I completed Week 5 Run 3 yesterday and having been reading this forum for the past few weeks I felt compelled to make my first post. I would never have believed that 5 or so weeks ago that I could run for 20 minutes and it goes to show that the program really does work, and so I thought I would share my story so far...
Having received a fitness tracker for my birthday back in July, it was a real wake up call to see just how inactive I had become, really just because the daily routine and work didn't involve any necessity for activity. Whilst generally searching the internet for ways to increase activity I came across the NHS Choices website and Laura's C25K podcasts. I've never really enjoyed running and haven't run since cross country at school but something in what I read sparked a desire to give it a go. Somewhat conscious of going out running in the local area, I started running in the gym where there is a 200m indoor running track. In both Week 1 and Week 2 my shins would really hurt during the run, almost like a cramp, but I still carried on to complete each run. As the pain was only present whilst running disappeared during the cooldown and having read a few comments on here I guessed this was normal rather than anything serious. I did find that by run 3 of each of those weeks it did become a bit easier and that certainly drove my determination to keep going with the program. During early August I was on holiday for a week and took my running shoes (and Laura's podcast) with me and completed week 4 by running outdoors for the first time. I was running along tracks and country roads it was a really great feeling to be running outdoors, and since coming home I have completed all the runs outdoors, hopefully I look a little bit more like a runner now than when I first started! Week 5 has certainly increased the intensity of the program, but not to a point where I can't keep up, and run 3 was a challenge to keep going for 20 mins but with a great feeling afterwards.
As long as I stay fit I'm more motivated than ever to graduate C25K and am looking forward to being able to go on and take part in a 5k, I'm hoping that by the time I get to week 9 I will have the confidence to take on Parkrun. I'm still not sure that I can truly say I enjoy running but I am definitely feeling better for doing it and can see the progress I am making. And finally, the program really does seem to work so if you are sat there in any doubt about getting started on C25K - give it a go!!
And so next, on to Week 6 Run 1.......
Week 5 Run 3 complete!!
week 5 run 3….completed!
Week 5 run 3 completed!
And now week 5’s complete
Week 5 Run 3 - not completed!
