I feel I have gone backwards ??!!

[Tinymeaden]

I'm on week nine and have gone from running non stop for half an hour to now running and needing to walk for a couple of 30 second stints ?? Also first 5 mins of running after warm up is sooooo hard - is this normal ?

[misswobble Graduate]

Yes it is! Don't worry. You get ups and downs, and as Laura says some runs are better than others and there is no rhyme or reason for it. We all have our off days, so chin up and look forward to the next one. That might be fab!

[Ullyrunner Graduate]

First 5 minutes is often difficult - it takes time to settle into a rhythm with breathing and pace. Once you can get past that things settle down a bit. Don't fret - you are so close now.

[Tinymeaden in reply to Ullyrunner]

Yes onwards and upwards - tomorrow is another run !

[runningnearbeirut Graduate]

It's perfectly normal to take some time to settle into your running. Don't worry about any "bad" runs.

BUT ... you KNOW that you can run for 28 minutes without stopping. 30 minutes is only 2 more, so YOU CAN DO IT. Try starting off slower after your warm-up walk. You might think you're going slowly, but you're probably going just a little bit too fast because you can't keep going. Two feet off the ground is running, and this might be slower or the same speed as your brisk warm-up walk. That doesn't matter. IF you have some extra energy at the end then you can speed up a bit for the last minute or so, but it doesn't matter if you don't The important thing at the moment is to stop those gremlins who are telling you that you need to stop.

Make sure you take your rest day/s and then have another go. Try a different route or run this one the other way round if you want - might be good to distract yourself a bit.

[Tinymeaden in reply to runningnearbeirut]

Yes a new route could help and I will overcome that inner voice telling me to stop, think I have given it to my inner chimp this week !!

[caj62 Graduate]

I have been running for 18 months, and, in my experience, the first 10 minutes of every run is horrible. My advice to you is to try running a bit slower if you can.. You can always do a "sprint" finish. Good luck.

[Tinymeaden in reply to caj62]

I will do - not sure about the sprint finish though !!! X

[frannyfran Graduate]

Hi, I read somewhere that it takes 10 minutes for the muscles to properly warm up, this could explain why the first 5 minutes of your runs are always so much harder.

You could try a 10 minutes warm up walk and see if it helps.

Happy running

[Tinymeaden in reply to frannyfran]

I will do yes - thank you x

[misswobble Graduate]

I do longer warm ups sometimes, 10 minutes, even longer. Nothing wrong with it and it's something you could try. I don't seem to get into my running groove until 22 minutes, wierdly, but you learn what works best for you with a bit of trial and error. Relax and don't worry about it

[Tinymeaden in reply to misswobble]

Will try a longer warm up for sure ! Thanks x

[Hidden]

Longer warm up walks might work but for me there is always the issue of the "toxic ten" - the first ten minutes of any run is generally awful for many of us... You're not alone - the good news is that the longer your runs get, the less amount of running time is the painful bit..

And you've not gone backwards at all - think of it this way...

Week 8 - 28 mins, 28 mins, 28 mins

Week 9 - 28 mins, TBD, TDB

That's not backwards at all... backwards would be

Week 9 - Didn't bother...

Happy running... slow down ever so slightly and you'll nail that extra 120 seconds..

[Tinymeaden in reply to Hidden]

Yes you're right - thank you x

[Tinymeaden]

Thank you everyone for all your help - that really has helped, I will not dwell on a bad run and will try a longer warm up next time, it's easy to get de motivated by a bad run but thanks to you all I will go back out tomorrow with renewed enthusiasm - it's good to know that you guys feel the same sometimes - roll on tomorrow - yeah I'm back on track !!!