel free to follow image

    I'm not doing c25k , but my own version of 5- 10k I guess, I can run 5k in 31 mins, I want this sub 30 and my 10k sub 1 hour

    am taking it easy as can feel it my knees and foot arches ! My leg muscles don't ache much but my shoulders do.
  • Btw I haven't ever ran 10k lol
  • Wow what fab progress everyone is making. I've had a few delays with snow and work commitments but did my week 4 run 1 on the c25 app yesterday. Ridiculously pleased to have felt ok. Running again tomorrow. Im not too bothered about speed yet I think that will build as i get fitter and I dont want any silly injuries... my poor joints and undersused muscles need time to get used to this!



    My motivation is still high - I am feeling very determined and get quite grumpy when snow and work get in the way. Even wondering about signing up for something to give me a goal but I'm still rather alarmed at the prospect so will get to 5k first to build my confidence and self-belief... im ignoring my inner doubts at the moment! Also Im doing a skydive for charity in March so that's challenge enough for now!



    Good luck everyone. I look forward to hearing the next instalments! I will find those on twitter and follow!
  • How is everyone getting on? I've just finished week 5 and despite thinking I wouldn't be able to do day 3, I actually found it easier than day 2. I think I found my rhythm towards the end. And when the voice said "You are half way" I thought, wow, that was 10 minutes already?!? 5km seems achieveable now image

  • Week 8 and I ran my first 5k today in 27 minutes. Still got 1 week to go image the rpogramme works!

  • Hi Newbie just jumping in here! good to meet you all image

    Iv'e been running for about 3 months now and finished a 5k programme last week (Zombies, Run 5k).

    I still can't run the whole 5k distance without walk stops. I seem to have trouble with keeping a slow pace, I tend to run too fast and so need to take walk breaks and have tried paced music, smaller strides and all sorts. Anyone have any tips as I feel that any slower is a struggle as I would say that I "jog" rather than "run" (around 10kph)

    Also would be keen to hear what people do once they finish the 5K. I am currently just trying to increase the length of time I can run for and have downloaded a couple of other structured plans from this site to work on.

    Encouraging to think there are other people out there in the same situation. I actually drempt I was running a smooth pace last night and felt I could run on and on...shame I woke up! lol!

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