Progress

Come on, lets have your stories of where you were when you started and where you are now. You are all inspirational to someone like me who doesn't yet do what you do regular enough. Here is what happened in our house.

My wife said she wanted to get fit in October last year so I downloaded the Get Started schedule for her. She started with the 1 minute jog 90 seconds rest and kept to the schedule religiously. She now has a PB of 28.19 for 5k and 59.29 for 10k. She ran for 2 hours 25 minutes on Tuesday night and did about 12 miles. She has a place in the Great North Run on the 16th which will be her first half marathon. The progress she has made is incredible to me and she wasn't too sure about running in the beginning.  

I'm so proud of her, it makes me want to go out for a run.

About this time last year I restarted running using a C25K app on my phone. It started with run 1 min walk 2 min. Those 1 minutes running I thought I was going to die and seemed to last forever. Last Sunday I ran 10 miles as part of my training for a HM in just over 5 weeks.

Well done to your wife and good luck to her on 16th!

C

C , well done you. That is what I'm talking about when I say inspirational. Starting off and finding it hard but perservering and progressing. I find it amazing how much people improve when they put their minds to it.  Me I run 5 k and enjoy it then don't bother for a week or two. 

Good luck in your Half M. 

great story!

I started November last year could only just about manage 0.5KM and it was hard. In January I hit 5k for the first time and it felt like winning a race. I did that in 37 mins. Two weeks ago I ran my first sub 30mins 5k and the feeling was the same. Each target you hit brings a high.

Right now I am targeting 5 - 10k distances but trying to improve my pace. Would like to get the sub 60 min 10k and maybe go for a HM next year.

I started running around two years ago or thereabouts - at least that's when I discovered the C25k.  Prior to that, I was chugging around my local block and arriving back home needing to crash out on the sofa!  Needless to say, I made zero progress that way.

Then I found the C25k in 'Mens Health' magazine and decided to give it a go.  After a couple of 'false starts', I pushed myself to commit to it.  I had to repeat a week from time to time, but considering where I started, finding myself able to run non stop for 30 minutes was a massive boost to confidence!

I gradually increased my distance, until one day I found that I'd clocked around 15km/9 miles in a single run!  During one or two of those long runs, my knee was trying to tell me something.  I ignored it: BIG MISTAKE!  I went out again one night and after 30 minutes or so, my knee gave a fairly sharp tweak, so I decided to cut it short and go home - limping a bit, so I was fairly sure something was wrong.  To cut a long story short, that resulted in quite a few months enforced break from running, combined with some physiotherapy.  

So, I ended up having to start almost from scratch - running five minutes and then going home.  While my conditioning wasn't too bad, my knee gave me trouble if I went past that.  So, I gradually built up the time and distance again and now I'm running 5k plus again.  My conditioning is returning as well - but it's not quite where it was before the knee niggle - the last five minutes of today's 5.69k were quite a push!  I'm now doing a 5k to 10k plan and I'm going down the track once a month to see what damage I can do to my times.  When I've got them to an acceptable level, a parkrun or two await!  Long term, I want to do the London Marathon one day.

Sorry for the life history essay!

Guys, this is exactly what I need to hear. All your stories about pushing yourself to get out there and do it. The improvements you've made and hardships you've endured. You see, I get the urge to run every now and then. When I do run I enjoy it. The only thing is I"M LAZY. There are always excuses I can find not to do it. But I know I can. I just need that mental push. It's a personal thing that I've got to beat. Every time I come on this site and read how people have ran either in training or in a race I get the urge to run myself. Then when I get to the point of getting changed to go out I can normally find a reason not to go.

All your stories are the inspiration to keep me buzzing. I ran for 5.2K last night, felt great after it and have felt great all day today. I am using this thread in a selfish way to get me out again tomorrow for another run. I don't run fast so I don't get sore. Like I said I'm just lazy. If I go out regularly then I hope I will be able to improve like you guys.

Cheers

Crimson wrote (see)

About this time last year I restarted running using a C25K app on my phone. It started with run 1 min walk 2 min. Those 1 minutes running I thought I was going to die and seemed to last forever. Last Sunday I ran 10 miles as part of my training for a HM in just over 5 weeks.

