Loungers on the run: Couch to 5k to marathon and beyond

lemon_sherbert

Well done everybody who completed their first races! Very impressive! I had my second c25k run today, went fine, though still a little worried about my foot, fingers crossed it's just me obsessing and not a reoccurring injury.

eviltwin

jw30 wrote: »

Thinking about entering my first 5k. Wondering wheres the best place to look to find where there'd be a 5k on in January? Living in Carlow & would like to not have to travel too far if possible.

Well done!! Entering is the hard part, once you do that you're sailing.

I use runningcalender.eu and run Ireland, between the both you'll find every event going. Best of luck!

FouxDaFaFa

It was w5d3 for me yesterday, the dreaded 20 minute run.

I set a timer on my phone for 20mins, headed off and was going grand. About 13mins in or so (I thought) I took out my phone to check how long was left and accidentally reset the timer without seeing how long had passed.

Fail.

I did another 7 minutes but have no idea if I actually ran the 20 minutes or not.

I'll try again tomorrow!

DM addict

I am on week four of Cto5k. Doing ok so far, I think.

Tempted to sign up for the Aware 5k in the park - that would be at the end of my week 7, so I should be running for 20mins anyway.
Sound feasible or completely unreasonable?

Pembily

DM addict wrote: »

I am on week four of Cto5k. Doing ok so far, I think.

Tempted to sign up for the Aware 5k in the park - that would be at the end of my week 7, so I should be running for 20mins anyway.
Sound feasible or completely unreasonable?

I did my first 5km at week 7 last year. It's great to have a goal and even if you've to walk a bit it's a great achievement.

DM addict

I think I am going to do it. Week 5 seems to have a lot of big jumps in it, but I'd like to have a run to do before Christmas, and it's a cause I am all in favour of.

*Goes to sign up*

FouxDaFaFa

FouxDaFaFa wrote: »

It was w5d3 for me yesterday, the dreaded 20 minute run.

I set a timer on my phone for 20mins, headed off and was going grand. About 13mins in or so (I thought) I took out my phone to check how long was left and accidentally reset the timer without seeing how long had passed.

Fail.

I did another 7 minutes but have no idea if I actually ran the 20 minutes or not.

I'll try again tomorrow!

I did it! In your face, technology.

lemon_sherbert

Well done FouxDaFaFa! Finishing Week 5 is such a great achievement

I've made it through the first two weeks, hopefully I'll be not too far behind you!

FouxDaFaFa

lemon_sherbert wrote: »

Well done FouxDaFaFa! Finishing Week 5 is such a great achievement

I've made it through the first two weeks, hopefully I'll be not too far behind you!

*looks off into distance*

I am but one woman...:pac:

You'll be fine. It's a scary mental jump but in terms of actual time spent running, it's not that big a jump from day 2 to day 3.

Here's hoping I haven't become to reliant on the intervals and keep increasing the time.

lemon_sherbert

Well I've made it through Week 3, happy days. My memories of Week 4 from last time around are not good, but here's hoping that this time it will be different!

DM addict

Best of luck - just managed the first run of week 6 yesterday, not looking forward to these big 25mins runs in week 7 though!

lemon_sherbert

Week 5 completed today, delighted - really feel like a proper runner when you ditch the intervals! (Albeit a very very slow runner, but a runner nonetheless )
How goes everyone's running?

Pembily

Well done Lemon. I've been going about once a week and doing 5km in 35min. I'm a slow runner too, we're out there running at least

eviltwin

I'm terrible, haven't done any running at all over the past two weeks. No real reason, just lazy. I'm going to go out on St Stephens Day and try and get back into the groove. Last year I did nothing all December and really felt it in Jan.

FouxDaFaFa

I've been out for a while now with shin splints. (It was going so well!)

Trying to build it up again gently.

coffee_cake

I broke my toes or something so I haven't been able to run for a month now, tried last week and that didn't work out
Getting them fixed up though so fingers crossed it won't be too long, I really miss it!

FouxDaFaFa

bluewolf wrote: »

I broke my toes or something so I haven't been able to run for a month now, tried last week and that didn't work out
Getting them fixed up though so fingers crossed it won't be too long, I really miss it!

:pac:

I'm sorry, you just sound so nonchalant.

