Hello everyone, let me start by saying merry Christmas to you all…I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday & that Santa was good to you…I know I mentioned that I’d like to see some Christmassy pictures from your December runs but that’s changed today…I’d like to see what running gear Santa brought you so whether it’s tops, bottoms, lights or shoes, let’s all have a look at your brand spanking new gear!!!
I only ran once last week & this week might be the same..I’ll be running tomorrow…I’ve gone from feeling like a Yorkshire pudding to feeling like a Christmas pudding!! I don’t eat a right lot so when it’s Christmas I feel like I need to run off everything I’ve eaten as soon as I get a chance!!! I’m on week 7, that’s where I left off last week so it’s dragging on a bit but it doesn’t matter does it?? As long as my cruise body appears from somewhere!!!
How are your runs going?
Have you managed to keep going with your consolidation runs?
Come and share your experiences with us & any questions you have just ask away…
A bit about consolidation and running as a new Graduate…
You’ll almost certainly have heard people talking about taking some time to “consolidate” after graduation. This isn’t compulsory but it’s a really good idea. When you have increased your running distance or duration over a few weeks, it is good to pause and consolidate for a short period, bedding in all that effort and getting ready for whatever comes next. That just means not continuing to build the distance or setting out to get faster for a little while.
It’s a brilliant time to just enjoy your running. Without having to increase duration week on week, you can take the pressure off and have some fun! You can run somewhere beautiful and new. Forget about pace! Mix up your run times. Go up a hill! While you are consolidating you are also helping to establish the habit of running in your life. It is said to take twelve weeks of changed behaviour to create a new habit, so a three-week consolidation will get you there!
Running as a graduate will look different for everyone which is why we really hope people will share what they’ve been doing. We can pinch ideas and take inspiration from each other. The key thing is to keep it steady and remember you’ve got a whole lifetime of running ahead of you. Keeping to 30 minutes max as a rough rule of thumb is a generally good idea and we’d encourage you to be really sensible about running for longer. It’s widely recommended not to increase the length of any of your runs by more than 10% each week because of the risk of injury. Think about how Couch to 5k gradually builds up. The last thing anyone wants is to spend time on the injury couch just after finishing!
happy running x
MC and the lovely admin team 🎄🎄🎄
Week 3 and Graduation Day
Graduate running sessions a week
Week 9 Run 3 - Graduation! 🎉
Week 4 Run 2 (i.e. halfway to Graduation!!)
A little bit faster, 4 weeks after graduation
