Parkrun

[Troggie_One]

I am over 50, over-weight and under-tall! I have never been a runner, in fact I have never been fit.

I suspect that my three sons have secretly taken out a life-insurance policy on me. Last Christmas they got me back onto a bicycle and entered me in a 88 mile Sportive in August past. Having survived they have now suggested running. Being game for the challenge I went online for some help.

NHS C25K and this community have been a godsend. I have also discover our local Parkrun. I have walked the course for the last four weeks with an average time of 50.49. This coming Saturday I will incorporate Wk1,R1.

Our local Parkrun is a figure-of-eight course, which means I am passing the finish-line when many of the seasoned runners have completed their run. On a cuple of occasions I have been joined by someone who has finished for my second half of the course. The encouragement is immense and makes me determined to be there every Saturday. I will keep you informed of my progress.

I would recommend Parkrun to anyone hoping to start the C25K programme as a source of challenge and encouragement. We may start walking, but we willend up running the whole 5km

[Kittychops]

Oh, well done! I'm 55 and not at all sporty (hated all that stuff at school - was the second slowest runner in my class). I'm now on week 5. The first week was tough, but I noticed a difference by the second week, so stick it out!

[hop_along Graduate]

Troggie, all the best!

You have the right spirit.

H.

[crox Graduate]

Good on yer

Parkrun really does bring out the best!

[Hidden]

I am SOOOO impressed.

Please keep us informed of how you are getting on.

[Runvicarrun]

Wow what an encouragement. I was going to wait until finishing c25k before trying our local park run but having read your post I may try it this weekend.

I hope this programme goes really well for you, let us know how it goes.

[KTBinkles Graduate in reply to Runvicarrun]

Troggie has the right idea: go for it! For various reasons I didn't do Parkrun until week 2 end. With my hubby's encouragement I did the whole 5k alternating walking and running and it really encouraged me ready for week 3 as he made sure I managed a few 3 minute runs in there (in fact he dragged me through a five at the start!) The great thing is you set a bench mark and each time you do it you can see the programme working. It's not very close to us so I can't manage every week. I did it again at week 7 starting it with my warm up 5 minutes and then running the 25 minutes: instead of walking the whole 5 cool down I walked for 2.5 minutes to recover a bit then ran to the end (again setting me up psychologically for the longer week 8 runs to come) knocking 2 mins 50s off my W2 time. I recently graduated and am looking forward to running the whole thing next time aiming for another 2.5 mins off my time. I did my graduation run as the full 5 k to make sure I was ready.

Well done Troggie. Keep it up.

[waletta Graduate]

Thanks Troggie, I have been given plenty of encouragement previously & have got as far as registering. You're an inspiration.

[Troggie_One Graduate]

Sorry about the delay in posting the promised updates!

Results for the me at Parkrun for the last six weeks are as follows

Date  Time  

26/10/201344:12:00

19/10/201347:14:00

12/10/201350:55:00

05/10/201350:20:00

28/09/201349:17:00

21/09/201352:04:00

The first four weeks I just walked it as fast as I could to set a baseline. It also helped me get my wee legs used to the pounding on the paths. I am now at the walk-run-walk stage of week one. I am doing Wk1 twice as I am finding it really tough to recover in the 90 seconds despite Laura's best efforts to encourage me. Will let you know how I get on.

If you haven't tried Parkrun give it a go.