Starting January 2013

All of the above, BUT I'm 52. 1st and last attempt at a run was a 5k 6 yrs ago!

Happy New Year & Happy New You!

My marathon is in June also. In NZ.

Hi folks - I can't claim to be an expert but as an 'older starter' late 40s when I first huffed and puffed instead of just walking...I just want to say to y'all be careful - your heart and lungs will probably get fit before your bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments do.  Give yourselves time at each distance to build the physical infrastructure before moving on to the next distance.  Otherwise we'll be talking on the injuries threads  

But it's well worth persisting - enjoy and best of luck with your targets and adventures in 2013.

Yay! Im so pleased so many of us are all in the same boat! CamenDeb in reply to your question, a Garmin tracks your running basically. Its like a watch with GPS and tracks your speed, distance, calories, heart rate - whatever you want. You can set it up so it beeps at you to go faster or slower, or use it to train at your max heart rate, or to try and find your way back to where you started from!! They're great bits of kit, like I said though ive only had mine for a week or so and Im still trying to figure it out I think they're about £100 or so, so not cheap.

Hopefully no injuries Louise!! Thats not how Im planning to start 2013 Im going to run later.. when my head is a bit clearer.... 

Same here. Starting with a C25K plan on the treadmill as I've started a few times before and got injured. Not into racing tho. Looking forward to a fitter bod for summer tho..

Good luck to you all. Take it easy and build up slowly and dont be afraid to walk if you need to. 

Set some realistic short term goals as ' being fit for Summer' might not keep you motivated. How about 3 runs a week for the next 3 weeks or run for 2 miles without stopping in the next 2 weeks. Give yourself a reward such as some new running gear or a massage if you achieve your goal. 

It will be hard to start with but suddenly one day you will realise that you have done your run without suffering and actually enjoyed it. When its raining and you are looking forward to your run, then you know you are hooked.

I didn't start running to lose weight but after 3 months dropped from 12 stone 6lbs to  11 stone 12 lbs and the small tummy is almost gone.

Hi all - I've also started on the C25K program and really enjoying it (only just did week 2 Day 1 today though). Getting no muscle problems at the mo, so fingers crossed - although I definitely felt my run today. (Almost slightly embarrassed to admit that after only week 2, day 1!)

CaymanDeb - I've just followed you on twitter too...

How's everyone doing? Week 2, day 1 was on Monday for me so I ran in the snow! It was virgin snow on paths so OK to run on and slowed my pace down, which was probably helpful! But today (week 2, day 2) the paths were slippy so I ended up running round the playing field - much slower but at least I did it!

Hi. Can I join you please?

I have never run before and I'm badly out of shape as excercise has never been appealing to me. Main goal is to lose a bit of weight and generally get fitter to help my general lethargy. I take steroid medication for a health condition and it makes me hungry all the time so I end up eating and gaining weight.

Last Tues I downloaded the free rundouble app on my mobile and gave it a go. I only managed half (and not really doing the full intervals) and came home feeling like a half-success and half-failure. Determined not to give up, I googled "C25K Too Hard" and found others who just couldn't do it. Their advice was:
Jog, don't run. A jog can be almost walking pace.
Walk if you can't jog, walking through an interval is OK.
Work up the intervals, Perhaps starting with 1 or 2 of them our of the 8 and adding one at a time when you're ready.
It all made sense to me.

So, Friday I went back out there and jogged 5 out of 8. But my feet hurt and my earphones kept falling out. Went and bought some running shoes and earbuds.

Saturday, jogged 2, walked 1, jogged 2, walked 1, jogged 2. Felt great!
Sunday, jogged 3, walked  1, jogged 2, walked 1, jogged 1. Felt satisfied.
Tuesday, intended to jog 4, walk 1, jog 3. Managed to jog 8. Felt amazing!
Today I did wk1 day 2. Tomorrow is rest.

Calves are stiffening so I need to be dilligent about stretches.

I find the rundouble app is great. Not only is it free, it uses your mobile GPS to record your map route, displays a graph, records distances etc. You can customise what notifications it tells you. You can use your own playlist. Only thing is run double doesn't talk you through stretching.

