Week 7 Day 2 & Encouragement

[asking79]

I am truly amazed at the progress I've made. I never thought I'd be able to say I ran for 25 minutes straight. It was hard in the beginning so I want to send out encouragement to anyone who thinks they can't do it: YOU CAN!! I started C25K about a year ago and never made it past week one. Then I broke my foot and had to take a long break. Anyway, I made excuses several times. Mostly I would just say I don't feel like it today and it would end up with me never doing it again. But this time, I did it even when I didn't feel like it and afterwards, the way I felt was truly rewarding. I have made it through each week without any major complications. I have asthma so I had to make sure to take a couple puffs on the inhaler about a half hour before running. I got shin splints pretty bad in the beginning but I found that if I pushed through it, it would go away. A few times I paused to stretch in the first few weeks. I accidentally skipped week 2 and went on to week 3 but I was able to do it so I just kept going. I didn't understand why week 6 went down so I just did the 20 minute run from week 5 day 3 the first two days and then on week 6 day 3 I did the 22 minute run. I'm pretty excited about it. I would just say to anyone who is struggling, take it slow. You're not sprinting, you're jogging so don't go too fast. You'll eventually get better and probably a little faster. Just keep at it!

[allegrachick Graduate]

Your story is very similar to mine. I also started last year but stopped for various health-related reasons, and then started again at the end of January. I'm amazed by how well the programme works. I've gone from total couch potato non-runner to someone who can jog for 25 minutes and actually enjoy it. I'm still very slow but I plod along and enjoy the fresh air and the time to myself. It's really very mentally therapeutic as well as being good for my health and well-being.