Choosing our training programme

Jess GuthLeave a comment

When I first started running I tried a Couch to 5km programme and we followed other training programmes in the run-up to the half marathon in 2015. When I decided I wanted to start again, we went back to those programmes but somehow it just wasn’t clicking. I did each run as it came along but I found it completely demoralising because I was just plodding, slowly and painfully for however minutes.

We had seen the RunDisney training programmes put together by Jeff Galloway and they appealed because they were said to be suitable for anyone and to significantly reduce the risk of injury. So we’ve been giving that a go. I don’t want to go through the exact detail but you can read how it works on the RunDisney site or on Jeff Galloway’s site. Basically though you run and walk at intervals right from the start rather than waiting to walk when you’ve run out of steam.

We started the 10km programme and we started with running for 30 seconds and walking for 30 seconds for the duration. We are now running 1 minute, walking 30 seconds and have just finished week 5. I am now at times almost enjoying it. I’m not saying this is the best programme out there or even that it is better than any of the many others I’ve looked at but for now it is working for me.

Psychologically the idea of running short bursts of what was initially just 30 seconds, even when you have to do it repeatedly was much easier and it meant that I can actually run rather than just plod. Not that I am thinking of going anywhere fast but it is quite nice not to be overtaken by people walking their dogs!

Advice for anyone else out there? Try a few different programmes and see how you get on with them. If like me you don’t have a clue what you’re doing, definitly follow some sort of programme though. Unless you don’t want to – do what feels right

Welcome to Really Not a Runner

Jess Guth2 Comments

I’m not a runner. In fact I hated running all my life really. I could never do it. I didn’t want to do it. I’d barely jog for a bus. I’m overweight, I’m unfit and the idea of running for fun was compeltely alien – even when I was at my fittest. I am pretty much there again but in January 2013 I managed to plod round a half marathon. So why did I do that? I did it because I wanted to raise money in memory of my best friend who had died tragically the year before and I wanted to do do something which was a huge challenge and big event. So, I plodded, with the help of my girlfriend Kath, round the 13.1 mile course at Disney World in Florida and then I didn’t run again really.

So this blog is about picking up that journey. I don’t know why I want to run again, but I do and I want to tackle that challenge that is a full marathon. The notion that I can do that is of course utterly ridiculous – but so was the idea that I could do a half marathon.

We have booked our trip to Disney World for January 2016 and we are there for the Marathon weekend. Registration opens soon and I will register – that will hopefully keep me going on the days where I really do not want to put my trainers on – and there will be lots of them.

I’ve been reading stuff about running online, I’ve been looking at training programmes… The thing is, most people seem to go on about how brilliant that sense of achievement is when you have completed a hard run but very rarely do you hear/read people admitting that some times it isn’t fine, it’s bloody awful, it’s hard and demoralising rather than insipiring. This blog will be nothing if not honest. I’ll share my stupidly slow times, my running ups and downs and my thoughts as I progress through the training programmes. If it helps anyone that’s great, if it gives you a giggle that’s fine too; I am afterall lapping everyone on the couch (thanks to my friend Donna for that one!)