20 minutes!!! Oh lord help me!

[TheDogAteMyName]

Hilarious! The neighbors coming home cracked me up. Good on you girl!

[NeilHughes1]

Excellent story and really chuffed you made it

Thanks for the tips Ian, I will let you know how I get on.

[Gareth111278]

I'm up for my 20 mins tomorrow, seams like such a massive jump, got to think about pace & concentrate more.

I did 2x8mins OK , it was hard in the last 4 mins but its slight up hill for me at that time , I'll do a different route so at 15 mins I'm on the flat & see if that helps.

How often do you get up-dates from Claire [?] on the 20 mins, I get the feeling she's abandoned me on the 8 mins runs!!

[Pushingit]

Well done - cracking that first 20mins is scary - it does seem like a huge jump and isn't it amazing how you think you'll breeze through the next run because you've done 20mins and suddenly find it's not a breeze! I still get butterflies in my stomach before every run and I'm only getting up on the treadmill in the spare room, it's not as if anyone can see me

I find music is a great help, I keep my most upbeat "rocky type theme" songs for the end of the playlist when I know I'll be flagging and instead of counting minutes - I count songs - 30 min jog = 10 songs roughly - it's much easier count down from 10 than 30 and I have the music up really loud (apologies to me eardrums) so that it drowns out the sound of my feet pounding and it kind of isolates my legs from my brain if you know what I mean.

Try not to look ahead - progression anxiety is terrible - take each run minute by minute, tell yourself you'll do the first 5 and see how you go and then you might as well do the next 5 and before you know it you'll be on the last 5

Keep going - it's well worth it and get the "run fat b-itch run" book - it's really great - she really tells it like it is

[NeilHughes1]

This week was one of those weeks that throws you out of your new routine. Saturday was a family meal with drinks for my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary, Sunday was my friends wedding with enough food to rival Man vs food and today my colleague brought in 5 trays of cream cakes that must be eaten today of course.

All the more reason to tackle the now infamous Week 5 run 3 twenty minutes without stopping

I started ok but felt myself flagging after only 8 minutes, maybe it was because Claire had disappeared
for awhile leaving me to fend for myself. However after reading advice on here, I remembered the magic words "Throttle" I simply adjusted my pace and with a little help from AC/DC singing Highway To Hell and Thunderstruck I suddenly felt that I was in control.

A few weeks ago I couldn't run for 1 minute without gasping for breath and having stiff legs,so this is a massive day for me and so happy

If you are dreading this run, my best advice would be slow your pace, get yourself some good tunes and a a strong mindset. Go for it gang

[Gareth111278]

I did it, no where near as bad as I thought TBH!
I only covered about 3K but it was quite nice really, I had 3 tiny stops, two to open the level crossing gates & one when Fleetwood Mac. deserted me after only 4 minutes running, note to self :- Make play lists!
i MUST get a better holder for the phone, my arm band is good but making adjustments 'on the fly' is impossible.
I ran 'out & back', I know 'out' is down hill so I went carefully to allow more energy to come 'back', what i failed to factor in was the wind! It was in my face comming home

I made it though, i'm pleased, running 5K now looks like a serious reality.

My plan is to be doing 5K in 30 mins when we go to my parents on the lovely channel island of Alderney in June, the thought of doing 5K there with the fantastic coastal veiws before breakfast in my parents garden is driving me on hard!

[NeilHughes1]

5k in 30 minutes is my target too buddy, it will be a massive achievement for a fat boy like me to achieve
Has anyone read the book An Accidental Athlete? I have just been reading about it and tempted to give it a read but wondered if anyone has already read it before I buy

http://www.amazon.com/An-Accidental-Ath ... 1934030732

[Gareth111278]

Hi Neil.
No, i've not read that book but I can see how it can creep up on you! After my run I had my tea then I felt really fat!! the sun was lovely so I took the dog for a walk, ended up doing over 4 miles!!
I'll go & see if its on audio book or kindle now,

I've lost over 1.5 stone & is amazing how much more energy I have & how I don't get out of breath with walking up hill now, I'm still a big lad [15.10 stone & BMI of 29.8] but its working!

Keep stogging away, it gets easier!

BTW, i use this site to work out my distances

http://www.goodrunguide.co.uk/RoutePlanner.asp

[NeilHughes1]

Thanks Gareth I will check it out

[Mandy123]

That run scares the crap outof me!!!!