w3r1 done!

[I_can_run]

Well that was quite an experience - a much tougher way to do 9 minutes of actual running than week 2. After we finished the first 3m session it felt pretty easy, but the second was much harder. My wife especially almost immediately on starting felt her legs feeling heavy and thought she couldn't manage it. But she persevered, dropped her speed (from walking space to tortoise), and managed it! It felt really great managing it!

Not only that but one thing not really clear from reading the run description is that it is about 5 mins less than the previous run...which meant we ended up about five minutes further from home when it finished (before we have always ended up a couple of mins from home because the 2nd half is uphill and we are more tired anyway so the 2nd half is slower).

So about 7 mins from home the podcast finished and we had enough energy left to do another 60-90s ish run on the way back!

Any advice on the leg heaviness issue? My wifes legs were feeling really tired out but in contrast to some of the earlier runs she wasn't particularly out of breath. Do you think she needs to do some strength training or squats or something?

Any advice gratefully received!

[DeterminedBear Graduate]

Well done for both persevering. I'll wait for a more experienced runner to provide advice re: heavy legs other than to say, mine felt heavier today for the first run and then improved. I also run slow as I can't manage more sped at this time and I'm wanting to increase my stamina before pace.

[I_can_run Graduate in reply to DeterminedBear]

Thanks for the reply! Exactly my wife's experience having just done run two - a lot better and more comfortable - no more mini-steps - still slow but as steady as the earlier running sections.

[Bluebirdrunner Graduate]

Well done on your runs. 😊

We found somewhere flat to do our c25k run training, hills are going to be tiring, which may be why your legs feel heavy. Just a slow jog for the run intervals and recover during the walk break.

The warm up walk can be briskish to get your muscles warmed up.

No need to do any extra running.

Good luck with W3 R2😊x

[I_can_run Graduate in reply to Bluebirdrunner]

Thanks for the advice - we tried a brisker warm up while keeping the running sections slow and steady and the heavy legs vanished! We didn't need the extra running its just we are 7 mins further away from our house than we wanted to be and walking felt so slow!

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

Always, warm up well, and core strength and stamina exercise on rest days is essential!

As the runs get longer we really need this

Stretching after each and every run too, always...Take it slow and steady, do what is asked of you and no more

Have you checked out this post... a lot of very helpful advice!

healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

...and these exercises are great for legs!

nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/...

[I_can_run Graduate in reply to Oldfloss]

Thanks Oldfloss some interesting things there. I have to say personally I find the stretching a bit of a problem - I don't know if I am odd but I've never been able to get within 12 inches of touching my toes even in my more flexible school days (when I used to fence which I would have thought is a relatively stretchy kind of exercise). I will try my best with it. Wife is fine with doing them. I am trying to work in some swimming but I can't seem to find the time to make it regular yet unfortunately.

[Spudnomore]

Hi, please be careful about overdoing it. I got to W3R2 and was absolutely loving it. Only, right from the start I was so keen to progress I kept thinking I could do a little more and add a few repeats of the run patterns. I felt great but then developed bad knee pain which got worse over several days. I was so disappointed and really worried I had arthritis and couldn’t ever run again. I had to leave it a couple of weeks, am taking turmeric and thank goodness it’s eased and I’m able to do the knee strengthening excercises I was kindly reccomended on here. I’m back now to W1R2 and going to do exactly as Laura tells me. Slowly, slowly is definitely the safe way to progress! Good luck.

[I_can_run Graduate in reply to Spudnomore]

Thanks for the message - Sorry to hear about your injury issues - we only did what laura asked of us today and it worked out much better anyway, a brisker walk but strangely that seemed to help my wife get over the heavy leg thing so we actually ended up much closer to home. Hearing everyone's injury experiences and my family's notorious knee issues I will certainly take care not to risk anything. Cheers!

[misslynx Graduate]

As another w3r1 person I can say I was exactly the same! I went to shuffle for the last 3 minutes!

Not sure about your wife’s condition but just wanted to let you know your experience was normal!

[I_can_run Graduate in reply to misslynx]

Thanks for that she was very happy to get such supportive feedback. I hope you are finding the rest of the week is going ok - it seems a bit better having just done run 2.

[misslynx Graduate in reply to I_can_run]

Exactly the same here! Looking forward to run 3 tomorrow too!