Monday 14 March 2016

Couch to 5k: Week 3

Week 3 runs are complete! The format of week 3 is: 5-minute warm-up walk; 90 seconds run, 90 seconds walk; 3-minute run; 3-minute walk; 90 seconds run; 90 seconds walk; 3-minute run; 5-minute warm-down walk. This is the first time it really feels like you're running for a prolonged period of time, and the two 3-minute runs definitely felt longer than I was used to in run 1. However, each one got a bit easier and I'm already looking forward to the week 4 program.

Run 1!
At the gym. This first run was the hardest of the week, and knowing you have to run for 3 minutes is a bit of a daunting prospect. However, in the first 3-minute run the podcast lady starts talking to you when you're 90 seconds in, and by the time you're finished you've only got a minute left so that helped a lot. It was definitely a bit of a struggle to complete the second long run, but I did it without any dramas so I'm definitely improving. Knowing that I had to do the two longer runs this week, I slowed my pace to 5.2 miles per hour for the runs, but tried to keep my walking pace up so as not to not lost too much ground overall.

Run 2!
Again at the gym. I actually went longer than usual between run 1 and run 1 due to various boring reasons, so I was a bit nervous about this one but actually it was completely fine, which makes me think maybe I'm not pushing myself hard enough? I kept my pace the same as in run 1, and found this run much easier than the previous one.

Run 3!
Once more at the gym, and this time with my new gym top that has a built-in bra - I cannot tell you what a difference this made! I don't have any sport bras so constantly find I am adjusting my straps when I'm running, so not having to do this for this run was a dream. I get all my gym stuff from H&M and I cannot recommend it enough - it's good quality, fun and cheap. I was feeling pretty confident about this run as run 2 had gone so well, so I upped my pace on the 90 second runs to what I was doing in week 2, and upped my pace on the 3-minute runs to 5.3. It's only a marginal difference but psychologically it felt like I was working harder so this felt like a great way to end my week 3 runs.

Stats time:
Average calories per run: c. 170
Average distance per run: c. 1.9 miles
Time spent running: 9 minutes
Eastenders storylines: Due to the times I could make it to the gym this week I didn't see any Eastenders, and while this isn't an issue in itself it really hit home that I actually still find running quite boring. The first two times I went there wasn't anything on the tv screens that was capturing my attention, and it really did make the runs seem longer than they were - not ideal when this week contained the longest run so far! As I'm doing this with the podcast I can't really take something else to watch / listen to as I have to have my earphones plugged in already, but this week has definitely shown me that when I am at the stage where I'm running without the podcast I'm going to have to think carefully about how I'm going to occupy my brain whilst I'm doing it...

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