Any other graduates watching their progress slide back in horror?

[carcassonne]

Hi all

After I graduated, I signed myself up for a 10k almost immediately to keep the motivation. That 10k was on the 8th of July (The British 10k in London), and I did it with a friend, both running for CRUK. We raised over £500 and I ran it in 1hr2min which I was *really* happy about (she did it in 51 min, that's beside the point!) Since then I thought that my aim would be to keep running somewhere between 5 and 10k three times a week - perhaps a nice range of 5, 7.5 and 10. That was the plan.

Since then my motivation appears to have tanked! Without a goal in mind I find it much easier to quit, something I never did before. My runs have dropped from 7.5...to 5... to just now at 2.5k! I feel really dispirited. On this last run, all of 5 minutes ago, I could blame the heat or the fact that I was running a bit too fast, but I've managed both heat running and learned to cope with fast running (ie realize I'm going too fast so slow down) before.

Any other graduates had this problem? Any advice gratefully appreciated. This has ruined this lovely sunny evening for me... how can I feel sucg like a failure after successfully doing both C25K and a 10k race?!

[totalbeginner Graduate]

havent graduated yet so cant give advice as such but i think its possibly the heat, and maybe the lack of challenge? do you run on the same/similar route? maybe try going somewhere different to usual and thinking bout the time again (30-40 min) rather than the distance?

good on you doing 10k so quick! im due to start w9 this week (put off going tonight as busy at work and soooooo hot, im going to do the run tomorrow morning early. I couldnt imagine doing 10k....ever!

good luck

[Tiger79 Graduate]

I'm still running at around 5k but I have a good friend who has just done a half marathon. He tends to get dropped off somewhere a certain distance from home, and then run home. Think it helps that if he didn't run it, he'd have to walk it so it needs to keep his motivation up. And maybe sign up for another 10k race or do some park runs??

[Tiger79 Graduate]

Or if you have a sweatshop near you, they do running communities on line and have weekly runs varying between stores as to distance etc. might be worth it and they give away free stuff too!

[Hidden]

You are not the only one - remove all the 10k brilliance and you could be describing me. I was focused on doing the 5k faster and faster and got bored with just doing the same run so I tried to do the Week 1 runs as jog/run but then I let work and weather get in the way and yesterday I failed to run for my full 5k - I just stopped and walked for a few minutes. I know just want you mean about it then wrecking the day.

Yesterday I gave myself a big talking to and went on jog.fm and found a load of tracks at the right bpm to help me to my next time target. I then bought the first 10 tracks suggested so I've got a totally random playlist for next time. I'm hoping that'll rekindle the running love.

Otherwise, I'm holding out for the new podcasts as for me it seems to be about seeing that I'm making progress and getting better. I can't do the 'same old' all the time so it's up to me to ring the changes. Parkruns have helped and I'm going to be brave and go to a Sweatshop Monday community run.

You've done amazingly and should be really proud of yourself. Now sit down and work out your new targets and don't beat yourself up. Focus on all you have achieved - this is just a new transition period. Good luck. x

[carcassonne Graduate]

Thanks everyone so much for your support! I definitely think that the general advice is: too much of the same thing, so I'm going to mix it up and just run for 30-40 minutes from home, without getting too fixated on distance (my normal route is a perfect 1.5km loop round a local park hence why I got very km counting!) Found and visited my local Sweatshop today, Tiger79 and amazeditworks - unfortunately they run my standard route every week... haha, never mind. Might still do it to run with a group, something I haven't done before.

Thanks very much for everyone's support. Also, I gotta say, if you guys can do the c25k you can totally run 10k, it's just like Laura says... all in your head

Thanks so much again, great community xxx