I fell back today. Instead of 3:1s, I could only do 2:1s and they felt like hell. I am glad and proud I did anything at all. I only did 1.4 miles. I had to run in the middle of the day and it was hot–ugh. I’m lucky I did anything at all, frankly. (bad day all round).
I need to look at it like that and not, “you didn’t make progress today, so give up.” That is my problem–negative messages in my head (not voices, folks, just messages). I will strive to do 3:1s on Saturday (and go 1.6 miles again).
I’m in! I just got back from Day 1, Week 1. So far so good! 4 years ago I was able to run a half marathon and that is my goal again - maybe even a full this time. I plan to use this program to jump start my running again and to keep me honest so I don’t push myself too hard in the beginning.
I struggle if it’s warm out too, eleanorigby. My run Monday was just awful because of that. And I tend to do the same negative self talk too. But I did get out there and I did extend myself a lot (was increasing my distance that time) so I need to count that as a successful run.
Yesterday it was 20 degrees cooler and my run was much much better.
Temperature makes all the difference to me, too. My favorite temperature for running is about 55 degrees. Back when I ran consistently (about 7 years ago), I once got to run while it was snowing, big downy flakes; it was about 30 outside and no wind. It was fantastic. I really hope the timing works out again this winter.
Thanks for the encouragement. My day was so bad, I was contemplating massive infusions of chocolate, drink or maybe just the fetal position. (half kidding). I am glad I did something. I think running is like that–I hate to quote an ad, but Just Do It does work…
We don’t get weather like that here, which makes running all the more difficult. Fortunately we make up for it with an almost total lack of hills. Low last night was 78 F, probably more like 80 and humid out now, just after 8 am. Uggh.
I hate to say it, but if I lived where you live, I wouldn’t be running. As I get older, I am less and less heat tolerant–and I hated heat as a small child…
I think we are related that way then. I detest swimming as exercise because I overheat. I catch a lot of disbelief for that but it’s true. I’ll hurl if I overheat and I do tend to overheat.
I’m in really good shape and Monday’s run HURT–not my lungs, not my legs, nothing except the fact that I could not shed the heat. I didn’t account for how much more humid Boston is than Kansas City was, and it’s definitely affected my running.
I ran W5:R3 last night. That’s THE 20 MINUTE RUN OMG! I wasn’t worried about it, because for me, the change from 90sec/3min to 3min/5min was the big hump. My calves got sore and afterward I felt about 80 years old, but I wasn’t tempted to quit and my breathing was a-okay.
But now I’m dreading week 4. Day 2 of week 3 was better than Day 1 and hopefully Day 3 will be better again, but right now 5 minutes sounds pretty daunting. Well, I’ll give it my best shot, and if need be I’ll repeat week 3 to build up some more stamina.
I’m on week 7 of the 9 weeks… I should’ve been done by this week, but I had to repeat a couple of weeks due to unforeseen things (the track I practice was closed for a week, I was travelling another week, I had to repeat week 6).
It is starting to get a bit easier, although sometimes, especially at the beginning, I still want to sprint instead of taking it a bit slower.
I practice at the indoor track of the student gym. There is a 5K coming up at the end of October, and I should be ready to participate there, depending on the course.
One thing though, I’m extremely clumsy, so I used to only do treadmills (and I even tripped on that and burned my shins). I have no desire to go up and down hills. And even if going around a circle in a stadium seems boring, it is mighty fine with me (and my legs)! Plus I live in Athens, GA… walking to work, gym, home is a workout, anyways (hills everywhere).
I’m having that trouble too… Especially (and I really don’t mean this negatively towards those concerned) with all the ‘I used to run marathons and I’m hoping to pick it up again’ folks. It’s awesome that y’all were ever in that sort of shape, but :eek: I’ve never managed to run for more than a 5 minute stretch, even in high school.
So, I’m a little apprehensive… Or, well A LOT APPREHENSIVE.
I was in track in high school, but I was terrible at distances. So while I might look like I have more background in running, it’s not the same at all.
As I wrote earlier, I’m on week 7 (day 3 tomorrow) and I never ever used to run. The longest I ever ran was 12 minutes once about 10 years ago when it was required in the military, I was then at the best fitness of my life and I could still only run 1800 meters (bit over a mile) in that time.
Besides that I have never run for more than a couple of minutes at a time and only when being chased by mad dogs etc
Running 60 seconds the first day was hard for me and my legs felt really dead afterwards, but I continued on with the program, even when next weeks runs seemed impossible and everytime I where amazed by how well the program prepared me for what was to come. It’s still hard, but it really really works.
I’ve tried to do this twice and I just have to conclude that my body is not bred for running. I just can’t get enough air. The first time I tried it I worked for weeks and never, ever could run a mile without walking through a good half of it. I’m not fat, either - my body just said hell no, what do you think you’re doing, you better turn around and go home now if you know what’s good for you.
Actually, this is the first running I’ve done ever. I did track and field in High School, but I was strictly on the Field side of the equation - discus and shot-put. The most running I did back then was an around the block warm-up. And I’d usually skip that to go lift weights instead. So I totally know what you mean.
The good thing about this program (so far anyway) is that it builds up gradually. When I started week 1, there was no way in hell I could run for 5 minutes. Now, I’m actually thinking I might be able to do it next week.
On preview, I see I could have just said “ditto” to svrider’s post.
