Slow and steady wins the race... or, er, at least keeps moving forward

[Henriette2013]

Haven't checked in here, lately. I hope all of you have been healthy and happy Haven't been running as regularly as I'd like but trying to get back into the groove. In past month, I've been in 3 different countries with my small child, and all the travel has made it a bit tough to run 3 times/ week. However, I'm now back home where I belong to a gym that has morning childcare so I think I'll be able to get a bit more regular with my runs.

I am currently mid-week for Wk7 in the "One Hour Runner" program. So, I've done a 30 minute run (on Monday), a 34 minute run (Wednesday) and will do a 45 minute run as the week's final run.

I'm also going to take part in a 5K race this Saturday. It's going to be my first-ever 5K and I feel woefully unprepared. I signed up many months ago, when I believed I'd be much further along with this program than I am, in fact. However, I am am positioning it in my mind as an investigative experience: I'll go, check it out, see how my body feels, watch what kind of other people are running it, figure out what I need to know for the next 5K race, etc. When I think of this as my first real race, I am terrified. But when I think of this as an opportunity to check out the kind of race I will be taking part in, many times in the future, I feel more relaxed about it. So much of this running stuff is just about trying to get myself into the right "headspace."

Anyway... that's my report. Checking in here once in a while helps keep me on track, so to speak. I'll write again after my 5K. Thanks for reading and good wishes to all of you. xo

[Henriette2013]

Oops... I meant, the 5K run is on Sunday morning, not Saturday morning.

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

But you've kept running albeit irregularly. That's all that matters. I've not heard of the "One hour runner" programme, sounds interesting. So obviously the runs are based on time and not distance? How are you finding that?

Enjoy the race, don't start off too fast and save a bit of energy for the last bit, remember it's supposed to be fun! And just think how you'll feel when you finish 💪💪💪 You'll be absolutely fabulous

Then come on here and tell us all about it. Good luck.

[Henriette2013 in reply to Irishprincess]

Thank you, my dear IrishPrincess. I find the runs based on time, rather than distance, quite familiar, since that's what all of us did with the C25K program. I run as slowly as molasses in january but I work on not letting that upset me, and just focus on being able to keep going for the allotted times. Based on everything I read, pace will improve over time, and as a newish runner it's more important to focus on going for long distances or times than faster... at least at this point in my journey.

I found The One Hour Runner training plan when I was nearing the end of C25K, and hadn't yet heard about Bridge to 10K. I knew I needed a formal program, like C25K, that would tell me exactly what to do and when I Googled, The One Hour Runner is what I found. It's based on slowly (never an increase of more than 10% per week) moving up to being able to run for 1 hour, doing one "long" run/ week. Here's a link to the schedule: pauljenkins.tv/the-one-hour... I'm still not close to running 5K in 30 minutes, and I certainly am interested to see what distance I run each time I get on the treadmill, but for now this program goes with time and that's fine by me. xo

[Irishprincess Graduate10 in reply to Henriette2013]

That looks a good 10K plan. And you have the right approach. Good luck with it.

[Henriette2013]

Woot - just ran 45 minutes (final run of my program's Week 7): longest run, yet. Exactly 5K! *happy dance*