Monthly Worth Mentioning / Nov 20

This month the #mwm is something that does not at all fit the weather situation that we have in Finland at the moment but I've decided I don't care. At least it's not icy.

This time the Monthly Worth Mentioning -thing goes to:

Couch to 5K (aka C5K) running app

Bear with me on this. I can promise you it really is from the couch, and shin splints is not an excuse to not love running. Trust me, I've been struggling with this for a long time.

My love-hate relationship with running was once again turned this spring as one of my friends suggested downloading this app. The idea is that you develop your ability to run with changing intervals starting from running only 90 seconds. I decided to try this app to fix my shin splints problem, and to my extremely happy surprise, IT WORKED! In three months of more or less following the app's instructions, I managed to increase my running time from a hard maximum of 3 minutes to 30 minutes. 

It was like magic. I've been struggling with this problem since starting 7th grade so fro a long time now. I simply just have not been able to run on asphalt without knowing someone can pick me up with a car if I cannot take another step. Now by following the program on Couch to 5K I have managed to fully overcome this issue and I can focus on fixing the other problems. 

One of the good things about the app is that you have the option to have different types of notifications during your run. You can decide if it will tell you in words or just sound or vibration when you need to start walking or running. The whole idea is that you run in intervals with walking between each running period.

As said, I didn't follow the apps program precisely. What I did was that every time I had some time for a run I just took the next session on the app. If the last time had been a while back or I couldn't run the last session in full I retook that session. During the three-month period I was following the app I had at least two weeks pause from running and I still could make that much progress.

I am aware that this sounds like someone paid me to say all this, but really, I truly thank the technique they used to make that app has changed my life for the better.