So many on here worry about the big jump to 20 minutes, as have I - four times now. I suppose the main reason this forum is here is to encourage and support, so here is my dose of both....
I have just completed W5R3 and feel absolutely wonderful, the best I have felt after exercise for ages. I don't really know why. I found the previous run, the two eight minute runs absolutely exhausting. But now sitting engulfed in a real euphoria I can only say - DON'T WORRY.
This is the fourth time I have done it - once in 2014 in my sixties, again in 2017 in my seventies, both leading to completing Couch. Then in May this year did it again, but aborted the attempt to finish Couch. But today it seemed so easy - and was the quickest and furthest of the four times I have done it. The body is strange, what makes the difference? What drugs does it release to make you feel like this?
A tip which worked for me - to get my head around what I was dreading, I split it into four minute segments - the first at 9.4kph, the second four minutes at 9.5; the third at 9.6, the fourth at 9.7 and for the final four minutes I sort of went crazy and kept upping it. It certainly passed the time breaking it up that that.
I felt so good in fact, that I did a bit of running in the final five minute warm down, and then did a race walk One Mile Walk warm down in 10.25 and still had energy left.
In retrospect, the hardest run has to be the first of Week 1. So fear not the Dreaded W5R3....
W9R1 - Great Run
Week 4 Run 3
W5 continues...
Graduates’ Club: Week 4 run 3 rerun 
