bethperry

Try changing your stride for a few steps - or breathing very deeply once or twice. Plan your play list to have the most motivational music right at that point where you want to quit. And like the person above, I lie to myself. "I'm not going to run 5 minutes (or 8 or 10 or 20 or 28!). I'm just going to run. I like to run so I'm just going to run." When it gets tough, I say, "I'm just running. It's not that deep. Just running. I can do a little more."

I'm glad you stopped so quickly and went to the doctor right away - my husband tried to "run through" the pain and ended up with weeks of barely being able to walk at all from a torn meniscus. Like you, I started slow. My goal in the spring of 2013 was only to run Week One and Two throughout the whole summer! I actually got through Week Four by fall, even when I probably could have pushed myself much faster. Now I just have to do Week 8, Day 3 and I've completed the program!

I just finished week 7 of C25K and I don't have any plans at this point to go on for a 10K. I don't know if I'll ever even run a 5K but I just want to know that I can do it. So I'm looking at week 8 and hoping to accomplish it this week, or at least sometime before I turn 61 - 10 days from now! And I'm wondering how I should progress after that. For example, I felt pretty comfortable at 1.5-2 miles so would it be good for me to settle at that and try to run every day rather than 3 times a week? Or would it be better for me keep to 3 times a week and try to build up my speed? Or should I just keep doing the 3 miles 3 times a week until I feel that is comfortable and not a stretch? I should probably say it has taken me more than a year to get this far through the app - I've done it slowly and only ran a few times over the winter so I basically started over again this spring. Also, my doctor says I have the blood pressure of a 20 year old; I have not had any muscle pain through the entire process and only minimal occasional joint discomfort that passes quickly. However, I also don't want to push myself into something that becomes unhealthy. Thanks for any suggestions anyone has!

I just finished Week 7 and am staring at that last week with trepidation. Fortunately, it is raining this morning and I'm saved from the decision for another day... Anyway, I did do week 6 and 7 several times and I stopped in the middle of the 20+ minute runs a time or two. But actually I found that it was more difficult to get back into the rhythm than it was to push myself to keep going. A couple "tricks" I've used: I plan my run to reach the halfway point at a location where the scenery is really good and I've got a bit of downhill to give me motivation for the return trip! Another is that I plan my playlist so the most motivational music helps my brain kick in right then. (Emeli Sande's Lifetime reminds me I'm doing this because I want to "last a lifetime" and Imagine Dragon's The River reminds me to "reach, it's not as hard as it seems.") And finally I switch up my stride for even a few steps and deepen my breathing for even a little bit and that helps get me over the hump!

I had similar experiences in various weeks and I had to remember that I wasn't supposed to go into the new weeks perfectly able to do them. If you do five of the six runs, you are still running longer stretches of time, which is improvement. Maybe rather than repeating week one, you could move on to week two and then repeat it until you find you can do all 6? (And of course, have you seen a doctor?)