3 months ago yesterday I set out to do run 1, week 1 of Couch to 5k. Today I'm faced with run 2, week 3 of the Magic Number 10k plan. I'm flushed with success from my first parkrun last weekend, and from the 7k run on Monday, so today’s 3.5k seems trivial by comparison. It doesn’t help that I'm in a hurry - just back from my piano lesson, pull on the shorts and out of the door again. And I need to be back sharpish for lunch so that Mrs t_m can get off to work.
On with the headphones, 5 minute warm-up walk and off I go. First km in 6:53. Whoa.. steady tiger, you can't run that fast. And I'm right, I can't. I have to plod the rest of the run just to complete it, and where's the fun in that? So a poor run, caused by the most basic of errors. I've lost count of the amount of times I've beseeched people on the C25K forum not to go too fast - what a muppet.
Still, as the old saying goes, 'I’ve learned so much from my mistakes, I think I’ll go out and make some more'.
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telford_mike
Graduate10
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It's all in your head as well. If you go to fast and get a bit tired of leg or approaching breathlessness all you need to do is slow right down to recover for a bit and then speed up again. The demons got you though and the belief that you could speed back up evaporated. You can recover from a quick start.. of course you can
It's funny how the mind works. When I first did c25k I would run too fast but then like the energiser bunny on the non energizer batteries I would just go whoommmm and stop unable to restart. Now I just rummage around in the battery drawer looking for an old battery behind the superglue and other assorted bobbins, pop it in and off I go. Of course those drawer batteries are never as good as the new ones but they get you going again 😜
Tried this today at parkrun. Shot off as fast as I could go - first km in 6.30 which is insane for me. Slowed down to a 7 mins/km pace (still fast for me) but no gremlins appeared and I kept up that pace for the remainder and got a PB. Thanks for the tips 😀
I need to take on board what you’ve said about slowing down when you get out of breath, recover then speed up again. I always assume I’ve overdone it and should slow down for the rest of the run. At parkrun there were people running way faster than me and puffing like goods trains in a shunting yard, then having to walk the rest of the course because they had knackered themselves. It just never occurred to me that you could get your breath back then push on again. Thank you! 😊
I often shoot off like a muppet. It’s the puppy-like enthusiasm. But a quick glance at my Garmin soon tells me what a muppet I have been, so I slow the flip down. Then establish a steady pace only to have a burst of speed at the end. Works a treat! I often have slower bursts to catch my breath before muppeting off again. 😁
Silly Kermit!!! 😂 Mistakes are there to be learned from. (I upped my pace today on my first consolidation run, managed 31 minutes, so I'm just as bad) but slow it down, have surges of a few minutes now and then and slow down when you have to. That's what I do, mainly with all these damn hills I run up!
I too always head off too quickly even when I've specifically reminded myself to aim for a super slow start. I think it's unavoidable to some degree because it's just too easy to bounce off on fresh legs at what "seems" like a snail's pace only to see on the watch that your still 30s/km faster than planned. The only way I've found to really get the pace down is to imitate one of those footballer type fake jogging warm-up runs they do on the touchline, kind of amble/loose legged/shake-out stylee. i.e. "pretend" to run at the beginning.
After 10 mths since starting C25K, I still make the mistake of going out too quick at the start of a run. I have to conciously rein it in for the first KM til I get into a comfortable stride.
I find that some interval training gets you accustomed to speeding up then slowing down to recover......I think it’s calling using your slow and fast twitch muscle fibres 😊
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