Excited near graduate with new gadget!

[emkeenan]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the middle of Week 8 of the programme and have been really enjoying (!) it. I was worried about feeling unmotivated or aimless when I finish the programme and have just bought myself a GPS watch to try and give myself a new focus when I finish.

I've just ordered a Garmin Forerunner 10, has anyone out there been using one already? What has your experience been? And how have you/ would you go about setting yourself a new running programme after Week 9?

Thanks

[helcl Graduate]

Hubby has a forerunner 10 and is very happy. I just got a 310xt from amazon (on offer) as it had the heart rate monitor and am still learning.

With regards to a running programme, I do park run on a Saturday, and twice a week do a 7k run, and sometimes when I'm bored, I go back to week 1 but instead of walking, I jog the walking bits, then run as fast as I can for the running bits! It's fun

[emkeenan Graduate in reply to helcl]

Thanks for the reply

I'm glad he likes his Forerunner 10, I decided simple and at the cheaper end of the spectrum was for me! The 310xt looks great, and it's always good to get a bargain.

Thanks for the ideas of about a post-graduate programme! I like the interval training and should be able to set myself some distance targets once my watch arrives. I might try a park run once I get used to the idea of people seeing me run- so far I've been running at dusk to minimise new runner paranoia!

[helcl Graduate in reply to emkeenan]

The good thing about parkrun is that you really do see every age, shape and size there!

[Hidden]

Well done with your progress in week 8. Not long now until graduation. After you graduate there are further podcasts available from the NHS website called Stepping Stones, Speed and Stamina. That's one option. Some people do Parkruns, or sign up to other 5K events. I believe there are other podcasts from other sources - I'm sure a few people will post later this evening with more suggestions. I did my first post-grad run today without any podcast and just did walk/jog intervals whilst exploring new paths but I did miss the structure of a podcast. I'll be trying the Stepping Stones one on Wednesday. Good luck with the rest of the programme and enjoy your new Garmin. Best wishes.

[emkeenan Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for the reply

I'm glad there are a few more podcasts available from the NHS. I think once I find out how far I'm running in 30 minutes I might want to work on speed especially! Doing the longer unbroken runs I'm already missing regular interruptions from Laura so maybe a different podcast would be a good thing for me. I hope you settle into a good post-grad programme soon

[carole01 Graduate]

I have a forerunner 10 and it is very easy to use: youtube.com/watch?v=3Uy5UA0...(Not working as expected?) If this does not work copy and paste the url address on youtube. It can be sometimes slow to select location on the GPS if you are in wooded areas. You do find you gain satisfaction seeing how many calories you are losing and the distanced covered motivates you further. I continued to use the week 9 and increased my times every 3 runs using my own music after the podcast as a treat. I ran over 17.5k last night without stopping - my furthest so far and thanks to my garmin, I know my time and over 1000 calories was burnt off. Not to mention proof to myself ( hubby and here!) that actually I did do this!! Good luck and keep us posted

[emkeenan Graduate in reply to carole01]

Wow! 17.5k is an amazing distance! The things I would be eating if I was burning that amount of calories!

If I can make that sort of progress eventually I'd be delighted. Thank you for posting the video too, it does look really simple and I can't wait for mine to arrive in the post. I've taken note about wooded areas and I'll let you know how I go