Week 6 – Couch to 5K – My Experience

Hello! I’ve not forgotten about the Couch to 5K challenge / app thing. I have stuck at it! At the time of writing this I have almost finished Week 7, but I realise I have not shared by thoughts about Week 6 yet. I’m not sure if it would have been easier to have shared my thoughts in one big post at the end. But I know if I did that I’d forget about all the little details and thoughts on each week.

Anyway I digress. I remember on my post about Week 5 of Couch to 5K, I told you that Run 3 involved a twenty minute non-stop run. As soon as I opened the app and set off for Run 1 Week 6 I was a little set back, and I’ll tell you why.

Couch to 5K Week 6 Run 1

As you can see, Run 1 of Week 6 goes back to intervals again. There are two five minute runs and a longer eight minute run in the middle. I was disappointed and concerned when I started Run 1 of Week 6. I felt like going back to intervals and running for shorter periods would halt momentum. I was really pleased that I ran for twenty minutes consistently, and this almost felt like a step back, you know? Needless to say, after running for twenty minutes, I found the first run of Week 6 really manageable.

Couch to 5K Week 6 Run 2

Run 2 was a little more challenging. I was a little out of steam for the last ten minutes but I feel like it was also a bit of an “off day”. The good news is that all the little aches and pains I had during Weeks 4 & 5 subsided. I remember in Week 5 I had a bit of hip pain and I mentioned this on my blog. I thought it was due to my running technique but I took an extra day off after finishing Week 5 and it seems to be a bit better now.

Couch to 5K Week 6 Run 3

Run 3 is what I had envisioned the whole of Week 6 to be like. It seemed to lead on naturally from the twenty minute run at the end of Week 5. I’m not going to lie and say I was looking forward to it. Twenty five minutes feels significantly longer than twenty minutes. The coach occasionally interjects with “you’re halfway through” and honestly it felt like a lifetime. I’ve also adopted that mentality of “ten minutes, that’s 600 seconds” to make it feel more manageable. I’m not sure if it does.

Nevertheless, I did it! I didn’t find it as challenging as the twenty minute run at the end of Week 5. It was only an extra 5 minutes of continuous running, whereas the end of Week 5 was a bigger step up with an additional 12 minutes of continuous running.

I’ve now made going for a run every other day a habit of mine, I put on my headphones and switch on an audiobook and just run. It’s something I do even though I’m not necessarily looking forward to it, because it’s good for me and I feel good afterwards. It’s like doing a big pile of laundry or cleaning the house.

What do you do to feel productive?