W5 - Nearly but not quite...

[deekay64]

I'm annoyed with myself.... R1 was tough but I did it, R2 was a lot easier than I expected (I expected to fail..) and I felt well prepared to give that 20 mins my best shot

It's freezing, snowing intermittently and blowing a gale as usual but at least not raining like it did all day yesterday

I couldn't decide on a route as 20 mins is tiring and there is very little flat ground around here then at the last minute I decided to do one of my favourite dog walks in reverse.

At the ten minute mark I had hit a long slow uphill slope and thought thats OK, I feel good but then the sinking feeling that actually it's uphill now pretty much all the way back. Laura had just announced the 15 minutes when I had to give up

I walked the rest of the way up hill to the local park then, as it's flat(ish) and I felt recovered though disheartened but I ran home, and I mean ran. None of this light jog business... Probably half a mile. So I've had a good work out. And I ran for 15 minutes some of it up a long slope

Just annoyed I sabotaged it as on the flat I know I'd have done it.

Planning a route now for Tuesday night

[con-brio Graduate]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but according to the plan, the longest you've run before is 8 minutes (W5R2). So be proud of yourself: 15 minutes (and uphill in rotten weather) is a marvellous achievement. Don't be hard on yourself! Plus you ran home hard...

Tuesday will be the day, I'm sure.

I'll be doing W5R2 Tuesday and then W5R3 later this week... I'll plan ahead as it's hilly here too.

[Poppy2010 Graduate]

Well done for getting out there and giving it a good go - then doing more with your run home! I often start off thinking I'll go one way then change my mind on the way and add in bits or take a different turn... and hills are a challenge to be beaten!

I added one into a run on week 7 or 8 when I felt I was going really slowly and having a bad run; I couldn't make it to the top for the first few times but got further up until I mastered it... and the day I added it?On finishing Imap showed me I wasn't going slower than normal at all!!!

Enjoy your challenges ahead, happy running!

[deekay64 Graduate]

Thanks for the enouragement - oh yes I'm over the moon with 15 minutes and I felt comfortable at 10 minutes, very slow but barely out of breath. I only came back to running last summer and I couldn't get to the end of the street never mind over a mile. I track through Endomondo as I have friends who use it too and today both mile markers (even the when I'd given up) were faster than anything I'd done recently. I took the advice on slowing down anyway and think that's how I've come so far. Good luck con-brio with the other runs this week. Tuesday I'll beat it

[Katkin]

15 minutes of running is brilliant if you think about when you first started, and how horrible those first 60 seconds were. Be proud of yourself!

[greenlegs Graduate]

Congratulations on what sounds like a brilliant run deekay. The whole point of the programme is to build fitness gradually, and you can clearly see that you're doing that. If it had been flat all the way (which is what most people probably do for 'that' run) you'd have been fine.

Maybe you could run backwards and forward for the first bit, to avoid running up the hill? Though if you just shorten your steps, you'll probably find you can get up the hill anyway - there's no need to run hills at the same pace as the flat. Enjoy it anyway. Well done!

[deekay64 Graduate]

Ah nuts greenlegs - makes me wish I'd had a go now ha ha no it wasn't a hill as such, there were a couple of short steep little inclines I'd got up around the 10 minute mark; where I gave up was a long slow uphill drag of about half a mile. I went as far as I could and was barely moving when I gave up. My calves were screaming... I think I must live in a bit of a dip here as which ever way I leave I soon hit an incline. 4 times round the park would be 20 mins I calculate but Tuesday's run will be dusk at best, probably dark, so the park is out. Hmmm wonder if I can get a half day holiday Tuesday lol

[greenlegs Graduate in reply to deekay64]

Anything that isn't flat is a hill. Definitely! At least until you graduate, anyway. Long slow inclines are killers!