Snapshot of my Garmin Connect home page. On 2nd March, I was just starting C25K week 6, that's when I bought my Garmin. Today's run was my 100th since that day! Today, I ran a new PB for distance, 17K. It was a totally different experience to last Sunday's 16K, which was a sobering run, which took some grit and determination to complete. This morning, with a more carefully planned route, and a different fuelling regime, I felt pretty comfortable most of the way. The final km saw me beginning to tire noticably, but I could have ground out another 4k to complete the HM distance. My HM is in October, so hopefully I can consolidate and be reasonably more prepared. I think If I'd gone on today I would have done the HM in 2:35 or so.
I did this run at a gentle pace to improve my chances of completing it. I was surprised to notice my pace had increased around the middle of the run.
Happy running, everyone! All you new runners on the C25K journey - keep the faith. I hadn't run as a runner at any stage of my life until I started the programme at the end of January. I'm nothing special; a fairly ordinary 58 year old. You can achieve great things with C25K as a springboard. It's given a new spark to my life. I love running. I'm a runner now!
Not too bad some days then back to square one and I can't see the Quack until the 19th. If I even manage to do the Oxford H/M I'll be looking at about 4 hours I fear : (
Brilliant Steve ! Massive respect to you, you have done amazingly well . Who'dve thought from those first steps of W1R1 that you would reach these dizzy heights ?
You should be so proud of yourself you are going to smash that HM ! xxx
Thanks for the encouragement, Steve. I've already surprised myself with managing the longer runs, but still can't believe I could ever do something like a half marathon. If I can hit the 5km level (or slightly beyond, for some buffering against illness etc) I'll probably consider anything beyond that a bonus.
I've run I don't know how many km in previous lives. At school they made us run a lot. It hurt, and I learnt to fear it. In the army they went several steps further. They made us run carrying packs and rifles, they made us run and dive and crawl etc until we vomited. I'd imagine that during that we eventually would do more than 5km a day, even in full kit. It taught me more of an aversion for running, overall. And if we did 5km, it never felt like we'd clocked up some satisfying milestone; it just felt like we'd survived, only just, and only for the next few minutes.
c25k has taught me that all the people over all the years who've told me they run for pleasure were not lying, or were not so completely special and different to me that their entire experience of running and exercise was different to mine. Turns out that those encouragements to run for the pleasure of it were as true for me as for those people who didn't know what it was to dig out your very last little bit of nothing just to scrape by. (They don't; being unathletic, and being forced to keep up with "athletes" - ie all those who are not unathletic - teaches you how to run on zero hope, zero strength, zero anything, and that you can keep going even like that. But that's missing my point here).
It's possible to enjoy this stuff, not just to grit it out. That's life-changing.
Thanks, Steve. Seeing how you guys who've carried on, and seen where this road leads to next, are getting along is an important part of the whole c25k transformation, I think.
Impressive distance! I think I started C25K about a week before you, but have not yet gone beyond 11km, although that was partly due to various 10 and 5k races this summer, so was concentrating on that. I was just thinking this morning that I'd now like to build up my mileage again (I measure in km, but there isn't really an equivalent word is there - kilometreage just doesn't sound right)...and do an ever longer run once a week.
You have done very well indeed and I am sure you will be fine for the HM
Interestingly, the long runs seem to be the most engaging for me. It's a challenge, and starts to involve more factors to consider and deal with. I think once you know yourself, and can manage your pace, you can do all sorts of things. Apart from organised races and Parkrun, it's also a solo kind of thing - you against the challenges!
Realistically, as long as you stay injury free (touch wood), you will have no problem doing the HM distance (I know that sounds as incredible for you as it does for me considering the relatively short time we have been running) it is just a question of how hard you want to push yourself in terms of pace on the day.
Interesting, as I think we look at things a little differently.You're faster than I am, and you push yourself harder, it seems. I think I'm more cautious than I should be sometimes, but one of the main things I've worked on is pacing myself. I intend to stay injury free - I reckon I know my body pretty well now.
I think I could run the HM distance in a few days time, but I'll hold back on that for a while. Next Sunday's long run is "race a 10k". We'll see.
I don't think there is "right" or "wrong" approach just what makes us comfortable and what we individually enjoy.
My training run pace is in line (mostly ) with that suggested by MyAsics and the Runner's World calculator but I would certainly slow it down if it felt too hard.
In terms of the HM, one thing I did notice about the Garmin plan, for all it's variety, is that it doesn't have anything approaching an actual race simulation. One of the attractions of using MyAsics as a base for me was that it includes three separate 18k runs at something close to intended race pace. I have felt for sometime that I will only really know where I stand once I have done at least one of those runs.
There's some race pace bits tucked away in the long runs in the Garmin plan. For example in a couple of weeks there's a "run, easy pace 70 minutes, run 20 minutes, HM pace", and towards the end of Sept "run, easy pace 40 mins, run HM pace, 40 mins".
Certainly agree there's no right or wrong approach. If there's one thing I've learned, it's to be observant, flexible and sensible to manage your running well. I'm pleased with the progress I've made (though others have clearly made more progress) and especially to have avoided missing a single run through injury.
Great progress Steve_L, I also started around the same time as you, but I haven't progressed distance-wise like you have! You may be 'an ordinary bloke' but I've seen you do extraordinary things on here! I'm really pleased to still be able to run for 30mins, in fact it's more like 45 mins as that's how long it takes me to run 5k. Which is a million miles away from where I was before I started this in Jan/Feb this year. Keep running - good luck for the next 100
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