W8R2 beaming!

[TwiggyL]

Absolutely beaming with pride and joy! Did my first 4 kilometres today. Took it slower to preserve my knees and ran 30 min instead of 28. I can do it!!!

[Hidden]

fantastic!! keep it up!!

[TwiggyL Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thank you!

[Hidden]

Well done x

[TwiggyL Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thank you!

[Frenc Graduate]

That’s brilliant TwiggyL! You should be beaming, well done 👏🏼.

[TwiggyL Graduate in reply to Frenc]

Thank you!

[Hedgehog21]

Well done, you’re an inspiration to me, a newbie 👏

[TwiggyL Graduate in reply to Hedgehog21]

Have no fear and take it slow. It is a race with yourself only 😉

[SassyF Graduate]

Yay - Good for you TwiggyL 👏🏼

[Joggingonthewildside Graduate]

Really really well done ! You’ll be beaming all weekend

[Couchphoenix Graduate]

Well done TwiggyL 👏🏻👏🏻

[Rennur Graduate]

4k in 30 minutes is not bad at all. You are allowed to run slowly and stick at 28 minutes in Week 8. Dont punish yourself for being slow. 2 extra minutes luckily isn't much of a punishment. Some runs are just better than others. You should be proud of yourself. Glad you're enjoying it. Bet you wouldn't have thought you'd be enjoying running when you started! I still find the most enjoyable part is the feeling after I've finished, but I am starting at long last to enjoy part of my runs - you might hear me whistling and singing to my tunes sometimes. I am very loud!

[TwiggyL Graduate in reply to Rennur]

🤣 I can’t sing, but I usually want to dance in celebration after my runs.

[nowster Graduate]

Naughty! 😉

Running slowly is not just allowed, it's encouraged.

And 7½min/km is actually not a slow pace.

Do keep to the timings. They're there for your own safety.

Muscles respond to exercise much more quickly than the support structures, like bones, joints, tendons and ligaments. As you begin to feel stronger from muscle growth, there is the danger of exceeding the capabilities of the other parts of body, which take much longer to strengthen to bear the stresses of running.

(I pushed too hard in Week 9 and graduated with a ligament injury that kept me from running for nearly a month.)

[TwiggyL Graduate in reply to nowster]

Ouch! That mast has been very upsetting to graduate and not being able to run for so long. I know it was naughty of me, but I so want to run 5k on my graduation. Now thinking about it and what you have said I probably will bottle up my ambitions and just do what is recommended. Thank you.

[nowster Graduate in reply to TwiggyL]

I did do 5km in exactly 30 minutes on my graduation run, but twisted something in my left ankle in the last couple of minutes. I ended up needing two expensive physio visits for a pair of ankle ligament sprains and a shin splint back in September. It's not worth it.

You will naturally get faster as you continue to run after graduation. You will eventually do 5km... and further. But you have to work up to them gradually. I completed my first 10km jog two weekends ago, just under six months after that graduation run.

[Skel68 Graduate]

A very, very big congratulations TwiggL, well done you 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😀

[QuadroVEINia Graduate]

Well done. You definitely can do it! 💪