W7 and struggling!

[Leadlegs]

Well my last post was when I did W5 R3 and I was feeling chuffed at doing 20 mins. Thanks to your encouragement I carried on and managed W6 R3 – 25 mins a couple of days ago. I didn’t post as I wanted to see if I could do it again – I have today, but it felt harder than before. How do I keep this up?

A little background, I’m a 56 year old woman and now care full time for my husband. I’d always been tall and lanky and we both enjoyed walking, but then the menopause hit and due to my husband’s worsening health, the walks stopped. Suddenly a ‘spare tyre’ developed! But I needed exercise I could do quickly without leaving my husband too long, jogging seemed the answer. I did try and download the podcasts but failed to master itunes. As we live in a hilly area, I joined the local council run gym. They drew up a programme for me including strength exercises, which was great and I enjoy them but the running was tagged onto the end and I’ve been plodding away doing 15 mins for a year. I can’t say that it got easy either.

Anyway we are lucky enough to be on a long holiday to Spain, and conditions here are ideal so thought I’d extend my runs. After a battle with itunes I finally managed to download Laura and came in at W5 R2. I thought I’d work up to 20 mins so 25 is beyond what I’d aimed at but I’m wondering if it’s beyond me! Advice please!

[RainbowC Graduate]

If you've been steadily doing 25 mins for a year, there's probably at least as much of a psychological hurdle as a physical one to get past. I'd be tempted to do w6r1 a couple of times, w6r2 a couple of times, then back to w6r3, so you know that you're building up to the longer run time.

Keep reminding yourself that you *have* run the 25 mins twice, so you can definitely do it. And remember we're all here encouraging you on

[Leadlegs in reply to RainbowC]

Thanks Rainbow, I've been doing 15 mins all year so 25 is a step up but you're right about the metal side of it. I'll give Wk 7 another go and see how I go on. Will keep you posted.

[pollyp1 Graduate]

Everybody has crappy runs. You keep it up by remembering the ones that really helped and getting back out there because you are learning to trust the process. If you end up only ever running 20 mins it's 20 minutes, X times a week, more than those who do nothing but sit on the couch.

If you just keep running, without putting pressure on yourself, you WILL start running for longer. You might not win any records but your body (and mind) will get fitter and your speed / distance will improve.

I'm in awe of carers for lots of reasons but one thing I know is that you need to look after yourself in order to look after someone else, and if running helps just keep doing it.

[Leadlegs]

Many thanks pollyp when I look back and remember how I first struggled to do a couple of minutes I know I've improved and yes I do need to look after my health now. I've been feeling a bit down recently so that's probably more to do with it. It's good having this forum for encouragement especially for people like me who can feel a bit isolated. I'll keep going with W7!