I started week 9 about 25 days ago and have had knee niggles which meant I stopped running. It has been really frustrating actually wanting to go for a run, a mindset I would have thought crazy back at the end of June!
This last week or so I have been coughing and wheezing, it seems to be worse when I'm in the house. I thought it would be a bad idea to go for a run feeling like this.
I have always had slight asthma but it hasn't bothered me enough to use inhalers although I have a preventer from a bad cough a while ago and a reliever just in case.
I woke up about 7.30 and thought to myself I could go out for a little while. I could try to run for a few minutes because, as that nice Irish-John has said, it's ok to have a "practice run" (TM (c) R) and it wouldn't be seen as a failure.
I had a quarter of a banana, put my knee support on, got my grippy water bottle and my phone arm holder. I took a couple of puffs of the inhalers just in case.
There was a nice drizzle and a light breeze as I left the house and walked to my grassy playing field just over the road. I did the warm up walk and then started jogging to "All hooked up".
No gremlins for the first couple of minutes and then they suddenly descended en masse! I think they had been saving themselves for this day, it was the hardest run I have done for a long while!
The grass was wet and a bit slippy, big puddles soaking my new shoes, and I knew I had to run for seven songs to bring me just over 30 minutes ( I might invest in some tech in future) but it was SUCH hard work. The songs which I usually get into a good rhythm with dragged on and on and my right calf which has never ached before started hurting for some reason.
Ok, about 16 minutes now, you've done more than half. It would be silly to stop now. Just keep on slowly slowly..24 minutes and getting a bit wheezy, a couple of coughs but come on, nearly there. Oh my legs are so tired slow down some more, just faster than walking...
The last song finally finished and I shuffled on for a couple of minutes more just to make sure that I had covered the required time. Then when I started the cool down walk I was coughing and wheezing more than when I was running, I'll never understand that!
On previous posts I had foolishly stated that I found running for 30 minutes quite easy, Well not this time, it brought me back to hard reality and I really had to fight to keep going.
I got back home with soaked feet and a feeling of tiredness but elation. Did some stretches, had a radox bath followed by a cold shower and then on to my new obsession the c25k forum.
Although I did up to week 7 on my treadmill before finding the forum and haven't used Laura due to the appalling music, I have come to really appreciate the warmth, encouragement and inspiring posts and great advice on here.
It really has become a daily routine to see how others are progressing from the fears of the first few weeks to the air punching "I did it!"s when each week has been conquered.
I may never progress much further but I am so glad to have started running for those first tough 60 seconds. X
A rather special graduation run
Graduation run – done!!
First post graduation run
Graduation Run
