Onto Week 4 and honestly hating it!
Beginning of the program was definitely hard but manageable and even enjoyable! But it seems the further I go in the program the slower I get! Which frustrates me to no end.
My main question is, does the running ever get "easier" and how do you know if you're ready to move onto the next week?
You do need to slow right down for the longer runs - finding your relaxed comfortable pace is the secret, where you can breathe easily and you feel in control of the run rather than on the verge of collapse. Drinking plenty of water on your rest days also helps.
As for when to move on, the general rule is if you managed the run then move on and try the next. If you didn't manage the run, then it was a practice, take a rest day (or two), and try again.
Good luck!
Great advice!
Only passing on what I've picked up from all the lovely people, mentors and admins on this forum 
Thankyou, I think it's definitely about finding the right pace. I just hope I don't get too much slower in the next weeks, I think at this rate the snail's can beat me!
I have found this forum really helpful and I notice that the same few pieces of advice keep getting repeated. The one that made the biggest difference to me was this: from about the middle of the programme (i.e. about where you are now, or just after) it stops being mainly a physical challenge and becomes a mental challenge instead. I found that knowing that made a huge difference: your body is actually coping but your brain is trying to tell you that it isn't. If you're in actual physical pain that's different: then you stop before you get a serious injury. Other than that it's slow down but don't stop and NEVER run on consecutive days - always take a rest day and take two if you need to. If you can get to week four you can get to the end.
I hated week 4 run 1. The only time I really thought about quitting BUT I kept going, just finished wk 4 and doing 5 run1 tomorrow.... and looking forward to it!!! Slow as a slug and totally inelegant but still here( and you will be too) Best of luck
I'm glad you felt the same, because if this a common turning point for people then I know I just gotta get through it!
Hi, I've just finished W4R3 and start W5 Mon. I loved your comment, " slow as a slug and totally inelegant". That is me exactly! Really made me laugh! I do often wonder how other people look so effortless, floating along on springy legs while I must look like I'm about to collapse! oh well, at least no-one sees me as I run alone in my local woods. Just scare the wildlife! Feels good though, doesnt it, knowing you've done it, sets you up for the day.
It doesn't get easier, you get stronger. If you have completed a run, then move on to the next.
Each week should push you further. You will feel like you have reached your limit. Trust the pogramme. As has been said you are getting fitter - running x3 per week for a month of course you are - your body is strengthening, getting into shape; but you need more convincing. It takes a while to accept you can run. Especially if you have spent a lifetime believing you can't.
Stick with it, please!
There are good run days and not so good run days. However good or bad, congratulate yourself that you did it anyway. Who cares about the pace, it's snail pace all the way, you've heard it before 'slow and steady' does it. Think it's more a question of building stamina, not how fast you can go. Just keep positive and smile! Good luck, please don't give up.
Loads of good advice already.
It is mostly a mental battle after the first few runs - your mind is trying to protect you from this weird thing you are suddenly making your body do. It thinks that if it triggers certain warnings you will stop.
So it makes you feel like you are dying or that your leg is about to collapse or you are having a heart attack.
When that all fails it switches to negative thinking, how stupid other people must think you are, how you are never going to be a runner really, etc etc.
You just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and ignore all that chatter in your head.
Something brought you to running - for me it was a desire to get fit. Hang on to that reason and remember it when your head is screaming that you can’t do this.
Some runs will be really hard. Others will be wonderful. The hard ones are exercising your resilience/stubbornness as well as your legs etc.
Keep going. You’ll love where running thing takes you.
W4 & W5 for me have been mental not physical. A positive motivator on my left shoulder and a negative demotivator on my right shoulder. Keep going/give up hahaha. I found myself smiling as I argued with myself and that kept me going. Trust the program as it does work. You have done well to get this far. Just think back to when you started and how much fitter you are. Keep going and listen to your positive motivator 😁
I think W4 was the hardest week! I really hated it. As scary as the next runs look, it really is a mental challenge (in both senses of the word). When you can’t trust yourself, trust the programme. I had to slow right down to get through and have yet to run fast enough to get a stitch, lol 😂. Strava tells me I am getting faster, so perhaps that is why it doesn’t seem to be getting easier? You have got this far so you are succeeding, well done!
The "bad" news is that it doesn't get any easier. The "good" news is that by now you've pretty much proved you can finish this and finish it in style.
I keep trotting out Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."
It's absolutely a mental game now. If you think it will go bad, it will. If you you think it will go brilliantly, it will. Your legs can do a lot more than your brain thinks they can. So ignore your brain. It's an idiot.
You're a runner. You can do it. So just go and do it
Better to go super slow, get to the end of each run, and enjoy it - speed can come later
Does it get any easier 
Does it get easier? 
Week 2-Does it get easier
Does it get any easier
Does it get easier?
