I started couch to 5k exactly 13 weeks ago. I hadn't run since cross country in school which made me want to hide in a bush. I turned 49 in January and considered going to a personal trainer to help me improve my fitness. I hadn't got around to organising anything when lockdown saw my activity levels drop to nothing. I knew I needed to do something and with a park run course on my door step I thought that this was an opportunity to try something I'd never considered before.
Week 1 was really hard and my legs seemed to be in agony on rest days
Week 2 saw me discover post run stretches and my legs started to feel better
Week 3 made me think "maybe I can do this"
Week 4 was when I discovered that to run for longer periods I needed to slow down
Week 5 was when the wheel fell off the wagon and my knees screamed at me to stop 
In the past I might have stopped there and given up, but with plenty of time on my hands and plenty of support on here I tried knee exercises and walked for 30 minutes every day, slowly re-introducing runs (W5R1 and W5R2) until my knees felt strong enough to attempt 20 minutes. Altogether I think I spent 4 weeks on week 5
Week 6 and 7 went fairly smoothly but I gave myself 2 days recovery between each run to help my knees out
Week 8 saw me being impatient so I went back to 1 days rest between runs and my knees seemed to be okay with it
Week 9 has seen me running a bit too fast to start with which has made the last 5 minutes tough but I got through 3 30 minute runs (clocking up 4.6k this morning)
This forum has been great for advice and seeing everyone else's journeys. You have all been inspirations and I can't thank everyone enough
2 weeks on and race news
W5R3... Slow and steady defo won the race!
Slow and steady wins...
Advice for newbie couch to 5k
W6 done and dusted!!
