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'.
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
That's exactly right. I was so down after realising I'd over-done it that I couldn’t find the motivation to speed up again.
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! 😊