Gotta run!

[Soozz]

For various, mostly annoying reasons, I hadn't run since Monday, and needed to run today. I still feel that if I leave it too long I'll fall off the wagon.

Set out to do Stamina. Hmmm. Listening to Laura explaining the plan for today, I felt decidedly daunted. There was no way I could do this one. I still haven't done the magic 5k and I haven't run for more than 32 minutes ever. But I'd try, and walk the rest.

Once again, the first bit (158 bpm for 10 mins) felt slightly slow and a bit trippy for me, but I soon settled and was 'in the zone', enjoying the cool autumn morning with sunshine and shadows. Every so often there was a flurry of falling leaves scattering raindrops over me, and I saw mushrooms, hips and haws in the hedgerows. [Is this a running blog or a nature walk, I hear you asking].

Then, 'up a notch' (dear Laura) - 20 minutes at 160 bpm. OK, apart from a bit of time dilation where Laura's timekeeping differed from my perception of time passing, not in a good way. Started to feel increasingly tired at 25 minutes, but I decided to keep going until I really couldn't manage another step (a bit like W6R3). Laura said to up the pace to 165 bpm for a final 5 minute burst. Every time I thought "Right, that's me done", Laura would cut in with a comment about form or arm movement (kept thinking of that evil cop from Terminator 2 that I think Mattaitch referred to in his blog) and somehow I KEPT GOING AND DID IT!

I ran 4.77 k, think that's about 2.9 miles, so much nearer to that fabled 5k than ever before.

I will be doing all 3 C25K+ podcasts again as I really like them and have a lot of work to do on them. I also like the encouragement from Laura which I missed in the C25K podcasts from W7 onwards.

No blogs yet from my husband who's doing W4R3 today, but he is enjoying it, losing weight AND has suggested we do a tryout run together on Sunday. Oh - and I've lost 13 lbs since starting C25K exactly 3 months ago today!!!!!

[DeliaItaly Graduate]

Great work Soozz, keep on trucking!

[mattaitch Graduate]

Well done!

I'm planning to have my second go at Stamina this weekend and I will be Terminating

"Run with me if you want to live!"

[swanscot Graduate]

I really enjoyed the Stamina podcast and found the tempo of the music easy to run to. When I say 'easy' I means in terms of sticking to the beat, but it was hard work. I felt like I'd done a good workout afterwards. I'm going to do it again next week and maybe extend it with a 15mins jog before and afterwards/

[pingle Graduate]

Well done Soozz. You're a better woman than me! It took me 3 attempts to finish Stamina. I particuarly did not cherish the bit where Laura says we will finish with an 'invigorating' 5 minute burst - my whole body just went Whaaaaa! I'm not sure I stuck to the beat very well towards the end (something to work towards) but I did feel proud to get through!