I stopped running on my doctor's advice in August and started again doing couch to 5 k just before Christmas. Last week I finished it and of course was way off being able to run 5k in running for 30 minutes. That's totally fine. I know that even when I get back to the distance it will take me somewhere between 42 and 44 minutes. I am not and have never been fast and one of the good things about having been running slowly for quite a few years now is that I have a pretty good idea of what I can do. But I would like to get back to running longer distances so this morning I started the nrc programme to get to 5k. I thought I'd do the 27 minute speed run which is 8 runs of 60 seconds and 8 recovery walks of 60 seconds. It was probably last July that I last ran an intervals run and I had truly forgotten how much fun they can be. I really enjoyed it! I enjoyed reminding myself that I can run a bit faster and feel strong. I enjoyed the recovery walks listening to the birds singing and noticing the hedges just beginning to come into leaf.
My progress is really slow but I do feel I'm on my way back!