No, I can’t quite believe it either and now, on the eve of W4R2 (Week 4 run 2 Couch to 5K) https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/couch-to-5k-week-by-week/ I am running for five minutes at a time. Who would have thought it?
Yes, I have completed run 1 for Week 4 but it was hard. There is an online community of Cto5kers AND there is a sub group for the over 60 Cto5kers. https://healthunlocked.com/couchto5k/posts/ I have learnt from them that it can be done and that they too were full of self-doubt and even ‘scared’ at the sprospect of running for five full minutes. It doesn’t sound very long but my legs and lungs think otherwise but it really is mind over matter. I have found someone in this group, who is a lot like me but just one week ahead of me on the Cto5K. I am in awe of ‘RunForest’ as he/she is known.
I have mapped out all the runs in my diary, juggling run days with grandparenting duties and other commitments. There can be no excuse, I will do this. I make sure there is a day between each run day, as very strongly recommended by the running community.
My running is, I think, very slow and I will probably need to pick up the pace a bit in order to complete 5K. But that is not my only goal. I want to be fit (and it would be nice if a byproduct of that was the loss of some weight) and be healthy and I want to be able to run 5K with my daughter (who has run half-marathons) and my eight year old granddaughter. Wouldn’t that be something?
I am sure my legs can do it, I am sure my lungs can cope – it’s my brain that finds it difficult, my mindset. I am, as my mother would have said ‘my own worst enemy’. I could easily sabotage myself, I know that. I am wondering if there are some tips of a psychological nature that might provide the key to this, if there are then please let me know what they are.
It isn’t an effort to get up and put my trainers on and go out and do this – well, I have done it twelve times already and clearly there is an improvement: Week 1 was one-minute runs and now it’s five-minute runs, so there must be. I suppose I am looking for some physical evidence that will convince me that this is all worthwhile.
I do get to see the early mornings that this wonderful summer is providing for us and the countryside where I live.
Keep on running then yeah?