Forums >Running 101>Feeling discouraged yet again
rhetorician
hey there - I've not read everything on here, and it looks like you have some excellent advice, but I wanted to say a couple of things. Firstly, I get the impression that you are really over-thinking your running (even by the length of your posts) and may actually have too much information. Make it simple. Run, not very fast (at first) 3-4 days a week for 30-60 minutes. Gradually make one of the runs longer.
Second, I am going to tell you what happened to me. All of last year I struggled - I was doing walk/run for long distances; in October I threw a heart rate monitor into the mix. It told me that I wasn't very aerobically fit, so on the advice of various people (including the inestimable Nobby) I ditched walk-run and focussed on continuous running. My paces improved quickly, and my heart rates did as well - some of this was down to the fact that walk-run had made me ready to run in terms of muscles etc.
In November I was running 12:42 m/m @ 142 bpm; this morning I ran 7 miles at 10:06m/m @ 146; this is down to continuous running, not being scared of my body or discomfort and, since January, running fast intervals once a week (alternating 400s one week, 800s the next, extending these out bit by bit now). You may want to hold back on this - but I felt my year of running meant that I was ready and I've actually found them very doable. I am starting to feel confident about a sub 55 10k in April, but my goal was to be able to run easy pace at about 10 m/m.
So I'd say there's hope - be consistent, don't over-think it, back off pace-wise before you think you should (on Weds I ran at target race pace for 3 miles, felt great, but made myself slow down for the last 2 miles of the run). Good luck
2012 goals
lose 8lbs
run injury free
run 3000k
run sub 60 min 10k
run 2 hour half
2013 goals
run 1750 miles
sub 55 10k
sub 25 5k
sub 2 hour half