Graduation Run!

[AlbertRoss]

I thought about the canal, then thought about the rain on Monday, and instead put on the gear, did the school run, and then headed to the lake on the way back.... Lovely day for it, still a bit muddy underfoot in places. Off I went, Laura's telling me I can do this, five minutes, feeling good, but thinking I might be going a little fast - in some ways it would be great to actually run 5K in the 30 minutes, and I think subconsciously that was what was going on. So tried to slow slightly, keep going, 10 minutes, 15, 20... crikey, I can do this! 25 minutes, I alter the route slightly as I won't get round Lap 4 of the lake, not too much left in the tank by now so no speeding up for the end today - it's been harder work than I thought, partly because running on the mud I'm having to concentrate on every step... but then comes that glorious moment, "You just gotta do it...." and "That's it! Slow down to a walk..."

I am now officially a graduate, having almost made it in July before tweaking the achilles, I've come back and I've finished what I started!

It's taken me six months, but I have finally made it - so what is the difference between then and now?

1) I've lost a bit over 2 stone - initially partly through dieting, but I've kept it off even though I've not been actively dieting for a couple of months now.

2) I'm fitter. Resting heartbeat was in the low 60s, it's now usually between 52 and 54; and whatever I'm doing, I have more endurance.

3) I'm better psychologically. It's good stress relief, it's something positive about myself, and it's something I have done for me - not for anyone else.

If anyone is thinking, "Yeah, but I can't do it" - I'm 43, have never really run much since horrendous cross country runs at Secondary School where I invariably finished in the last half dozen, and while I've not got serious health problems I'm carrying quite a lot of extra weight - even with the weight lost, I could probably still do with losing another five stone according to the BMI charts. So if I can, why can't you?

[SassyAushie Graduate]

What an inspirational piece of writing! Thank you AlbertRoss. If everything goes according to plan, I'll do my graduation run next week on Friday. Congratulations!

What are your plans now that you have completed week 9? Are you going to continue running week 9 with Laura until you perfect the 5km in 30 minutes?

[Millsie-J Graduate]

Yippee! Well done graduate, and a muddy run for the final one...very brave and yes it would feel harder, but no matter, you did it runner!

Enjoy that great feeling and dont forget to celebrate and to claim your shiny badge 🏃🏻😀🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🍾🎓

[Hidden]

That's a brilliants post. Well done. As others have said have you got a cunning plan for what you are going to do next ?

Also how are you celebrating , apart from wearing a cheesy grin all day, as I did !

I celebrated with a Magnum (Ice cream) . Way back in Summer !

Also I'm glad I did mine in better weather. you've done well to get out in this climate.

[OndaC33 Graduate]

Congratulations Albert and thanks for a great post. Always good to see someone graduate. Good luck for future running adventures! I'm sure you you'll keep it going!

[AlbertRoss Graduate]

Thanks to all on here for the encouragement.... the next step is that I'm going to register with Parkrun and aim to do my first one on Christmas Eve as part of the Virtual Parkrun, giving me four weeks to try and slowly build up the running distance. My current pace is not enough to aim for 5K in 30 minutes - typically my running pace on the level seems to be around 7:30/km, if this programme has shown me anything it's to take things a step at a time and so I'm going to concentrate on upping the time/distance a little, get to actually running 5K, then take it from there. I'm going to aim to do a monthly parkrun from January, so that will give me something to aim at!

As for celebrating - not sure yet, although one thing I will be doing later (much later!) is drinking the bottle of Doom Bar that's chilling in the fridge!

[Millsie-J Graduate in reply to AlbertRoss]

Great plan Albert! That pace is great too! Don't forget you can run/ walk parkrun! Great that you are aiming for the xmas Eve virtual team Parkrun. Let me know if you want to go on to our list, we have 3 dozen runners for that day now! Don't forget you can put NHSC25k as your team if you wish to. 👍🏼🎅🏼

[Irish-John Graduate]

A well earned Graduation! Congratulations