I was going to wait until my next run to blog - it will be the graduate run, unbelievably - but I just had a revelation.
If you're like me the first 5 minutes or so of each run I'm really struggling to get my breathing under control. I think I start off in a state of semi-panic, worrying that I won't be able to do it "this time", half-convinced that I'm never going to be able to breathe easily again. It's been a real bug-bear throughout the 9 weeks.
Today I started off by doing the 5 minute warm up walk and this time I really pushed it to the "briskly" level. I think I've been sauntering along a bit too much so far! I went as far as to try to get a bit breathless and then to do the controlled in-out breathing, even counting to four at times! By the time I got to the end of the walk I was a bit puffed, so I paused Laura for a few seconds (sorry, Laura) but when I set off on the run - miracle - no problem with the breathing!
I don't know if it was a one off thing but I'm going to try and be a bit more serious about the warm up in the future. I hope this helps others because those first 5 minutes running have been pretty grim. Good luck everybody.