Fitness plateau

[Jilpy]

Love this forum and wondering if anyone can help throw light my way?

I graduated last Autumn mostly on the treadmill due to the heat last summer. I had a couple of breaks abroad too and as I was unsure of safe routes to run I used treadmills rather than use holidays as an excuse not to run. This year my goal was to take my runs outside, I had floundered after Christmas due to a chest infection so afterwards I stepped back to week 5 and took it steady and repeated runs etc til I found my feet but I’m stuck on week 6, I’ve been repeating w6 runs 1 & 2 and struggling with them for a couple of weeks now and wondering why I’m finding it so hard. It’s relatively flat where I run so no challenging hills, I’m listening to advice on here and really slowing it down. Any advice anyone?

[DiscoRunner Graduate]

The thing with w6 runs is they are interrupted and that can actually be harder than a continuous run. Why not try one go at w5r3 the 20 min run, then after a rest day jump to w7. It maybe the stop/starting that’s hard for you? And if you haven’t seen it search Japanese slow jogging movement on youtube for a short film showing a great slow running technique. This has enabled me to start adding duration recently - so graduated in early Jan but now one of my weekly runs is up to 40 mins.

[Jilpy Graduate in reply to DiscoRunner]

Thanks DiscoRunner I’ll give the w5r3 a try. I was wondering whether I could run the 20 mins in one go, I do feel as though I could carry on longer when I’ve done the 1st 10 min run. I’m used to trusting in the programme as it worked well before, sometimes we can’t see the wood for the trees can we? I’m off to google Japanese slow jogging now....