Sorry Laura it's been a blast..... W7R2

Thought I'd have a change today. I wanted to listen to my own music as I jogged. I know how to tell the time and I wanted to see how far I had gone in the 25 minute run.

So I wore my watch, dug out my old Ipod and loaded up RunKeeper on my iphone.

Started the iPod as I left the house. Did my usual 5 min warm up walk from the front door and knew where that would take me to, then started the stop watch and RunKeeper and off I jogged.

I have always seen myself as a jogger and a not too good one at that. Got the usual huffs and puffs at what I thought was about 5 minutes (wasn't looking at the watch) and then settled into my usual rhythm (whatever that is) and just plodded on.

having done W7R1 on Monday I knew roughly where I should finish after 25 minutes.

I did look at my watch after 19 minutes and felt OK so thought I would throw in a sneaky 28 minute run to give me confidence for next week.

I got to my 25 minute finishing place from Monday and thought what's another 3 minutes ?? and carried on.

I got to 28 minutes and although I felt knackered I didn't feel any worse than any other week.

I looked at RunKeeper and it said I had completed 4.43km !!!....WHAT !!!

I have been doing the program for over 6 weeks and this was the first time I had any idea how far I had run. I assumed that I was covering a couple of K's max with what I thought was my '53 year old man jogging' style of propulsion.

So I'm sitting here quite chuffed to think that I'm not a million miles away from actually getting to be able to run 5k without stopping. Even today I'm only 570m short with 2 minutes to go and I'm sure that if I keep up those 3 x 30 minute runs after week nine I will gradually get a bit quicker.

This whole program works and its incredible that after only 6 weeks I'm nearly running for 30 minutes and nearly running 5K.

Was a bit weird not hearing from the lovely Laura every 5 minutes and she certainly helped up to now but her work for me is done and I enjoy my own tunes now.

You never know I might pop Laura on once or twice in W8 or W9 to see what she has to say for herself as she always makes you feel very positive.

Cant wait for Friday and R3

[hel212000 Graduate]

Well done, you are going to easily nail 5k.

[Hidden]

Really well done on your progress

We are all converts to the power of Laura and the program and proof of its benefits

As the saying goes it only just keeps getting better and better

[Happy-runner Graduate]

This post made me laugh! Bye bye Laura I know how tell the time 😂😂😂

Well done 😀

[Sarah-A Graduate]

Ooh I'm a fan of runkeeper too - I like the 5 min time updates, but means that sadly Laura is redundant.

Just for your info, RockmyRun is a fab running music app. It works with runkeeper too.

[Bluebirdrunner Graduate]

Brilliant running. Its amazing how we learn to run with the structure of the c25k program. Laura says she will be sorry not to be with you on your last runs but knows you will smash them..

Maybe do tune in to hear her final tips and the 'Julie' song...

[Big-Andy Graduate]

I've always used the C25K App on my phone, this allows me to select music thats on my phone and I still get the messages from "Laura encouragement" track distances with my Fitbit Surge and also Map my run.

Graduation run tonight for me. I'm really looking forward to it too. Got new running shoes for the occasion!

[Hidden]

Well done, i was actually thinking of doing the same thing for my 3rd run of wk7. Same as you, know where the 5mins warm up walk took me then take it from there then back to laura for wk8 to

See whats what! 😁

[sulanderson Graduate]

Hiya. Well done with your run. Just to let you know, if you download the app you can listen to Laura, your own music and have run keeper on at the same time! That's what I did and though they sometimes talk over each other I find Laura so much nicer than the run keeper lady.

[Coddfish Graduate in reply to sulanderson]

If you use the C25K app and runkeeper, and they both try to talk to you at the same time, both apps may crash. I know this from bitter experience!

[skysue16 Graduate]

Not heard of Runkeeper? Is it an app?

Well done you....I still need Laura!

[MMcD]

Really well done. I have just completed a late WK7R2 as in should have done it on Tuesday - but really bad chesty flu put me off, however Day Nurse meds have done the trick and I am back after a fairly easy run. So pleased and will get WK7R3 out of the way on Saturday morning to leave me ready to tackle week 8 on Monday night. Tempted to listen to my own music choice instead of Laura - but feel I'd be letting Laura down as she got me this far. Will line up my own music for post W9R3. Haven't measured distances yet - must do after reading how well you are doing.