Powering through

[starinthemaking]

So I’ve finished my first week today! Felt like this run was tough but I tried to increase my speed throughout the week and ended up running marginally further so that’s a little progress!

The only downside was towards the end of the run I started to get a stitch. I powered through.. but does anyone else get this? And how can you prevent it?

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

Great hydration and slowing it down... there is a way to go yet

healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

Check out the post for Newbies... essential reading, and then just take it slow and steady!

Well done you!

[starinthemaking in reply to Oldfloss]

Thank you! Probably just starting off too hard 😊 will try and pace more! When the running gets longer I imagine I will do.. which is next week eek.

[notquiteretired Graduate]

Like Oldfloss has said, SLOW 🐢🐌, just take it nice and steady or you may risk injury in these early runs going off too fast. Your body needs to acclimatise to exercising so take it slow, not a race you will get there, well done for starting 🙌

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

The secret to distance running is to not power through unless it’s race day. Race days are at best every month or so. Nice easy (slower) running is the way to train... that builds fitness faster than pushing hard, conditions the muscles for endurance better (we are not looking to be 400m runners here) and it’s a lot more enjoyable. Elite athletes, and all smart runners, train around 80% of their running at an easy/comfortable pace. Their slowest run in the week is their “long run”... the next slowest (and most common) run of the week is the “recovery run”. They also do a tempo or speed session (maybe 2 as elites are running 9-13 times a week)

C25K is, in the above terms:

Long run

Recovery run

Recovery run

And then the same again the week after... until the middle of the plan then it puts the long run last. There’s no tempo or speed session for good reason... the most important thing we are doing is building endurance... there’s no speed without endurance... we need to have the fuel in a big enough tank to even think about speed.

So, in short, and as above... slow and steady is the key to this plan.

Hat’s off to you for giving your all in week one... great job completing the runs... but backing off a little is the best thing you can do right now.

Enjoy your journey.

[starinthemaking in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Thank you. Ok will go a little bit slower next time and take the advice from above 😊