Life after Laura. Recent graduates settling into a routine. Keep yourself motivated. Week II/IV. Part II.

[damienair]

There was a little discussion recently in relation to new graduates finding it hard to find a routine after the C25K programme with Laura or on Apps. I was looking on this forum last week and came across some posts with the title above , thought it might be a good idea to resurrect the title and make it part II. The original discussions were from 1 year ago. So if it's OK I'll get it started. If your a new graduate please feel free to add your plans for keeping running post graduation below. This is for week 2, whether you have just graduated or are graduated over the past few months. Next weekend I'll make a new post for week 3 and so on.

[damienair Graduate]

Well this week I had a bad run last Tuesday, just could'nt get into it, I did 3.2 km. On Thursday I went out with the local running club Navan AC and did a 5k road run. I took off with the group of 9 at a pace of 5.20 per km which was too fast for me to maintain. I kept the pace for 2 km and then on the 3rd km I watched them steam off into the distance. I was relieved really to be honest, I settled back into a 6.20 per km pace after a walking break and chugged my way back. Most did the loop twice, and a couple of the guys even did it 3 times and finished off with a few laps of the running track so as to get 10 miles.

I did not do a Parkrun yesterday as I was volunteering, but my wife ran it for the first time whilst my 2 boys played next to the finish line in the Playpark.

This morning I went to the Athletics club with my 8 and 4 year old boys and we did a work out. I ran around the track at an average pace of 6:16/km for 3 km in a time of 19:24. I did some stretching took a rest. Then I started on some speed training on the track. I would run at a fast pace at an average of 3:39/km for 200 meters and then walk for 200 meters repeating 5 times until I had 2 km done between walking and running. I really enjoyed this session. I'll repeat it again during the week. My 8 year old did most of the 3km run and all of the speed training. It was effortless to him, meanwhile I had my usual beetroot head.

Also lost an aution on eBay for a Garmin Forerunner 110 running watch, but won an Auction for a Garmin Forerunner 15. I didn't want to shell out a fortune for my first GPS running watch, and I think this one will tick all of my boxes. The quest for a sub 30 min 5k continues.

Happy running everyone and have a good week.

[Hidden]

I graduated 2 weeks ago, but was at a bit of a loss what to do next. My furthest distance was 3.75 km, so I spent the first week after graduating increasing my time to 32 minutes and my distance increased to 4.13 km. I had intended continuing to increase my time and distance to 5 km, but then I discovered the Stepping Stones/Speed/Stamina podcasts. I thought I would give them a go. I did the Stepping Stones podcast 3 times last week and it helped me increase my pace. Next week I'm going to do the Speed podcast and then Stamina the following week. After that, I'll go back to increasing my time and incorporate the podcasts in my runs. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can run 5km and then aim for 10km.

[Gabby08 Graduate]

I graduated last week and did the Race for Life today, upping my distance to 5k in just under 33mins. I'm now planning to continue running 3 times a week - 2x5k but aiming to bring my time down to 30mins and one longer run, where I'll add on a km each week. I'm also hoping to register to do a 10k to keep me motivated and I might even brace a park run next week, although I suspect I prefer to run alone. Any advice from other people about keeping motivated will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for setting this up. I look forward to reading the responses.

[KimLoulou Graduate]

I cannot find the stepping stones app. Can you show me where it is?

[SueKen Graduate in reply to KimLoulou]

It's not an app it's a podcast, search for c25k+ and you should find it.

[SueKen Graduate]

I only managed one session in the week, one of the c25k+ podcasts, then did another Parkrun yesterday. My Fitbit tells me it was my first one under 35mins - yay! (Although the park run results put me somewhat slower, I think I'd rather believe Fitbit 😊.) Another busy week ahead hoping to manage at least 2 sessions.

[Jcab Graduate]

Thank you for the heads up on stepping stones. I am trying to build a routine with Parkrun and MapMyRun app so stepping stones will make a great addition. 😀