Haven't run for weeks! How do I get back on it?

[179monmou]

Life got very busy and stopped me at the start of week nine end of October. How is the best way to get back on track? Do I just carry on where I stopped? Or should I backtrack to week six or seven?

[BigEd]

Hi mon, its a matter of how you feel with your fitness and confidence. Personally i wouldn't backtrack too far. Try W8 again and just see how you feel, if its too tough try W7. I haven't yet got anywhere close to that, (W3), so i do not know how tough it is. However nothing ventured.... Good luck, Ed

[179monmou]

Cheers ed! Might try wk 8 then. I'm dreading it - it's so cold out there!

[BigEd]

Yes we have freezing fog here, not good for running in. I would leave it until it warms up just a little, maybe a balmy 2 or 3 deg would be nice

[179monmou]

I have the benefit of driving a very old defender with no temp readout so am blissfully unaware of temperatures, I fear I would never get out of bed if I knew how cold it really was! Have just ordered a new running fleece jacket thingy and one for the dog too. Hopefully that will be inspiration enough to get back out there! Have you run in icy / snowy conditions yet?

[BigEd]

Excellent, unfortunately my Merc does tell me the temp, blasted thing. Icy yes, not snowy, we haven't had any in Cambs since i started running. When its very cold my asthma plays up so i try to avoid it. If its just chilly its no problem though.

[Vivwestie Graduate]

Hey 179monmou. You were so close. I know it can be hard running in the cold but you get warmed up very quickly! What Ed suggests sounds like a good plan. You might surprise yourself and find that you haven't lost too much ground in the past six weeks. Why not aim to give yourself a christmas present of shiny green graduation badge! PLUS, if you can finish the C25K in the cold weather you'll know that you can run in any weather and it'll seem like a real bonus when spring comes!

[lydiap]

Hi, just thought I'd share my experience with not running for a while, can I start my saying its not really running, I kinda of jog/wobble/move!! I was doing really well in the summer, got to week 5 run3 and used my own music for this run after that I couldn't go back to Laura counting down, I got so discouraged I felt I'd done 5 mins but only done 2.5, even though I felt ok, mentally I thought I'll walk now because I will be tired, so I switched to my own music and just built up to running 25mins, that is enough for me knowing I can go out and run down the seafront and back and get out and get some fresh air. However in Oct/Nov things changed, the weather child care and the icy cold hurt my throat and lungs and it was about 6 weeks before I put my runningshoes on again, I did my 5 min warm up and just went, if I felt I needed to walk for a few seconds I did, I just did one of my normal blocks and you know I fell right back into it, its been about 2 weeks since that run and I don't know if to go today, its -4 out there still and I'm worried about slipping but I really want to go. If you had told me 6 months ago I would be desperate to get out I'd have laughed at you, I couldn't run up the stairs without getting out of breath!!! My advise is just go, see what you can do and how you feel, don't push it but make sure you warm up properly!!

[BigEd]

Excellent advice Lydiap!

[B1ddy Graduate]

Hiya,

Glad you asked this, as I am in the same predicament. Have been busy with one thing and another and not kept up running. Which means on the odd occasion I have running the 30 mins has been harder. I plan on back tracking a couple of weeks and working up again!

Good luck

[Ifatfirst Graduate]

Sometimes when I hadn't run for a bit I went back to the early week 6 runs and was surprised that I could manage them easily and that encouraged me to go back to a period of continuous running the next time.