argh....failed w6 r3....gutted

[tombraider]

did wk r2 on sunday its the first run i've been able to do for nearly 4 weeks because i've had really bad knee pains,[ they seem ok now so thats a big plus ] so i rested them with the hope i could start off from where i finished..........big mistake...went out today to try the 25mins had to stop after 15mins....couldnt get my breath, i still hav my mouth open like a basking shark, and i had a really bad stitch, i was gutted that i couldnt finish it, gonna try again on thurs, is it because i've had that break and my fitness levels hav gone down, was really feeling positive about the whole plan before my knees decided enough is enough, shall i just keep trying to finish wk6 or go further back in the plan, any advice greatly appreciated

[jenniej Graduate]

My advice is to go back to W4 and start from there. 4 weeks is quite a long break esp if you havent been doing any other exercise and given your knee pain. So repeating those 2 weeks will build up your stamina & confidence. Maybe also check out strenghtening exercises for knees - what you need to avoid is trying to do too much too soon and hurting your knees again. Good luck.

[tombraider in reply to jenniej]

thank you for that

[Soozz Graduate]

Poor you, for this to happen when you;re doing so well. If you managed W6R2 you should be ready for W6R3 - and also you've already done that 20 minute run from W5. Hope your knee is properly better. I don't think your fitness levels will have gone down that much, maybe you were going a bit too fast and your breathing went out of pattern - it's happened to me several times and it kind of made me panic and lose the plot. IF your knee if OK and it's not that that's causing the problems, I think you should perhaps do Week 6 again, or even just W6R2 just to build up your confidence and to pace yourself. Not that I'm an expert or anything, I just know that for me going any further back would totally dishearten me. It IS quite a big jump from having to rest your knee for 4 weeks to running continuously for 25 mins, so actually 15 mins straight was really good.

Hope you get on OK whatever you end up doing - I'm sure other more knowledgeable (how DO you spell that???) people will have helpful ideas. All the best, let us know how it goes. Don't beat yourself up about this experience, I think we've all had bad runs at some point.

[tombraider in reply to Soozz]

thank u for that, i didnt want to go back any further than wk6, i will continue with it till i do it, think i just need to get back in the zone hopefully with a few more goes i'll be on here saying i've finally completed it

[Hidden]

I started last October, and I've had a two four week breaks for injury, and two for chest infections. The furthest I've got is W6R1 about three months ago, and I'm about to get there again with my next run tomorrow. I then went through a period of repeating week 3, and then week 4 until I felt confortable with them. I'm now at a stage where I don't need to go back further than W5 after a break. I'm now at a point where I know that I will keep going forwards, and if I have to have a break I know how to get back in the programme.

My point is that I might not have finished the programme yet, but I'm now in a much better place than I was this time last year when running 60 seconds very slowly was very difficult, to a place where I was able to run 60 intervals with my club last night (very hard, still slow compared to the others but I did it, and managed to get faster as we went along).

Keep going. Wind back to W4, which is both challenging and building (I know W4 sounds elementary if you've already got to W6 but it's not). Repeat it until W5 looks doable, but still challenging. You will get to W9, and so will I.