Operation Move
Online Running Coaching
This is one of my favourite training plans for 5km because it has loads of the fun stuff, and it’s 3 days a week. The long runs are also long enough that you’d be in good shape if you wanted to take it up to 10km too. A great all rounder, in that way. And easy to add in some bonus easy runs if you have a week where you want to run more often.
If you are having trouble with the form below, you can visit it directly at https://mailchi.mp/opmove/plan5km
If there’s one thing I’ve learned to be good at, it’s being bad at something.
It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Actually it makes you feel quite vulnerable, and it’s hard to sit with it – that discomfort.
In the beginning you are going to suck at it. And you are probably going to suck at it for a long time. You are going to have to live there for awhile – where you don’t take to it ‘naturally’, it doesn’t ‘come easy’ and it’s just hard work.
But the thing is it doesn’t matter how uncomfortable it is, it can still be fun.
Often times we mistake things we are good at for things we love and vice versa. But more often than not, how much we enjoy something has very little to do with our skill or our talent.
Somewhere along the way we’ve been sold the idea that there’s always an intersection of what you love and what you are good at.
But you can love something, not be great at it and still enjoy every second of it.
This is me with running, this is me with strength training, this is me with crochet, this is definitely me with baking.
The truth is I like being bad at things, because I love puzzles and usually it just means I haven’t worked it out yet. I love the process of working it out. Which is why I find it easy to out-work things that I’m bad at, not because I want to be good at it, but because I like deciphering the code.
Eventually that work ends up looking like competence.
But the puzzle is the fun part.
The book is going to focus on my journey so far, the when the why and the how of the workouts and of training, but also how it all connects to things that are far bigger than running. I’m taking up the challenge of writing a book in 30 days. Which is a lot of writing, but hopefully just enough pressure to keep the momentum going. You can sign up to read the daily words on patreon and get access to a whole range of bonus podcast episodes, and an ebook with 52 running workouts, so you’ll never be stuck for ideas ever again. Stay up to date on:
One thing about starting over is that because you’ve done it before, you know you can do it, but you are also keenly aware of how far you have to go. That can go one of a few ways. It can either be demotivating, or you can approach it in an entirely different way, and get excited about it.
You can’t really kid yourself, it IS going to be a lot of work.
The trap can be that you let that work intimidate you, rather than seeing all the opportunities in it. What’s that old saying, people miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like hard work?
It’s a bit like a race, it can scare the pants off you in the beginning, all that road stretched out in front of you. So far to go, no idea what you are capable of or how much it will hurt, or how deep you will have to dig into the well. But also, while we tend to think or races as distances, they are actually a whole bunch of tiny moments strung together. You might think of it as 10km or 21km or whatever, but it’s actually that moment when you got to start and you felt free, and then that bit when you thanked a volunteer for being awesome, and then that kilometre you helped someone out who was struggling and then the moment where you saw a friendly face when you needed it, and then that final stretch when you knew you were going to do the impossible. It only looks like a straight line from far away. So in the beginning, it could feel like you have to grind out all the things you’ve worked so hard for and already done. Or, it could be an opportunity to fall in love with all of those things all over again.
Going back to less runs per week or walk/run when you normally would be continuous can feel like a step back, but those building blocks are important and you can enjoy that building process. How often do you get a do-over with the process of learning to run (again) embrace how fun it is to see that big progress week to week.
It took time to get where you are, it’s okay to take the time again. You might even discover along the way that there’s something you like even more than what you were doing before. It’s a great time for exploration and adventure.
Not all work is in workouts, sometimes the work is in building a base that is strong, broad and resilient. That doesn’t mean that work isn’t worthwhile just because it happens to be repetitive.
Looking at your running history, has there been an obstacle in your way? Maybe it’s time to re-write your story.
The book is going to focus on my journey so far, the when the why and the how of the workouts and of training, but also how it all connects to things that are far bigger than running. I’m taking up the challenge of writing a book in 30 days. Which is a lot of writing, but hopefully just enough pressure to keep the momentum going. You can sign up to read the daily words on patreon and get access to a whole range of bonus podcast episodes, and an ebook with 52 running workouts, so you’ll never be stuck for ideas ever again. Stay up to date on:
Returning to running can be a big challenge. I just ran for the first time in 50 days. Yes, I was counting. In my case it was injury related, but you might have just gotten busy or had other priorities. Whatever happened these breaks happen. Sometimes they sneak up on you too!
The short answer is no, you aren’t. You will hold on to your long term fitness. The longer answer is maybe it’s a good idea to treat your return as if you are starting from scratch. You might not have lost much fitness, but if you haven’t been doing anything high impact then your body is not at all used to the loading. So whether you’ve done nothing for two months or you’ve turned into a rowing machine, for running the result is still the same – unprepared for a sudden and dramatic increase in loading – even if the cardio fitness is there.
No two people will respond the same, so the only way to test things out is to give it a go and see what happens. And here is the important bit: be willing to adapt based on what happens rather than plough on with your plan. That might look like walk/run or it might be a shorter continuous run – but chances are you only want it to be 20-30 minutes to start with. For me, my first run I ended up doing as 6 x 4:30 run, 0:30 walk – just so I didn’t have to think about when my walk breaks were going to be. Then it’s a waiting game. If you are coming back from injury you are waiting to see that whatever your injury is – isn’t having a major reaction to the impact. If you aren’t, you just want to make sure that everything feels pretty good in the 1-2 days afterwards.
If all is feeling pretty normal, than in a few days you can repeat the same thing, or maybe even extend it a teensy bit. And if it is feeling less than stellar that’s not an abandon ship situations it’s more looking at how you can decrease the load so you aren’t having that same reaction, until it stabilises and then moving forward from there.
You might progress really quickly and with no complications, or you might need to progress quite slowly with only making changes ever 3-4 weeks after your body adapts. You can’t control which situation you’ll get and most often it will probably be something in the middle. Just keep in mind that slow progress IS progress and the goal is to keep running not do too much too soon and end up back where you started.
All of those muscles being used in ways they haven’t been for awhile so it’s a great time to invest in more mobility, more rolling and more body treatment (if you’ve found physio, osteo and massage treatment works for you). And it’s also time to fuel your body with all the things it needs while you ask a little bit extra of it.
I have a coach, because I know I’m far more capable of making good choices when I’m accountable. If you are self-coached then don’t be afraid to bounce some ideas off a training buddy or check-in with someone on a regular basis to keep you on track.
The book is going to focus on my journey so far, the when the why and the how of the workouts and of training, but also how it all connects to things that are far bigger than running. I’m taking up the challenge of writing a book in 30 days. Which is a lot of writing, but hopefully just enough pressure to keep the momentum going. You can sign up to read the daily words on patreon and get access to a whole range of bonus podcast episodes, and an ebook with 52 running workouts, so you’ll never be stuck for ideas ever again. Stay up to date on: