I tried something different today.....

[juicydee]

With Sport Relief and 3 miles looming on Sunday, I decided to go beyond the stage I'm at in the programme (week 9 run 1) and run 40 mins to see (a) whether I could run for that long and (b) how far it got me round the local 5k circuit I've devised for myself. So I walked 5 mins without the podcast, then put week 9 on and ran through the warmup walk (it was You and Julie so that was OK to run to!!), then kept running till the end of the cooldown walk - then walked a good 5 mins back home. It worked really well - there was a long section in the middle when I felt really great, completely 'in the zone' - and lo and behold I nearly completed my 5k circuit!! Maybe 200m short. I am now feeling heaps better about Sunday, as I felt tonight that I easily had another 5 mins in me so I'll be able to make the distance. And I'll be VERY happy with 45 mins as a personal best at this stage....

Planning to do that route one more time on Wednesday, then rest up/stretch etc till Sunday, when I KNOW that I will at least be able to get round 3 miles - Speed?? who cares Woo hoo!! Good luck to all C25Kers doing Sport Relief - whatever your distance. We rock!!

[Minuette Graduate]

Wow that's very impressive! After every run and before each move to the next week I think to myself, well I've done X minutes so therefore I must be able to do XX minutes and that usually works with me.

I'm on week 6 and don't think I've met the infamous 'Julie' yet.......

Good luck for Sport Relief!

[shelleymcb Graduate]

yes, good luck on sunday. we will be waiting to hear how you got on

[Greg_M Graduate]

I think this is the point where I really started to enjoy it. By week 9 you are fit enough and strong enough to just "go out for a run", no intervals timings to be watched and you know your locality well enough by no that you know what routes are just about half-an-hour's worth.

It is here that you can really go with those "trying something different" impulses and mix it up a bit with different routes and terrains, do a parkrun and sneakily find yourself buying running magazines and even looking down the event list at the back for a 5k in your area

That led to my post-c25k plan of just having some fun with it for a while. I really felt at this stage like I was getting something back from my body for all the work I had put in. It is largely how I got up to 10K, I played around and experimented for a little while going a bit further and a bit faster then I had a free Sunday, no kids, missus was busy so I had a mad "wonder if I can do 10K?" moment and did! I couldn't walk for a few days mind you but I am glossing over that in my autobiography and making sound much more like Chariots of Fire.......

Do all those little experiments, some you will manage some not and where you haven't you will jolly well be determined to the next time

Enjoy!

[juicydee Graduate in reply to Greg_M]

Thanks Greg! I'm already booked in for the Bupa London 10k in May and the new Ealing Half Marathon in September so the idea of experimenting further is very appealing and I'm really grateful for your suggestions. Our local running club sounds friendly and does different training sessions each week, like hills (on my favourite training hill - which also features in the Ealing Half!) and intervals, so I'm thinking of checking them out too. And parkrun......and mags..... Wondering whether I can get Audiofuel gift vouchers for my birthday .... yes, I'm definitely hooked!!

[Greg_M Graduate]

Next time your local running shop has a sale grab up a pair of trail shoes as well, I love cross-country!

Now there is a sentence you don't see very often.

I got a pair for £35 (about half price) and they are like slippers, lovely to run in though not sure I would want to use them on tarmac.