Finally done W1R3: After finally completing week... - Couch to 5K

Couch to 5K

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Finally done W1R3

BoyBlunder profile image
12 Replies

After finally completing week one I feel accomplished and ready for week 2! I am so happy to have done this first week and although I faced some challenges I feel that I shall improve these when going into week 2. Thanks to my dad I was able to do these 3 runs without stopping and giving up and he has continued to tell me "there is no such thing as failure, the only people who fail are those that fail to get off their couch and do the things that we are doing". I stand by that moto for every run that I do. Once again feeling happy about myself and looking forward to the challenges ahead

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BoyBlunder profile image
BoyBlunder
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12 Replies
Thomson3 profile image
Thomson3

Brilliant! Your dad is so right. Keep it up!

poppypug profile image
poppypugGraduate

Well done !

Hey, father and son on board ? Fab !

Keep going youre doing great ! :-) xxx

BoyBlunder profile image
BoyBlunder in reply to poppypug

Thanks poppy! Yeah going with my dad makes it a lot easier I think, I find that sometimes the I lose my pace and tend to speed up. Any ideas on how to master this? :)

poppypug profile image
poppypugGraduate in reply to BoyBlunder

Ha ha ,I am still trying to get to the bottom of that myself :-) I tend to start off a bit fast ( well not really fast if you see what I mean ) and then get slower . I haven't got the hang of the pace thingy yet, its all a bit of a mystery to me :-)

Although I wouldn't worry about it at this stage . The most important thing is completing the runs. Pace and speed can be worked on at a later date :-) xxx

BoyBlunder profile image
BoyBlunder in reply to poppypug

Haha thanks again Poppy, as I said I am happy to have completed this first week so looking forward to the challenges ahead. My dad is a couple of weeks ahead of me and near to graduation and he insists on telling me that things will get easier as the weeks go on but at the stage I am in disbelief ;) Hope to send out a W2R1 post in a couple of days! - Thanks again for all the nice comments and advice you have given me :)

davelinks profile image
davelinksGraduate

dads spot on! don't get anywhere unless you try hard! well done! but it's not a race, so when you realise you maybe going too fast just back it off to a steady pace keeping your pace mindful.

As you get on a garmin watch would be good to have for checking pace & distance...

BoyBlunder profile image
BoyBlunder in reply to davelinks

Thanks Dave! At first it really was a struggle but I have been reassured that although it isn't going to get easier that my body will adjust therefore making it "easier" to recover.

Thanks again, I am looking forward to W2R1! :)

davelinks profile image
davelinksGraduate

I believe you're a youngster, so you should recover pretty quick if healthy. Yes your body will adjust, and if you are really panting now, your breathing will stabilize and by the time you get up into the later weeks you won't even notice it, but remember to take in some deep breaths as Laura says, body needs plenty of oxygen...take it easy..

btw the names great! has dad got a name? I could give him a name to match yours, but he may take offence...

BoyBlunder profile image
BoyBlunder in reply to davelinks

Thanks for the reply dave, dads name is idolitorus! I am indeed a youngster but without doing any excersise in the past this is still quite a challenge for me... Although I am looking forward to the challenges that I am going to face and posting about them for people to give me lovely comments and advice such as yourself :) ;) Hope to send out a W2R1 post in the next couple of days! - Thanks again for the lovely comment and advice you have given me so far. :)

gary_bart profile image
gary_bart

Well done. As you've probably now felt for yourself after being told it and hearing it a few times, the hardest part is to just make a start, but you've done that, and already have your first successes behind you. So you now know how to achieve a great deal in life already, just from this first week: Just Make A Start. All those "mountains" out there can be conquered, using this same principle. And it's no longer an abstract principle or some empty words, it's something you can already feel in your flesh and bones.

At some point further down your c25k challenge, you might find it gets tough again. Never mind just Make a Start to that next steep path. And then start moving a bit further along. You can never know how far you manage to go, but it'll always be a lot further than you could go "on that next couch".

Looking forward to hearing how you progress through this, and I hope you find that eventually you at least sometimes spend the rest day impatient for that next run.

RunningForBroke profile image
RunningForBrokeGraduate

That's a great way to look at it. Congratulations and good job!

Purple_faced_woman profile image
Purple_faced_womanGraduate

Well done. I just finished reading "Running Like a Girl" by Alexandra Heminsley, and one of the things it explained is that your body can take between 5 and 10 minutes of running to realise that you are running and you are going to keep going and so it needs to adapt to this new set of circumstances. I guess this explains (having just completed W9 R3) why Laura always says I am at 5 mins and 10 mins in the exact same place on each run, and these are the points at which I'm muttering "Come on Laura - tell me I've reached this time - have you forgotten me or what?" - yet each of the 3 runs I have increased my distance at the end (glacially, it must be admitted) without feeling that I am doing more work. I guess after that first 10 minutes my body has finally figured out how to do this running thing again.

I mention this as it seems to me that this learning curve for the body means that those earlier runs are made extra hard because your body doesn't (and probably at that point you can't) run long enough to properly adjust. Building up your stamina allows you to reach a point where you can run long enough for that adjustment which is why later on things get easier.

You are doing well - I look forward to reading how you progress.

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