I have just graduated and have been reading this forum along the way. I have been inspired by you all and felt good to feel the love! This is the first time I have reach out as I would welcome some advice from you lovely people.
I have run four times since I graduated and I am averaging 4km which is great but I have found it a lot harder. I thought I would find it easier once I graduated and would be able to better my time. For the first time ever I stopped mid podcast as my legs and lungs just couldn't do it today. I have started to listen to my body since I started runnig and it didn't feel right today. I think that i may have started too quickly as Strava says I beat my PBs! I normally play football but haven't due to the xmas break.
Is this just a blip any advice gratefully received. Thanks
Written by
Tobysage
Graduate
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Time to just run to enjoy. Slow and steady. You will build stamina and then find you can increase distance a little at a time.
We sometimes forget that at graduation we are still very novice runners and then we put too much expectation on ourselves. You could run to week 9 a few times if it helps or your own tunes for 30 minutes.
Graduating is the end of the beginning of a journey, and anew beginning to the next stage of the journey.. ( are you following me so far :))
Your newly-found running legs have only just got going, as has your stamina and strength for the runs.
So... some gentle, non fastest-time pressured or distance pressured runs.. 30 minutes of enjoyment... find some new routes.. up the strength and stamina exercises and embrace the fact you are running.
Maybe give the C25K+ podcasts ago in a while.. they are fun and really hone the discipline in our running, and you will be amazed where you end up
You are a runner... just run and enjoy The rest will follow, believe me
The number one mistake that new runners make is to try to beat their times on every run. Experienced runners, including the pros, generally train 70- 80% of the time at an easy pace, where they can definitely hold a conversation with no gasping. That leaves you 20-30% of your time to push hard and try to beat your pb.
Just because you have graduate after your name does not make you an experienced runner. It takes many months, if not years, of continual running before you can make that claim. Continue to build up slowly. Read this for some guidance runnersworld.com/running-ti...
I graduated in November and have been consistently running just under 4k in 30mins since.
One day I decided to go off a bit faster in an attempt to cover more distance in the time. It wasn't a good idea - in fact I wrote a post titled daft Idea and Lesson Learned or somesuch. It was the first run I gave up on and I was worried that I was losing my running legs and was never going to improve.
I pulled myself together and kept running for 30 mins making an effort to keep it interesting by changing routes listening to different stuff etc but worrying less about distance.
Since then I've enjoyed my runs more and today at 30 mins decided to just keep going - I ran my first 5k in just under 40 mins. I'll now work on improving my time.
This is just a blip for you - you'll get your mojo back - just keep believing you'll do it. Some wise soul once told me there are good runs and bad runs - but even bad runs are good for you. He was right - just learn from this one and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
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Graduated!
Graduated 
I Graduated yesterday!
First post, graduated so what is next?
W9R3 - I Did It, I Graduated!!
