Blahhhh. I was told!! Only increase by 10% buuut noooo. Anyway, needless to say i did not manage to run 7.5k, main reason being, i believe, because its effing BOILING outside.
Also my left foot was crushed by an occupied electric wheelchair this morning.
Also, you would be forgiven for believing that when you run up a hill, you inevitably will eventually end up running down it, right?? WRONG! Changed my running route and surprised i didnt end up on the moon, the number of hills i ran up! None of them seemed to go down again!!!!
Anyway, cut a long story short.. i wasnt ready to try 7.5k and now here i am, on my bed, with an ice pack wrapped in my boyfriends pants on my ankle. Faaanbloodytastic.
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operation2015
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Hi Op, saying nothing about the 10% rule (but I really, really want to! )
Your long run should be done at a comfortable speed, at least 1 min/Km more than your fast 5 Km pace. I've been really struggling to slow down, but you need to force yourself. The other option is the run/ walk approach. Good luck and take care.
Slow down operation!! I was chatting to a running coach today, he explained it all to me....run slow, so slow you'd be ashamed to see your mates.....build up time not pace. That's my plan. Good luck u can defo do it
Many of us find it hard to learn from other's mistakes and we need to make our own (I'm most definitely in that camp). So maybe you aimed a little further than you could run, but you did manage 6.85 km which is pretty damn awesome, and you did it at a very quick pace. And a bit of a sore ankle is okay, assuming that it's just an ache that goes away in a day or so.
I would see it as a huge success! You've read about "don't increase the distance to fast", "don't run to fast", "don't do this", "don't do that", and you're probably tired of messages that starts with "don't" and want to enjoy the strength and motivation you have. So instead of listening to boring warnings, you've taught yourself the lesson. And had a great run as well. Anything that doesn't kills us makes us stronger, and it is only by pushing the edge we will learn where it is. So well done you
So right Tomas about not learning from others mistakes !
The trouble is, it is not easy to know how hard to push. Laura says in the stamina podcast "listen to your body, but don't let your mind make you lazy". I listen to my body, and when it complains I just assume that I'm looking for excuses to be lazy.
I am extremely determined, if I decide to do something, then I will do it, whatever the weather, and however difficult it turns out to be. That can be great when it works, but it can be bad if I over estimate what I'm capable of.
I followed the 10% rule after C25K and gradually built up to 10km weekday runs, and 14km weekend runs, running every other day. I was very pleased with that, and was setting a goal for a 10 mile race.
Unfortunately, I didnt listen to my body enough, over the last few weeks I've noticed more and more discomfort in my ankles (nothing severe, but enough to slow me down a bit towards the end of a run). I also found that my times improved if I took an extra day of rest. All this should have rung warning bells. I should have realised that I was over doing it, and that my fitness was going backwards because of it. I think that I was not giving my legs sufficient time to recover, so instead of getting stronger I was actually deteriorating.
Sunday before last I ran 14km, then on the Tuesday I ran 12km. My ankles felt really uncomfortable at the beggining on Tuesday, but seemed to improve during the final 6Km. I think it was a big mistake to ignore the discomfort, as the next day my right ankle was swollen and stiff.
I wasnt able to run again until yesterday morning. I got up at 5h00, and was pleased to find that my right ankle felt quite OK, with no swelling. I decided to try 5km and see how it went. The first 20 minutes seemed fine, no pain at all, then started to get twinges in the ankle. I guess I should have stopped there and then. But no, determination kicked in, I'd decided on 5km, I'll do 5km ! The last 5 minutes were really quite uncomfortable, and I'd had to slow right down. When I eventually stopped at 5km, I did plenty of stretches, and my ankles didnt feel too bad for walking. However, they were complaining quite noisily for the rest of the day, and are still stiff and hurty today
This is a real education for me. I've never pushed myself to the point of being injured before, and I'm really dissapointed at the set back. Being able to run 35km a week was great. Now I'm lucky if I can manage 10km in a week. There is surely a balance between doing enough during recovery so that your fitness isnt lost too much, yet not doing so much that your injury never recovers, or even gets worse. I havnt yet discovered where that balance lies. I will run again as soon as the pain has gone, and this time I will stop straight away if the pain returns. If that doesnt work, then maybe start C25K again from the beggining.
At least I'm not 100% on the IC yet. If I cant learn from other peoples mistakes, then I hope that I can at least learn something from my own.
You're so right Zev.There has to be a balance between doing enough and not doing too much. Maybe - and it is just a thought - maybe there are no hard and fast rules, and maybe the only way to learn what works for you (or for me or Tom, Dick and Harry) is individual experiences, including occasionally over training enough to teach us what the symptoms look like so we can recognise them in the future.
Seen after the fact, it seems obvious that you didn't give yourself enough time to recover. But I bet it felt *almost* the same way as when you've had a really good workout and pushed yourself in a healthy way. At least initially. And let's be honest, if we avoid any and all ache and pain, we would never have gotten even to week 2, for that first 3 minute run, oh dear, that was HARD.
So I agree with you. The trick is to be able to read your own body's warnings, but it's not a skill that comes easy.
Absolutely Tomas. That really is the thing, between finishing C25K and last week I've had lots of times when ankles or knees felt uncomfortable, and I've just run through it and it has been fine. So this skill of which you speak is very important, and, as you say, not easy. Ofcourse, in retrospect this should not be a surprise. If it was simple to know when you were risking injury then we wouldnt get injured
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I hate running but need to for a bleep test
Week 4 run 1 - so pleased! 
I hate running. That's why I'm doing it.
Woohoo I did it!! If I can so can you!!
Today was a bad day. Week 4 I hate you already
