Losing confidence and finding it again

Friday

I'm about 3 weeks post graduation of the C25K and I have to confess that I am struggling a bit.

I don't know if it is because I am missing the sense of achievement of following and completing the podcasts (I'm certainly not missing the music) or if it is because I managed the 30 minutes in week 9 and then rushed on to 40-45-50 minute runs too soon afterwards, pushing and pushing to run further and for longer.

The last few runs I've been on have ended up with me walking for part of it which is really frustrating as I feel like I have failed somehow and now I have let myself walk it seems increasingly tempting to walk again.

The other thing that is slightly knocking my confidence is going to running club. Everyone there is really lovely and the coaches are great but because I have tended to run with the regulars as my friend goes too I find myself getting a bit anxious that I won't be able to keep up or keep going as long - even though I have plenty of evidence that I can run for 30+ minutes and they're not going that fast anyway. Maybe it's just the case that I don't feel in control of the pace like I do when I'm on my own.



Update - Saturday

I pushed myself to go out for a run this evening when I wasn't really feeling inspired to go. Normally I'm really eager but I could have just left it. But anyway, I'd been to Sports Direct and bought a proper wicking running top so I felt I should give it a test run.

Mr Locket came with me and we went to my old route up and down the farm track because I KNEW I could run this. I'd run it lots of times before so I could do it again. And I was determined not to stop and walk (which has happened in the last 3 runs).

I decided to aim to do 30 minutes and then see if I could push it to 5k but I wasn't putting any pressure on myself to run further and further like I had been in previous runs.

It was a struggle all the way through really but particularly the first half. Mr Locket ran with me for some of it until I sent him off to run at his much faster pace (which meant I could slow down a bit!) and we met up every now and then through the run. He said afterwards that I seemed a lot more relaxed and seemed to be finding it much easier than normal which was encouraging.

Once I'd got past 30 minutes it was fairly easy to keep going to 5k and I did it in about 38 minutes which is about my usual. The farm track was quite rough so it slowed me down a bit compared to running on tarmac but I was pleased to get my first 2 miles in under 12 minutes each.

I wish I could go faster but it isn't going to happen any time soon! I'm just happy that I was able to do my 5k without stopping. Hopefully I'm back on track!