Arrrggg what is it about the 6 week slump...need motivation

Jenvan78

So I got hurt and had to stop a few weeks and that happened at the start of week 6. Well I took two weeks off and started back at week 5 and my motivation and endurance have gone down the crapper. I've only done D1 of Week 6 this week and it's now Friday. I have to work tonight and can't go during the day because I'm home alone with three kids. I may just have to do Days 2 and 3 back to back..I HOPE I can get them done...not looking forward to huffing and puffing and feeling out of shape though.

darkling_glory

You can do it! I just ran in a thunderstorm! We are awesome, so get out there!

jsidel126

I find when I am not into the workout one day, I get dressed and just start my workout my mood changes when I get into the workout. Do a run that you're comfortable with. This will leave you in the mood to get back into running.

I was pushing myself harder running than this c25k program has and I burned out and took a month break. Then I found this program and started using it. It isn't as hard as what I was doing. But I always felt like I wanted to do the next run, not come up with excuses why I don't want to.

SRH7

I was going fine until Week 5, then I struggled with the runs, life got busy and I just couldn't complete the required runs (eight minutes seemed impossible).

I was rubbish at team sports at school and wanted to do running as I was not competing with anyone. But I inadvertently found myself competing... with a damn phone app!

So I just kept doing W5 D1 over and over again until I got utter fed up. From asthma troubles to really sore calves, nothing was going right. So one day I just went out with my iPod and no timing and walked and ran as I felt like it. No timing, no pressure. I'm sure I didn't do very long runs, probably only a couple of minutes at a time but it broke the cycle.

I did it for a about a week, just tried to stay chilled and remind myself that just being out was running compared to a few weeks ago.

Then this week I decided to do a five minute warm-up walk then just run until I could not run any more. I slowed my pace right down to barely more than a fast jog/shuffle... and made it to the 20 minute mark. I never thought I would do it and I'm still amazed every week that I'm running.

Bottom line is... you are a runner. No one can take that away from you, whether you do a five minute jog or a full-pelt marathon. Try to enjoy it and look forward to it (for me it's much-needed head-space after a stressful day at work). I'm going to keep trying to follow the C25K but I'm not going to beat myself up when some days I don't quite get there.

For every day when you feel utterly unmotivated there will be days when you feel high from the rush. You've had it before so I'm sure it will come back.