I've been running on & off for 6 months & at the beginning of the year got up to doing 8 miles - 10 minute miling but that's fine by me. Then I got injured & went on holiday. Since I've been back, although I've been able to make myself go out and run, (3 or 4 miles), 3 or 4 times a week, I keep stopping to walk. My legs don't feel tired, so I don't think its really my fitness, just my head! What can I do to keep myself going - I trying slowing down to an even ploddier plod, but then I just walk. Once I've started walking, that's it I keep doing it every couple of minutes. So frustrating. The thing is I want to do the Plymouth half at the end of May and am worried this will hamper my schedule.
Help!
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I agree though, the big problem is that if you stop once, you keep stopping.
Hope this helps, good luck with the Plymouth half!
E
What about trying a shorter run for a while. That way you wont feel so much like walking. Once you have kicked the walking habit you can build up the miles again.
Or you could follow the Penguin's advice and run 5 mins and walk 1 min. If you build the walks into your training you wont feel so bad about it. In the webchats with the Penguin, he thought that most people would be faster with 1 min walk anyway.
What helps me is my sports watch. I set it to bleep at set intervals, and I don't stop running until it bleeps.
Hope this helps.
Got that flippin' song stuck in my head now though!
I'd get this overwhelming desire to stop and walk - in training runs and in races. So I tried to think it out logically. It happened when I was not particularly distressed by effort - usual training pace of 70% working heart rate, 3:3 breathing - no sweat. I wasn't ill - usual good health despite slight overweight and excess alcohol intake.
Therefore: it wasn't physical, it must be mental.
I looked at the "self-talk" when I wanted to stop - the "tapes" that were playing in my head....
If I was running with other people , I was saying "I won't be able to keep up, I can't keep up, I must walk..."
If I was running alone I was saying " So many more miles to go, I can't keep this up, I must walk.... or, I'm running well, it can't last, I'll get tired, I must walk..."
and lots of variations on these themes, so: I started a remedial program of running alone, starting with about 30 mins and working upwards. I purposely went slowly, just a tad above the effort needed to sit in an armchair. The sole objective was to move along continuously (apart from stopping to cross road junctions which is unavoidable round here). I play different "tapes" in my head about felling comfortable, feeling strong, and going steadily.
It's working. I'm now back to running 8 miles continuously at a steady pace, in comfort.
Everybody is different, but you may be able to take some elements of this and adapt them - sounds as if you're beginning to crack it already. Good luck.
Well done on your last run and good luck for the Plymouth 1/2...you won't need it though :-)
Have a great time at Plymouth!
Trouble is I think I walk faster than I run. Actually "run" is a euphemism for what I do. Plod fits. I have a theory that there are four running paces: sprint, run, jog, plod. I thought I had invented the word plod until I read some of these threads. Plod is slightly slower than walking and the other three paces are impossibly fast.
Back there Miss Piggy quoted the Penguin, whoever that is, as saying that most people would go faster with a 1min walk every so often. I certainly do and it could be that it's because I walk faster than I run(plod).
I've been doing 5 miles a couple of times a week and don't have any trouble doing it but it takes me an hour! That's 12min miles.
Someone wrote that she was "okay" with 10min miles which made me think she'd really like to improve on it, for me it's a pipe dream, and I don't even have a pipe! It seems that it's a case of getting the miles in and things must get better but it's taking a long time and sometimes I think I'm going backwards. A friend told me that I could train up to a marathon from nothing in a year and that's what I'm aiming at but it doesn't seem to be getting any closer.
I'd better stop this load of waffle, although as a newbie there's loads I'd like to ask but I s'pose there's time enough for that. I just hope I'm not sending you all to sleeeeee.....p
Blatant sexist gag,sorry.I'm gonna shut up and try to discover why my running get up and go has got up and buggered off...
Lovejoy.
www.justgiving.com/Lovejoy
"Sex is a private thing. It should between you and the person you're doing it to."
Martin Crane-1993"Frasier"
lovejoy, get out there
we all have bad days
I am putting off mt long run
walkman, do you do any speedwork?
Plodding Hippo, speedwork? Yes, I can sprint all of 15yds provided it's straight back to bed 'cos I can't move afterwards. I jest, I tried 50m once and the quads were knackered for a week afterwards. Kinda puts you off!
I'm forcing myelf off out running in a bit.I know,I know,my body clock's buggered.I shoulda been a vampire :-)=
Lovejoy.
www.justgiving.com/Lovejoy
"Sex is a private thing. It should between you and the person you're doing it to."
Martin Crane-1993"Frasier"