W4R3 why did that feel so hard?

[char2609]

Up till now I've been quietly confident and believed I really was making big improvements with my running.

However I just completed W4R3 and I feel really tired and my legs feel like lead...I was terribly slow on the last 5 minute run. I'm now left feeling quite nervous about my first W5 run on Wednesday and I'm frustrated that my leg muscles still haven't quite caught up with the ambitions of the rest of me.

Any tips for me?

[lizziebeth57 Graduate]

Just wanted to let you know the same thing happened to me on week 4 run 3. I couldn't even finish it, and it came as a total surprise as I had been doing fine up til then. However... I have had absolutely no problem since and am now looking at my final run of week 9. So I believe it was just a bad run. Reading comments on this forum it seems to strike almost everyone at one time or another so my advice is to put that run behind you and pick up your confidence again. The programme works and if you have been doing okay to date you will manage just fine

[lizziebeth57 Graduate]

Forgot to say that another thing is to just go at an easy pace. Get into a rhythm and stick with it.

[RokensWife Graduate]

I remember at the end of week two, I was ready to give up. I had three absolutely awful runs and was convinced I couldn't do it but I'm starting week 5 tonight. I completely agree - everybody has a bad run or a bad week at one point or another so stick with it :0) x

[Runvicarrun]

I had the same on W4R2. Then the next one was fine. I now seem to be in a pattern of one in three feeling harder . Just keep going I think it is the ones we struggle to finish that are getting us most fit!

[Anniemurph Graduate]

Take it slow and steady. There's no such thing as too slow! The rest days are important and depending on your general fitness you might start to need to take two days between runs. This happened to me as I reached the second half of the programme - I just wasn't fit enough to run every other day for the longer runs. Don't worry about it though - give it a go and you might surprise yourself! Good luck

[char2609]

Thank you for all your supportive comments

Well it looks like it was indeed just a bad run....did w5r1 today and aced it...had a really nice pace and although I didn't think I could do much more than the 5 minutes as a time if felt nice and comfortable with what I did.