week 6 day 1 - lessons learned

[yatesco]

I finished the infamous 20 minute run (week 5 day 3) last week. Monday approached and I thought - "great, w6d1 seems quite easy (5min run,  3min walk, 8min run, 3min walk, 5min run), if I did 20 minutes non-stop then surely this is going to be easy?".

Wow - was it hard.

Reading around it seems that lots of people find w6d1 tricky - it certainly was for me. I think I made the mistake most of us make which is putting on those rose coloured glasses when thinking about the past and forgetting exactly how hard the 20 minutes run was _and how slowly I ran it_.

So off I start on the first 5 minute run quite a bit faster than my usual shuffle and within 2 or 3 minutes my lungs were bursting, my legs were aching etc. - not at all pleasant.

I did stick with it and managed to follow the run/walk schedule, and actually that extra speed at the beginning made it my personal best in terms of distance (3.8km) but it was _much_ harder than the 20 minute run.

So, for me, moral of my story is not to overestimate past successes and start slowly - I can always speed up later.

Looking forward to week 6 day 2 - bring it on (but slowly please :-)).

[vickyb5277]

Well done you that's brilliant & a new Pb too, excellent  

W6R1 tonight for me & now I'm worried lol. I really enjoyed the 20 mins but never thought it would be difficult to go back to intervals. I'm averaging 2.9km in the 30 mins so obviously going much slower than everyone else so we will see what tonight brings.

Well done again

[yatesco Graduate in reply to vickyb5277]

Thanks :-).

I wouldn't worry about the speed - I am quite tall so that probably helps. I read somewhere that it is impossible to go too slow at this point, but it is easy to go too fast (as indeed I did).

So here is my congrats for tonight as I am sure you will do absolutely fine :-).

[vickyb5277 in reply to yatesco]

Thank you. I have tiny legs, only 4ft 10" so yup little & slow haha

Thanks again & well done

x

[Patrick1942 Graduate]

Well done for pushing through the pain, the end is in sight! 

[boptillyoudrop49 Graduate]

It can be a hard run. I didn't enjoy it either but well done for fighting through to the end.

[Kezz100]

Well done on completing it! 

I've only just completed week 6 run 2 tonight after repeating week 5 and week 6 at least three times. Seems to have taken me ages to crack it but it's done. It killed me though and I can't say I'm looking forward to week 6 run 3! 🙈

[yatesco Graduate in reply to Kezz100]

Hi Kezz100 - serious congratulations for keeping at it - I am not sure I would have the sticking power if I couldn't do it the first time. Well done x 3

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

Brilliant.. and as Confucius once  said, though probably not when he was running... " It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop!"

Onwards and upwards!!

[Ullyrunner Graduate]

Good lesson learned! Well done

[Rignold]

rose tinted spectacles and weirdo toe shoes combined with excessive speed is no recipe for success. but it sounds like you learned your lesson early enough, and the proof of the pudding is in the finishing so well done.

[yatesco Graduate in reply to Rignold]

"weirdo toe shoes" indeed

[hannah141 Graduate]

Great advice, thank you. I've just done W5R3 and looking at next week's thought I'd have no trouble. I'll take it slow and not get cocky!

[PippiRuns]

I'll keep that in mind when I do that run tomorrow. Thanks!