I wasn't going to post a photo but I took this when the song I was listening to (follow me by Lange) spoke these lyrics: 'and take a leap of faith and don't look down'. I think they're pretty apt for the C25k programme, don't you? 🤔
Anyhoo, onto the actual post... I had the most confusing run this morning. It threw me all off kilter and I still can't make sense of it. I struggled quite a lot this morning. I found my pace pretty quickly, or so I thought, I made sure I was hydrated the day before too and I stretched so thought I was set up fine. First five to ten minutes were OK but it was the halfway mark when I realised I might have problems. I felt tired and I've not felt tired at that bit for ages. I decided to slow down, like really slow down, and as I'd read Iannoda truffe's post C25k advice, I thought I would make the most of trying out a different, slower pace. I then got to around the 23 minute mark and slowed down even more as I genuinely thought I wasn't going to finish. When I looked at my app at the end, I'd actually ran my quickest average ever in the last 15 minutes. I know it might sound like it, but I'm not stats obsessed; I use them more to figure out how my pace was after I've finished. Can anybody help me figure this out? I truly thought and did my best to go at a snail's pace and set off no quicker than normal. I'm a bit bothered that it might throw my next run. Any ideas or do I treat it as a weird blip?
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Pnegirl
Graduate
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Oh consolidation runs can be very confusing. Judging your own pace can be difficult and our perception of our pace is sometimes way off the mark! Even now, months on from graduation, I have wildly different perceptions of my pace and am sometimes very surprised by the actual stats. I don't have a running watch so don't constantly monitor it. I would just go with the flow for now and enjoy your runs. Your next run may settle into a nice flow and rhythm.
Thanks Roxdog. That's very reassuring to hear. It felt as if pace should be more or less nailed by the end of the 9 weeks so to know it can still cause problems is helpful to know. I don't have a watch either but at the moment I'm still using the app to figure out where I am in my run. I try not to look at it though but I'm a really good judge of time so it doesn't make much of a difference haha
Well done on your second consolidation run. It sounds to me like you were running faster than you thought. I’m sure the tiredness was down to the fact that you picked up pace without realising it. Take it at a much slower pace next time and you’ll feel a lot better.
After two failed attempts I finally managed a consolidation run this morning. Every time I try to pick up speed I end up exhausting myself unnecessarily. I tried on Monday and I think I set off too fast and ended up stopping, same again yesterday. So today I went back to my old plodding pace and lo and behold it was fine. I was even running uphill a fair bit. There will be a time when my pace picks up but the most important thing is to finish. I know my fitness is better it’s simply a mental battle every run. Most times I win but sometimes my head just won’t play ball.
Yes I know what you mean. It is so easy to set off too quickly so well done for getting out there again today and competing your run. I've kind of settled into a bit of a pattern of starting off at a decent pace, slowing a little in the middle and then picking up for the last ten minutes. Today just threw all that out of the window! It felt really slow for all of the second half and I decided to stop at 30mins and not worry about trying a slower pace. That's what was strange. I think I'll just chalk it down to experience. Still got a lot to learn 🙂
Some days you just struggle. I ran 5K on the treadmill for two years and most days I managed fine but sometimes I struggled, very occasionally I stopped short of 5K, a couple of times I bailed early but most days I ran it. Over time it will even itself out and my experience is the good days outweigh the bad ones but there will be days where it’s just tougher. Probably just the bio rhythms of our body, plus, sleep, diet and how hard we’ve worked too.
Ah thanks Caroline. I'm not too preoccupied by speed at all but it competence threw me haha! Completely befuddled! 🙃 I've had a couple of days to think about it and have decided I'm going to put it down to another learning experience in the running process and I'm not going to worry about it. I'll make sure slow actually is slow to begin with too. I hope you're ok 🙂
I know exactly what you mean. I try not to let the stats get in my head during the run but I like dissecting the results afterwards.
So many times I’ve felt sluggish and then realised it’s because I was powering through with a PB 🤷🏼♀️ equally so, sometimes I’ve felt on form and the stats say I was slower than usual.
Like Roxdog says, a lot of us think we’ve mastered pacing but I think it’s harder than it appears. The more we dive into running world, we’ll continue to learn 🙂
Don’t sweat this one, keep doing your thing and enjoy the ride, try not to overanalyse for now..
Haha, thanks Miss Overanalyse (your words not mine haha) 😂. It's nice to know it's not just me. I don't know why, but I think I kinda got it into my head that pace was something that was 'sorted out' in the nine weeks but I'm very happy to hear that it can continue to be elusive and confusing. As you say, we're still learning. Not going to let it hold me back or complicate what's already going through my head when I run. There's enough traffic in there as it is haha!
What a fab photo and it sounds as though you’re doing really well continuing with the 30 min runs. It’s so weird isn’t it that when we think we’re running slower you end up having gone faster overall 🤷♀️ I remember it being written on here several times that running slower builds stamina and speed so that’s what I’m gonna keep telling myself 😂
It certainly does and I noticed it when I tried running slowly at different stages of the 9 weeks. I remember I had to repeat a run during week 4 and as I was new to the forum, the run slow to run further advice was like a nugget of gold! 😁. Definitely do keep telling yourself it as well because it really does work
I found the runs following completion of the program to be the hardest. I ended up "failing" many of them because I wore myself out too early etc etc. And now several months later, with a Garmin on my wrist, I still find that I am often going faster than my legs think I am. Or slower. I think a lot has to do with the state our body is in on a given day. Hydration, sleep, alcohol consumption, food choices, etc.
Thanks WeavingWonk (great username by the way 🙂). I haven't really seen too many posts about people finding consolidation runs difficult (or maybe I wasn't reading them because I wasn't that far along in the process) but it really does help to know that they're not meant to be easy just because you've graduated. What you said about the body is a really good point too. Dodgylungs posted an article about the very same thing above and it was very interesting. Thanks for the reassurance!
Thanks Pnegirl! My hobby is weaving, quite literally! And I love the intellectual aspect of it, hence wonk!
I struggled hugely with the lack of structure in consolidation, and with being totally out of whack with pace. And with the fact that 30 minutes still felt like a really hard run! And it was the summer and the heat was getting to me. Felt like I was failing, even though realistically I had run only about ten hours at that point. So why would I think I could run 30 easy minutes every time. Oh, and it was summer, and I don't work in the summer, so I was drinking wine most nights. That had to stop as alcohol has a hugely negative effect on my sleep, and therefore my energy for running.
I finally told myself that I HAD to do nine consecutive 30 minute runs (returning to zero if I didn't run for long enough) before I could allow myself to move on. And that I needed to slow way down (and I am already very slow). That got my head straight! I started getting up really early to beat the heat, going to bed super early, and concentrating on bedding in the ability to run 30 relatively even minutes (pace-wise).
I graduated in June - finished my consolidation runs in August - and now I have new goals.
Hang in there and don't worry so much about the pace. Listen to your body and what it needs to consistently run the 30 minutes. And then you can figure out what's next
I couldn't believe how it turned out as I took it when I'd just started my run. It became even prettier after that but after nearly dropping my phone and not having the hand-eye-leg coordination to take another, I decided this would do 😂. It almost looks stormy but it was actually a lovely morning
I try to start the run between 7:15 and 7:30 so I can get sorted for work. I haven't dared go earlier than that as it would be too dark. Not going to have to much choice in that matter soon though lol
I’d love to be a morning person but alas I only have time to huff and puff in the morning. Even at 40 (it was my birthday today) I hate getting out of bed lol
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Week 10 consolidation 🏃🏼♀️2
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Consolidation run 2 - Doe a deer!! 🎶🎶
Consolidation Run 2
