Blaydon races fantastic

[marc_read]

Well i've finished my first ever race.....my aim was to finish and i did and i've got the tshirt and bottle of beer to prove it. It was a fantastic atmosphere with people standing at the side of the road and cheering and singing and bands playing music. I definitely want to go back next year. My only thoughts are how can i run a little faster? How have people increased their speed> At the moment i can run a reasonable distance. I have run around 7 miles on a regular basis although i run very slowly....i would really like to hear from very slow runners and how they managed to improve there speed.

[mcgurranhouse Graduate]

Very well done! I haven't got that far yet but my attitude is better to do it slowly and complete it than to try to do it fast and keel over halfway! Well done you!

[marc_read Graduate in reply to mcgurranhouse]

oh yes definitely. I'm feeling inspired and am looking for a new plan. I've been aiming for quite some time to complete the blaydon race and have now done it..looking to keep the momentum going

[Tomas Graduate]

Well done, and congratulations! Hope you feel proud, you certainly deserve it!

As for running faster, well, you start by simply running faster. Think of your c25k journey. You started out by not being able to run at all, and then you regularly ran just a little further and a little further. Same thing with speed.

Run a little faster for a short period. Then recover and catch your breath. Then run a little faster for a short period. And so on. You can structure it as interval training (where you run/recover for predefined periods or distances) or as fartlek (where you on a normal run decide to run fast up to the next tree, or the next lamp post, or the side street, or whatever). Doesn't really matter. What matters is that you get into running faster for a short period of time and do it many times. Over time you'll find that you can start to run fast for longer distances, and your fast becomes faster.

Happy running, and congratulations again.

[marc_read Graduate in reply to Tomas]

thanks tomas..i'll give it a go! Nice simple plan.I like that!

[Toonlou24 Graduate]

Howay the toon man!!!! Would love to do that one day! Whoa me lads!!!!!

[Curlygurly2 Graduate]

Have you tried the C25K+ podcasts with the lovely Laura? I use these all the time and find them very good, although I am speeding up slowly if you know what I mean! Sometimes I use the week 1 podcast too and run as fast as I can when Laura says "run"

nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/...

[marc_read Graduate in reply to Curlygurly2]

yep i have now down loaded them and will give them a go. thanks

[Curlygurly2 Graduate in reply to marc_read]

Let us know how you get on! I love "Speed" and "Stamina" not so keen on "Stepping Stones" for some reason.

Just one tip - Laura says "you are halfway through this track" - don't be fooled as I was when I first did Stamina, there are another 3 tracks coming along! I found that so unhelpful, you think you're nearly finished and go for it, when in fact there's 15 mins left...

[marc_read Graduate in reply to Curlygurly2]

i tried all of them whilst on holiday in lanzarote. I liked them all. I'm just thinking how i can make them more progressive. I think with the speed one i can try putting in more intervals or perhaps running for 3 mins instead of 1 min at the higher pace.

[Curlygurly2 Graduate in reply to marc_read]

I sometimes do "Speed" Followed by a bit of "Stamina" . Or I do C25K Week 1 and sprint the run bits and jog the walk bits.