Well done to your wife and good luck to her on 16th!

C

Ha ha!!!  I remember those times well.  I remember when I saw that I'd have to run for five minutes non stop - I was like 'Five minutes?????  You're 'aving a bloomin' laugh mate'.  These plans work guys, I am living proof of that fact.

You have to stick with 'em though - even if you have to repeat a week every now and then, that's nothing to be ashamed of.  

   I started doing the C25K on the 7/19/12. So nearly 14 weeks ago. On that first night i had to jog 60 seconds and walk 90 seconds and i honestly tought i was going to explode after the run. However i kept it up and altough sometimes it was tough to get out the door i never regretted going for a run.

   So after all that i have entered a 10 Mile race in mid october and a half marathon for Dec 1st. I am currently running 6 miles without stopping and feel i could go further. I am still no where near some of the people on this but i have really caught the bug and look forward to my runs now. I even got up at 5:45 wednesday morning to get 6 miles in before work. 

     I am defintly not the typical shape of a runner i am  5 ft 11 and 15 stone (after losing 1/2 stone) and it takes me an hour to do 6 miles currently.

    People on these forums are amazing and always more then willing to help.

I'm doing the C25K app at the moment and it's great to hear stories like these...it really encourages me to make sure I stick at it.

Couch to 5K plans are the best- I remember when 5 minutes seemed like an eternity and I thought I'd never make it, and now I can run 8 miles without wanting to die! Stick at it, I promise it gets easier 

When I started, I was very small, and I ran small distances quite slowly. Now, I'm a lot older and run longer distances slightly slower than I'd like to!

I love reading these stories

Am 7 weeks into walk/jogging again after a couple of years away from it and started on the Wii Fit! I could run on the spot for 30 minutes so decided to go outside using the 0-30min plan but after 30 seconds I had to sit down and was shattered, I went home but was out the next day and after 6 weeks could jog continously for 30 minutes. 

Still can't do that today as I no longer live in (flat) Norfolk but am enjoying my jog/walk outings even more than before as I'm out in the hills and lochs of Mull.

In my teens I boxed and as part of my training ran 5-6 miles most days. Realising I was never going to be a contended and also that turning up to work twice a week with puffy eyes etc from sparing i realised that was not a good look and started playing squash I played 3-4 times a week during my 20's and at 30 trained 8 weeks and ran a half in 1:37. I had an ankle injury from tripping off a kurrb so dropped squash at that time to avoid injury for my half. Once completed I kept running but after a house move, new gf and pressue of work my running reduced until I was doing nothing.

4 years and 2 stone later I was in Venice with the gf. We had left our luggage in a left luggage place which closed at 5 and were late to collect. I tried to run the mile from town to the place and couldn't manage it. I was embarised and decided to turn it around.

I recruited a friend that always kept fairly fit to start running with, at first he would run to my house from his, about 1.5 miles then we would run to the park and do a circuit as the local park and round, I remember I could hardly get to the park without stopping.

Both our OH's are from the same town which has a very scenic 5k trail walk from it to a nearby country park, it's very hilly. We decided as a target we would run that on Christmas morning. Not only was it a nice run it it got both of us away from Christmas with the Inlaws for an hour.

After that we agreed to enter the Hastings half to keep the momentum, we trained but I got chicken pox before the race so missed it. Entered Southend half to make up for it, ran it in 1:38. He ran it in 1:42.

Since then he has switched to tri and completes his first sprint in 3 weeks. I have gone on to run several other halfs, a 15 miler and have almost got my 5k under 20 mins, last effort 20:40.

So from June 2011 not being able to run a mile continuous to my last long training run of 16 miles and knocking on the door of a sub 20 5k and enjoying as many XC's as I can get my hands 16 month later I'm well chuffed.

I've got a stack of trail and XC races that I'm keen to do over winter and will be going for a new set of PB's in spring on the road so keeping focus and setting goals still.

After getting very comfortable with the half distance and associated training I have just started upping my mileage and making it hard for myself again and it almost feels like the beginning again whilst I thought I would never go beyond 13.1 I have re-realised the feeling I had last year of making gains and working hard and I'm excited about seeing what else I can do in running.

Right now I feel that running as a sport and pastime just keeps giving.