Gutted

[Boofle999]

Doing C25K for the second time and today was Week 7, Run 1. For the first time ever, I bombed at 10 mins, I just couldn't go on, my legs wouldn't work and I was feeling very panicky and lightheaded. I was gutted because I've run through much worse, I was proud of my 100% completion record so no idea what happened this morning. I began intermittent fasting 10 days ago and have felt great - I have run twice in a fasted state and had the best runs of my life, but today it just all went to pop. Does anyone else do IT and if so, have you had a similar experience? Is there anything you can suggest that might have been the cause? My issue is that I have bad health anxiety and so now I have it in my head that I can't run AND do IT which, of course, is nonsense - very concerned for my next run, any advice on how to push on through?

[Hidden]

How long are your intermittent fasts? I do 16:8 (16 hours fast, 8 hour window of eating between 10am and 6pm) and haven't had any issues. It was only when I was doing the Fast 800 (800 calories two days a week) that I felt totally zonked if I ran the next day, so I stopped it.

Are you eating enough calories in your eating window? Are you drinking plenty of water all day, even on rest days? What about alcohol?

W7R1 was also an issue for me but that was due to the weather. It was the really hot summer of 2018 plus I was carrying three stone of extra weight then. I tried it a couple more times and in the end I gave up. It took me a year before I restarted the programme and managed to complete it second time around. I've done C25K for a third time and even then, when it came to W7R1 I thought I was going to fail it. But it's purely a mental thing now.

If it was me, I think I'd go back and do 10 minutes run, walk a bit, then another 10 minutes building things up again to 20 minutes without a break. Then maybe add a minute on to each session so 21, 22, 23, 24 until you get back to W7R1 with the 25 minutes.

One thing I would say is not to rush things, there is no competition.

[Boofle999 Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Hi Mukkypup - thanks for your response :o). I do anything between 18:6 and 20:4 - I think I'm getting enough calories, yes, sometimes my food choices are not that great though! And I am trying to stay hydrated all the time - drink about 4 pints a day, but maybe that isn't enough? I don't drink any alcohol, perhaps it was just one of 'those' days where everything was conspiring against me! I completed C25K last year but stopped running due to achilles issues which is why I'm doing round two. I have run 25 mins a few times over the past week or so, I'm more or less following the programme now but if I feel I can go a bit further I will, so I don't think it was the length of the run, probably just a combination of factors, but I don't want to give up either running or IT so will just have to sort it out!

[Dtay1978 Graduate]

Don’t be so hard on yourself, perhaps your body/mind wasn’t feeling it today, no biggie, just dust yourself down and when you’re ready have another go, you’ve got this 😊

[Eletheelephant Graduate]

I would say you should stop giving yourself such a hard time. Week 7 is tough and this is the first time you've done two long runs in a row. Maybe you just needed an extra rest day! A few weeks ago, running for 10 solid minutes would have felt like a huge achievement.

Take a rest day and have another go at a slow pace before you jump to any conclusions about needing to fix something - we all have worse days sometimes and it doesn't mean you're doing something wrong.

Good luck and let us know how your next run goes!