Week 8: Major struggle, help!

[OllyM]

I have been running for the past two months on the C25k plan and up until now have been fine. Had to abort todays run though because half way through (14 mins) was struggling to breathe and my legs seemed to give up completely! Will try again in a couple of days but has anyone else experienced similar pitfalls? I'm 22 and of reasonable health, mad at myself for not continuing today but I seemed to pass a threshold. Any suggestions?

[kevos Graduate]

hi ollym, please don,t let it worry you, it happens.the next time you go out you will probably wonder why it affected you that way ,but it really does do that sometimes.chin up mate, it gets better ...kevos...

[Greg_M Graduate]

I'm with kevos.

Just one of those days. Think nothing of it, its way too easy to overthink things. almost certainly the next one will be better (or the one after that) then you have a bad run in the bank. Then next time it happens you will know it passes

[AliB1 Graduate]

Definatley one of those days. It will get better, it's just hard when you have your first bad run! I can reassure you that you will move on - I had to abort 2 out of 3 runs in week 8 (not sure what happened) but did the 3rd one and moved on to w9 and am now month past graduation. Good luck with the next run

[jennyn Graduate]

Hi, just remember how well you've done so far. Most people seem to have hit a wall at some point, mine was definitely week 7, put it behind you and start in a day or two when you are ready, let us all know when you have done it!

[TJFlute]

I fell off a horse once and my friend said "you're not a real horse rider until you fall off. You've made it! Now get back on the horse and ride home"

So now you're a real runner

[Hidden]

I wouldn't worry about it. As Greg_m said, its just one of those days. You can always repeat a week or day if needed. I've always thought that its ok to plateau from time to time. You could look at what you did before the run (food, rest, stress levels etc) and compare it to when you ran well. You might see a clue there.

[PatButcher Graduate]

AW don't beat yourself up, you went out there and tried. I had the same thing at week 8, really struggled, I expect your next run will be awesome

[bizzyb Graduate]

If you were short of breath, you were probably setting off too fast and couldn't maintain the speed for the amount of time you were trying to run, next time start off slowly, try to build up speed gradually through the run, see if that makes a difference

[OllyM Graduate]

Thank you for all of your answers and support! Pleased to announce I re-ran the first run of Week 8 this evening successfully and now I am back on a high Pretty happy with myself!