I hope you recover quickly.

coffee_cake

Ah it's grand like one is an old problem and the other is a month ago so it's fine mostly except when I run
It's fun to freak people out with it though. Look at my deformed knobbly toe! LOOK AT IT

lol

Pembily wrote: »

Well done Lemon. I've been going about once a week and doing 5km in 35min. I'm a slow runner too, we're out there running at least

Still faster than me

Well done on the progress everyone !!

lemon_sherbert

Finished Week 8 today, delighted, a little over 4km, so really looking forward to hitting the 5k mark!
I was thinking of doing one of the parkruns maybe towards the end of January - has anyone here tried it before? Just wondering if I'd be completely out of place as a real novice.
Hope the new year's running is going well everyone!

rainbow kirby

Parkrun is great for novices - all standards welcome, and it's free. Well worth a go if you have one near you.

lemon_sherbert

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Parkrun is great for novices - all standards welcome, and it's free. Well worth a go if you have one near you.

Thanks, that's great to hear. There's one not too far from me, and it being free was the main attraction - I must make myself do it so

leahyl

I did the cork ladies mini marathon in September and I haven't been out running since! :-P so one of my many New Years resolutions is to get back into the running and be as fit as a fiddle by the end of the year cos I'm soooo not at the moment!

Fair play to everyone on here who kept up the running all through Christmas!

MissFlitworth

Right. I have started and not finished this twice now (and last time didn't get past day one week one, that's some dedication for ya!). Need to get a level of fitness back and my previous regime of walking the little fat legs off myself over many kilometres 7 days a week isn't possible at the moment because I don't have the time.

So, first day over and apart from nearly hacking up a lung and needing an a*se and stomach bra it wasn't too awful. Here we go Next speed waddle scheduled for Tuesday evening.

Semele

Day one, week one down! Not too painful either. Of course, am now undoing it with a bottle of vino and the remains of the Christmas Celebrations dipped in Nutella.

I hate running, always have. Every now and again I run a bit, usually when pissed, and feel wonderfully free and light for the five seconds it takes for the lung burn to kick in. However, I did a 40 mile charity walk with workmates last spring, am planning to do the same again this year and would like to be a bit fitter for it. It took us 15 hours last time and there was a big difference between the runners and non-runners among us, endurance wise! Intending to do day two on Monday after work...

IvyTheTerrible

I got an Amazon voucher for Christmas and was thinking about buying a GPS running watch of some sort. Do you lot have any experience of them, and what would you recommend?

Dortilolma

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I got an Amazon voucher for Christmas and was thinking about buying a GPS running watch of some sort. Do you lot have any experience of them, and what would you recommend?

I got a Heart Rate Monitor for Christmas and am loving it. It's not quite the same but I normally use an app on my phone to track GPS. The HRM is great for tracking calories and fat loss. I'm going to start using it for training regimes too as I really need to start pushing myself harder.

Pawwed Rig

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I got an Amazon voucher for Christmas and was thinking about buying a GPS running watch of some sort. Do you lot have any experience of them, and what would you recommend?

I got a Garmin Forerunner 10 as a Christmas present. I have only used it twice (to my shame) but have found the information it provides helpful. It gives you the total time, breaks down your times by kilometre, calculates the average speed and calculates calorie usage.
It is handy for setting your distance where you haven't measured in that you can just start running and you know exactly how far you have gotten.
There are also programmes you can use for walking/running but I can run the whole distance so haven't used them.
The website is handy as you can upload your runs and get a map of where you were. You can also store all previous runs and data to see how you are progressing.

Here is the one I got
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Forerunner-GPS-Running-Watch/dp/B00996VQD6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389005669&sr=8-1&keywords=garmin+gps+10

Pawwed Rig

lemon_sherbert wrote: »

I was thinking of doing one of the parkruns maybe towards the end of January - has anyone here tried it before? Just wondering if I'd be completely out of place as a real novice.

The parkruns are great and you would be more than welcome as a novice. They cater for all fitness levels and are a really good motivator as they post your name and time every week (only if you want them to) so you can track your progress.
There are some serious runners that do it in riduculous times but most of the people there are recreational like yourself and myself just doing it to get a bit fit.
Really good atmosphere at them.
Check the website and you will that all standards are represented.

vitani

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

I got a Garmin Forerunner 10 as a Christmas present.

That's what I've been using for the past year. It's perfect for me, tbh. It's a little more basic than some of the other watches out there, but it has everything I need.

DM addict

Not going to lie, got a little bit out of the old running habit over xmas - managed a run on 26th but apart from that have been pretty self indulgent (read 'lazy')

Going to hopefully get myself back on track this week - I should be moving onto week nine of Cto5k - fingers crossed for that 30min run!

Did anyone manage to keep up good habits over the festive period?