Advice required please!!

[Mshaunb]

Well, today was gonna be the day I ran for 30 minutes. I didn't I got to 12 and then pressed the 'Stop' button on the treadmill. I found myself making all sorts of excuses such as:

It's been 6 days since I ran for 28 minutes....partly because I usually have to wait 3 or 4 days for a painful knee to die down and partly because I'm on a trip to the US.

I was tired from the long journey yesterday.

I'm usually used to running outside.

The gym was warm.

I was confused by the "minutes per mile" speed setting

Etc etc etc.

But I think the real reason is that I'm used to doing my runs as laps around a disused all-weather pitch and I calculate before-hand how many times I need to go round it to get to x minutes. So every time I go past that clump of nettles, or a certain man-hole cover or a marker where the old goal posts used to be I know how many more times I need to pass it. 30 minutes should take me round about 17 laps. And I knock off the time one lap at a time. All I had on the treadmill was the CNN news (subtitled) and the music from the podcast with Laura's occasional interventions......so now I'm thinking....

How do I set myself these small countdowns when I'm on a treadmill.....and when I do decide to move away from the running round the pitch to other places....how do I motivate myself?

Also, should I have another go at 30 minutes tomorrow or maybe do a 20 then a 25 then a 30 again..... I didnt actually feel tired ....just warm and bored....

[RuNananana Graduate]

I so completely relate. I had to stop listening to Laura on the treadmill because I just found I was getting toooo bored. I have so many things going: the screen in front of me, the screens up on the wall, the music playing (Deezer) - and I too had to come up with "markers" on the treadmill. It was hard because I started becoming numbers-obsessed. I now cover up the display because of that... Instead of visual markers, I switched to music markers. I did the warm up walk at a comfortable/mildly challenging pace for 5 minutes, jogged for 10 songs, and then walked for the warm down 5 minutes. I wasn't really going for minutes on the treadmill, but moreso distance. I know that my warm up is 0.40 miles, and warm down the same. If my total distance was between 2.75 and 3.20 miles, I was satisfied. The song total time was usually between 27 and 31 minutes.... close enough for me!!

[Mshaunb in reply to RuNananana]

Ha! I can see how that would work....I'm certainly going to have to get rid of the timer under a towel or something. It made the 12 minutes seem like 12 hours. I think a timer is fine during the early stages of C25K where the switches between walking and running are more frequent.

[RuNananana Graduate]

Oh - and one other thing - some days you will have good runs, and other days you might not. Some times there's no rhyme or reason. You still ran for 12 minutes - and that's something! Where are you in the C25K? That should dictate what you do next, really....

[Mshaunb in reply to RuNananana]

I'm on a slightly different program to the NHS one. My runs go 20, 25, 28, 30 and then 35 to completion. So I'd reached the penultimate.

[davelinks Graduate]

Yes, it can be a battle with the gremlins sometimes, but, never give in! .. now where have I heard that before?

I got out for a 5k run today before the rain came, I warmed up, then 2 mins into the run the gremlins popped up and said I didn't want to do this today! I said to them I'd stop just over a km down the road and turn around and walk back, they shut up! just as I got to the point I said I'd stop I carried on running and said in Arnold Swarzenegger style, I LIED! I started to feel better after that and carried on to 5k.. I was well pleased with myself.💪

So, you must not let them get the better of you, push them aside and they'll fade away!😊

[ancientrunner Graduate]

Never run on a treadmill but do think it would be quite tedious, and if you add in jetlag I think you did well to run at all.

[ladyharvills Graduate]

I was the same yesterday. Doing Stamina, after the first 10 minutes I had to stop and walk/jog/walk the rest. Just couldn't catch mt breath. I'm usually ok doing Stamina, but just couldn't manage it yesterday. It happens to us all occasionally.