Quick post to say “hi”, as, after a rather lengthy stint on the Injury-and-COVID-Couch, I’m finally training up again to 5k. The last time I did this journey was almost two years ago!
Then I trained up with the NHS app, and after a lengthy consolidation, in which I also picked up a daily Strength and Flexibility practice, I went on to do the magic plan up to 10k. Not being able to run while on the injury couch, I picked up indoor rowing as a habit along the way!
I love my new active self, I’m still overweight and post-menopausally aging, but I’m fit and constantly on the up! That is one of the ways that running has rewarded me!
A year into my running, I wrote two posts on how running and S&F has changed me, so I’ll just put the link here as it might just help the one or the other person to get out there, on that particular morning where gremlins are out-and-about pushing all us potential runners back into our comfy beds:
- My first year as a runner (10/04/2021): healthunlocked.com/couchto5...
- How Strength & Flex has changed me (03/07/2021): healthunlocked.com/strength....
By the way, my trick for those Sunday-bed-gremlins has been to allow myself to go back to bed after a morning run and shower. It works for me 😂🛌 and I enjoy drinking my first cuppa and reading a book in bed even more after having been out there!
So this morning was Week 1 Run 2, but slightly different than last I did the C25k. To mix it up a bit this time around, I had chosen to do the Zombies,Run version of Couch25k.
For anyone who hasn’t come across it yet, Zombies,Run is a running and tracker app, similar to Couch25k NHS App, but rather within an imagined universe where a pandemic has created a world full of runners, townships trying to survive, and a whole world to explore while meeting challenges of this virus.
Ok, so it hit quite close to home during Covid-19, but a big difference between our worlds is that Zombies,Run has … yes, as the name would suggest …. Zombies chasing you, making sure you know when to run and when to walk in order to recover. It is good fun, and I used it to keep me entertained through many a run.
Wikipedia Info about Zombies,Run is here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zom...!
So this morning, I got out there in glorious sunshine, quite early although disappointingly late when looking at the daylight-savings-time changed clocks.
So here I was running from zombies, as my second run in week one in this couch to 5K journey.
But there were not just zombies out and about. A group of Cub Scouts in real life were also right behind me, having turned into my path a few meters back from where I had come! So besides the moaning of zombies in my ear, I now also heard the scary sound of approaching laughter and giggling ca 50m back, which meant I made it up the hill faster than I had planned! The turn-off to a path that those cub scouts were unlikely to take was just at the top of the hill!
So memories of my first run two years ago flooded me, how much I feared anyone seeing my slow, shuffling jog of a run. It’s not quite like that anymore; my running takes precedence over my concern of others seeing me running.
But I still was somewhat self-conscious, fearing the image of my slow-motion running form being overtaken by 30 giggling 7-year-olds! So I managed to outrun them, as well as the Zoombs, although I was panting heavily by the time I got to the top of the hill.
With that hill, it’s not an ideal route for starting Couch to 5K. Still, it is a private route through fields and woods, up a hill and down past fields and farms, alongside a lovely meandering stream, passing a fishing lake, and then through a winding footpath lined with willows, brambles, and wild roses back to the field road leading me back to the village where I live.
And the distance is also perfect for a 30 min run. So I’ll take that hill or two, and I’ll take the panting as a consequence, knowing that once I am in the consolidation phase, I will appreciate being able to add hill sprints to the mix of runs.
But yeah, those chases and sprints (and walking sections) up a hill took it out on me!
Back home, shoes off, got two glasses of thinned squash, up to the bedroom where I set my Stretch-App to talk me through 12 minutes of post-run stretches, and then shower.
A lovely way to start a Sunday morning.
Happy running, everyone!
C25k revisited…W1r1
Same wood, different route
C25K and my progression
Finally! Started my C25K today.
