It was a real struggle going 20 minutes non-stop. I had to grind it out and push aside negative thoughts of how in my youth I used to jog the first third of an equivalent time just to warm up, then finish with a furious sprint. The podcast advises doing this week over before progressing to week 6. I'm contemplating it though the first two weeks of week 6 incorporate stints of walking which I had found easy the previous time I did C25K. It's the 25-minute of W6R3 of which I'm wary. Also, previously, I was running on a tiny indoor track in Winter. The rhythmic, mind-numbing process of running around a basketball court is like being inside a metronome, you count the rafters and the doors. Now my every run is outdoors on varying terrain. It's much tougher.
W5R3 A Menace: It was a real struggle going 2... - Couch to 5K
W5R3 A Menace
Sounds like you are doing very well. I did the W6R3 yesterday and I found running very slowly and being hydrated I coped . That run is very much a mind run, I did not allow any negativity into my thinking . Running near the Bow River must be lovely ....
My runs along the Bow River are truly spectacular. I'm very privileged to enjoy these vistas.
You most certainly are very privileged to run there, I have walked along the Bow River on my trips to Banff as much as you can in winter!
I'm milking every minute of the good weather to try to complete all 9 weeks before it gets too chilly to run outdoors. I thought I could increase the frequency of runs to every 36 hours instead of every 48, but sore calves put paid to that ambition after my very first attempt.
Keep up the great job! You'll be ready for the Olympics one of these days! God Bless! 
Too kind. Just to put things in perspective, however, as I was reaching a fork in the pathway near the end of my warmup walk, I noticed another walker, a chap approaching from the right. He continued walking ahead of me as I broke from my warmup walk into my first waddle. I was concerned that he would be amused at my fat shuffle but that wasn't necessary as he pulled away from me still walking...whilst I was running; the arrogance of youth. I guess he was doing some version of C25K too because he then broke into a run and blitzed the distance between us dramatically. Well, I was going to have none of that insult so I turned left onto a little pathway that took me on a different route that got his derriere out of my sight. After all the huffing and puffing of W5R3, on my 5-minute cooldown walk near my house, that same skinny runt came tearing up from behind concluding some segment of his own run. I had beaten him in our respective Olympic ambitions but I think his was closer to 7km compared to my 3 in the same time.
Good Job! You've got this!
Well done. Are you aware of what the objective is?
In Week 9, it's 3x 30 minutes of continuous jogging.
If you work backwards from that, then at some point you have drop the walking breaks.
Positive mindset!
Indeed, John_W, I am. I'm a graduate of the entire programme from back in 2019, but hadn't done any running since. I succeeded in packing on weight over the period of inactivity which prompted me to get back on track in more ways than one.
I get the impression that you're pushing and expecting a lot of yourself with thoughts of what you could do when younger.
Try and forget all that. It's hard though.
Relax, focus on going really slow... No huff & puff. Just nice and easy. Try and go at a pace that means you finish feeling like you could carry on if you had to, ie conversational.
Thanks, great advice.
Oh yes those horrible young people with their bendy limbs and their speed and stamina. Flipping cheek of them!You are definitely being too hard on yourself - lockdown has had the same effect on a lot of us 😁 (I blame my washing machine, I'm convinced it's shrunk ALL my clothes, including the ones I haven't worn since last year 😂)
- Oh and all the clothes manufacturers are skimping on their materials too.
Wonderful place to run though, I love to see where people are running, so thank you for posting the photo.
Just for you...
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