I'm Neil from Manchester. I’ve finished the program now and have been running for about a week for 30 minutes. I've been doing this to try and lose weight really, and I’ve done OK so far, I've lost about 2 stone (still need to lose about 3
comes off far too slowly).
So a bit of history if you’ll permit me to drone on. I've always liked the idea of running but whenever I've tried these couch to 5K programs in the past I've always given up; I just found the discipline too much, I either couldn't stick rigidly to the timing or I'd stop too early and keep walking for too long. If I'm brutally honest this has been going on for years now and I've never managed to properly integrate regular exercise into my life, I turned 34 in April and pretty much decided to start dieting to get my weight down to something approaching reasonable or face the consequences in later life. At first I lost a lot because you always do when you venture on a diet, but I knew if I was going to do this properly I'd have to exercise AS WELL as eating healthily (strange concept for me). I had a look on the App Store and found the Get Running app, after I read some of the reviews thought I'd give it a try. I'm SO glad I did. At first I could barely manage it, Week 1 looked impossible, after my first run every muscle in my body throbbed and ached, my lower back felt like it would never be quite the same again and good heavens the day after I was so stiff I had trouble lifting a cup of tea without trembling! I had the air of man diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, but I thought hang on it's not going to kill you keep doing it, and don't stop, listen to the nice lady on the iPod and do what she says
and don't stop; that was very important to me, just keep going no matter how much you're telling yourself to stop and sit down. If you start cheating you’re only cheating yourself, if it’s too hard just slow down, even if people are overtaking you at the speed of a brisk stroll, I’ve been overtaken by elderly men with walking sticks before, don’t stop, keep going!
So the program itself? I had a couple of bad experiences of course, stitches, shin splints have been common, after I'd finished on one occasion my legs were so bad I gingerly treaded back home like John Wayne on egg shells. I think Week 5 also has that sudden 20 minute run with no stopping? When I saw that I thought there must be a problem with the app, how can it say run for 20 minutes solid? I had a look on this forum and found out it was part of the program which was a bit of a shock, I felt really nervous all week thinking about having to do the 20 minuter on Saturday, but when the day came I just paced myself and finished it, I must say I even had a little sprint at the end as well, to add insult to injury! I won't forget that moment, the sense of achievement for me was amazing, I’m still baffled now considering I'd never been able to run for longer than about 2 minutes, to think now I can run for 30 minutes? It beggars belief.
I'm not sure where to go after this, all I've ever wanted to achieve is to be able to run without stopping. Without Get Running I know I'd not have kept up the program so I have to thank you for creating it
now I've got regular exercise as a part of my life, health permitting of course I've got some tools in place to help me build on it. Thanks for reading this and I hope if you’re in the middle of the program and think you won’t be able to manage let me say genuinely it if I can do it .... anyone can.
