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I am so chuffed that I've done this first run of week 4. I love this app and actually look forward to each run now! I struggled like mad for the first week but now I can actually feel my body preparing for cranking up the gears each week. Have some calf pain but doing daily stretches helps (any other ideas would be good to stop pain as it's only this and not the puff that stop me from picking up the pace). Cheers, Jules

As well as stretches, have ago at massaging the muscles. Obviously, it's lovely if you can get someone else to do that for you, but you can give your own calf muscles a really good massage pretty easily and it will help recovery no end.

One approach I use is to turn a chair so that it is laying on it's back. I then lie on my back so that my legs are drooped over the chair, and one of my calfs is resting on a chair leg. You can then run your leg forward and backward and the pressure of the chair's leg on your calf muscle will give it a good massage. Rotate the leg a bit so that you get the thinner sides of the muscle as well as the fleshy bulk at the back.

Sounds pretty crazy? It does work though, and definitely speeds healing. You can actually buy something called "the stick" that will do this. It's basically a rolling pin for your muscles!

Happy running,
Benjohn

I have just completed week 4 run 1 and I have to say I found it the toughest yet. But I am determined to push through to the end, I have tended to quit things in the past when they've got tough but I'm really pleased with myself for getting this far. One thing I am struggling with at the moment is tendon pain in my right foot, but I hope stretching will prevent this from becoming any worse and preventing me from continuing.
Good luck with the rest of this fantastic programme.

how'd you find week 3? I've done 2 out of the 3 runs for it, and they seem pretty tough which is a shame. The longer runs are getting me, and then from here onwards they seem to just get longer and longer!

At first I found week 3 difficult as the 3 minute runs seemed such a leap, but I figured then that the key is not to think about the times too much or how long you have to run just go for it. Otherwise I think it's as much in the mind as it is in the body, so positive thinking and you will get through it and see that the programme getting tougher each week is a good thing you can look back and see how far you have come and look forward to the challenge a head, even if you have to repeat a week to get there, thats how I'm trying to see it, especially as I'm finding it tough at the moment. Well done for getting to week 3 though, thats an achievement in itself.