So, before I do day 3 and move on to wk2, any top tips? 

For rest days, I'd appreciate to hear from anyone who has some motivational tips on maintaining motivation, momentum, willpower and enthusiam.

I read recently in Women’s Running magazine that your cardiovascular system gets fitter and stronger quicker than your frame (bones, ligaments, muscles etc.) so even though at the end of each session* I feel I could do more I’m holding back to avoid injury. It’s a little bit frustrating but I know if I stick to it I’ll be able to run (jog!) without stopping for 30mins within a couple of months

Once I’ve got there then I’ll start working on increasing my jog to a run over the following few weeks. Then I’m going to follow a 10k running schedule and then a half marathon one. Got my calendar mapped out from now until October!

 *I’m using 0-30mins in 8 weeks

Beanie1977 wrote (see)

For rest days, I'd appreciate to hear from anyone who has some motivational tips on maintaining motivation, momentum, willpower and enthusiam.

Beanie,

This will vary depending on what motivates you; everybody is different.  Personally I've done a bunch of "stuff" in an attempt to keep on on the straight and narrow.

1. Weight Loss - Mrs N takes a photo of me in my pants every month.  A driver for me is weight loss and how I look.  Having a visual reference month on month is a good (personal) motivator.
2. Body compesition - I have a cheap body composition monitor that measures Body Fat, Body Water, BMI etc.  This is useful as a backup as on some occasions I wont lose weight over a week or two but my body composition will change (hopefully for the better).
3. Weight - goes without saying
4. Training diary - I measure distance, time and average pace.  I'm a real slow jogger due to back problems so little speed increases really keeps me going.
5. I started blogging my progress (www.theplodderblog.co.uk), by making it public there's nothing to hide behind (even if nobody is reading).
6. Reward yourself - set some realistic goals for distance, time, repeat of intervals.  When you success treat yourself to a glass of something nice, a cake, new running hat. (CAKE - maybe only do this one on occasions)

Jules Selby wrote (see)

I read recently in Women’s Running magazine that your cardiovascular system gets fitter and stronger quicker than your frame (bones, ligaments, muscles etc.) so even though at the end of each session* I feel I could do more I’m holding back to avoid injury. It’s a little bit frustrating but I know if I stick to it I’ll be able to run (jog!) without stopping for 30mins within a couple of months

Once I’ve got there then I’ll start working on increasing my jog to a run over the following few weeks. Then I’m going to follow a 10k running schedule and then a half marathon one. Got my calendar mapped out from now until October!

 *I’m using 0-30mins in 8 weeks

Speed is an interesting one that I'm still to work out.  I started running last June time (I really can't remember), but have had to take a few breaks due to various injuries and life events.  I guess what I'm getting at is progress has been slow.

However, I've found that all of a sudden my endurance has just taken off.  I've gone from huffing, puffing and struggling with a continuous mile to jogging a constant 4 miler yesterday (which felt awesome btw).

What I have noticed is that this run was pretty much at the same pace as I'd complete a mule (late 13m/early14m miles).  Distance therefore doesn't make me any slower.

The advice I was given is to just keep increasing your weekly mileage (arough 10% and not by the mile a week I've been adding :S ), and the speed will start looking after itself.

I think a little interval training would possibly help also.

Martin

Thanks Martin. I went out on Sat PM and this morning. I haven't let the snow get in the way of my momentum yet. I was worried that 2 days off would lead to three, four.... I like the idea of the photo in my pants. Off to find my wide angle lens now. Cheers!

I found it got easier to stay motivated as I improved; the benefit of rest days does become apparent, you do come back stronger as your endurance and therefore distance increases.

I also filled those early days with some books (as I'm a reader), I found them to be real inspirational.

Yes, I am seeing the benefit of the rest days. I'm trying to go out Mon/Wed/Fri. Just started wk3 of C25K today and despite thinking I couldn't do it...I did it! Yay. I needed 2 days rest for my knees.