still struggling with week4. Left Laura at home

[Skandia]

I'm having a mental and physical block with week 4. I just cant manage the 5 minutes.

Today I decided to try a different approach. Left Laura at home and headed out with just my phone stop watch. Really enjoyed being able to hear the wind in the trees and the bird song.

Broke the 5 min runs down into 3 plus 2 min with a 90 sec recovery walk in between and almost managed the 16 minutes in total (OK I did 14 minutes of running in 33 minutes) Its still the best I've managed so far.

Sorry Laura I'm not following your rules but hey everyone is different and I've always been a bit of a non conformist!

Its still hard to believe I'll ever be a true runner

[BecToots]

Not sure if it will help but I count while I am running - every other step - and I know that if I can get to 350 I have done 5 minutes. Seems to motivate me because I know how much I have done and how much is left, and it breaks the run up as I count each hundred separately. Listening to bird song however does sound lovely. I saw a rabbit today which made me smile. Like to have my ipod on loud however, so I can't hear (or can pretend that I can't hear) the cars that honk as they go past. I am trying to convince myself that they are honking encouragement!!

[Hidden in reply to BecToots]

I tried this counting idea when I went for W5R1 yesterday - and it was brilliant! I found that I lost count after a while, and just restarted counting, but it was a great distraction and kept me going all the way through the runs. Going to try it again tomorrow for the 8 minutes! Thanks for the tip!!

[cvgough Graduate]

Must admit, throughout week 4 and 5 I started taking off my headphones so that I could hear what was going on around me and hear how hard I was working (weird, I know). As I got used to my route, I found it fairly easy to gauge when to put the phones on again to catch Laura's next bit of motivational chat.

[FunnyFace]

Urgh Wk4 I was stuck on that for a few weeks took me ages to get to Wk5. Good Luck!

[Hidden]

Definitely struggled with week 4! I finished it on Thursday morning and am yet to start week 5 (been very busy, but did go to the gym on Saturday morning with my ma, and ran for 8 minutes straight!!)

I'm thinking it's very tempting to re-run week 4, but if I can manage 5 minutes, I reckon I can do week 5 run 1.

I broke up the 5 minute runs on my first attempt at week 4, but still considered it to count as one of my three runs. Just try and push through it. It killed me, but the pride is so worth it!

[GoogleMe Graduate]

I did the programme with just one earphone in so I could still listen to the birdsong and it didn't feel like 'exercise'. I guess that won't work for anyone with impaired hearing in one ear (which is a fair number)

I do think if you don't use the podcast, the tendency is to start 'negotiating' (I've certainly found this since graduating)

[RhonaL]

If this helps you to get to the five minutes great! I use bone conduction headphones so I can hear my surroundings and Laura. A bit of an investment but well worth it.