nervous about week 5 day 3 :-S

[frogg]

I just did W5D2... and it was hard, I completed it, but i found especially at upward inclines that I was sort of brisk walking with a bounce for maybe 30 seconds at a time. It sort of feels like a fraudulent jog! Does anyone know what I mean? Does anyone else find themselves doing this just to get through? Should I be repeating days when this happens? I really, REALLY want to feel the elation of completing day 3 but I don't want to feel deflated or as though I didn't achieve it properly if this happens! I know I'm supposed to have faith in the plan but I don't know if I'm not jogging properly, and therefore shouldn't be moving on but repeating the week.

[Mitts Graduate]

When you're walking, you have one foot on the ground at all times. When you're jogging, you have times when both feet leave the ground.

Your brisk walk plus bounce does sound more like both feet leave the ground, making it jogging - but maybe your bounce is using too much energy? Try going really smoothly, I can't remember where but at one point Laura says something about imagine your head just going straight and not up and down. If you see what I mean.

For W5R3 I would find a flat route and go very slowly, just do the time. At this point in the prog I changed to using my own music and that made a huge difference. (I listened to the podcasts beforehand to get Laura's tips.)

Well done getting this far, and good luck!

[frogg]

I took your advice, I went the flattest route I could find and tried to keep my head straight rather than bobbing and I managed! Hurrah! I walked 5 minutes, ran for 2k in the 20 minutes (yes that is just how slow i was going! Im still a bit dubious as to whether this counts as jogging), and then cooled down until the end. Somehow, it was easier than day 2, probably because I covered less distance, around 3k total in this run whereas for day 2 it was about 3.6k total. I'm still proud, don't get me wrong, but I'm worried this is too slow! At this speed, it would take 50 minutes to run 5k, not 30...

[Mitts Graduate in reply to frogg]

Woo-hoo! You did it, excellent! Don't worry at all about about your speed, plenty of time to get faster after graduation. Most people don't get anywhere 5K in 30 before they graduate, it's all about running for 30 minutes non-stop.

Even now I still take 35 minutes for 5K and that's on the treadmill which is easier, outside I'm even slower. But I can run for 45 minutes now, and that's really all I want.

Week 6 is intervals again, so you can convince yourself that you really are jogging - but I bet you are!