A couple of weeks ago I decided to break the habit of my running lifetime and have a go with the NRC running app. I normally run with only my breathing for company and I would have said that I like it that way but I had read so much about people enjoying the company of coach bennett that I thought I would give it a go. I have had quite a few breaks this year with health issues and moving house so I picked the eight weeks to 5k training plan and jumped in halfway through to see if it could liven up my running and stop me feeling that I hadn't improved in months.
The first unusual thing for me was to try to run five times a week. It felt quite wrong at first. I must have imbibed the instruction about the importance of not running on consecutive days! But I have been running in my own slow way for three years and it seemed that there should be enough miles in my legs now to be able to run more often without the threat of injury.
The second unusual thing was running intervals and speed runs. I have just been pottering along at my own slow speed for ages. Maybe that is why I feel that I have got stuck in a rut! I remember trying intervals about 18 months ago and hating it so I was a bit wary of trying again. How wrong I was! Coming to the end of week 2 now I would honestly say that the most enjoyable part of the plan is the speed run. It is so so clever, this plan. The recovery times are so well thought out. The easing of you into making a real effort is brilliant. The focus on starting slowly and recovering properly is brilliant.
So a couple of weeks in I am definitely sticking to the programme I find running five times a week really makes me feel like a runner. Most of the runs are short so half an hour sees them done and I am managing to fit that in. I have gone back to my habit when I did c25k of putting my next run into my diary as soon as I have finished the latest one and treating that as a commitment which other things have to work round rather than slotting the runs into other commitments. I find doing the speed runs surprisingly fun and I am amazed at how many of my runs show negative splits, something that I have always had trouble with. That is the plan making me pace myself properly I suppose! This week my long run is supposed to be 6.5k which is the furthest I have run for a while. I am going to do that tomorrow and putting it down here as a statement of intent! I feel much more engaged with my running than I have for months.
If I can get my 5k time down to 45 minutes I have promised myself that I will run parkrun again. So you can tell that I am a slow and not a speedy runner. But there is room for us all here I think! Wish me luck!! And thanks for all the recommendations of the NRC app. You are right. It's great!
