After being diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes Nick felt a serious need to gain his health back. His friends highly recommended the Couch to 5K app to help improve his fitness levels. Nick was a complete beginner and had never done any running in the past.
“I found the first couple of weeks challenging. I couldn’t even make it through the 60-second runs without being completely exhausted.”
By the time he got to week four, he started to notice a real change in his fitness and mindset. He enjoyed the satisfaction of increasing his running time each run. The structure of the programme made him feel like he was seeing a real change each run and he found this motivating.
“I enjoyed seeing my progress with how far I could run each session. Every week builds on the previous week and the workouts built up in small increments, week to week. Because this is achievable I experienced so much success which gave me the motivation to keep going. I’m now a lot more confident that I can do it, the feeling of success is so powerful.”
“The compliments I’ve received from friends and family have been incredible. Everyone has noticed I’ve lost weight and tell me how much better I look. This is really motivating. “
Nick recommends listening to music or watching something during the runs.
“It was a great distraction for the longer runs and also helped me establish a comfortable pace.”
It has been good for him to see from a stamina perspective how his body has improved since starting the programme.
“After completing the plan I’ve used the confidence the app has given me to push myself further. I now like to mix up my runs. I run the 5K runs as hard as I can to keep me in the cardio zone. One run in every five is the 10k but at a slower pace in the fat-burning zone. “
“I’ve noticed how much fitter I am when out walking with friends and can hold a conversation without becoming breathless. My resting heart rate has come down nearly 10 beats per minute and is now a very healthy 58/60. But the crowning moment was losing a massive 33 kg!
“The compliments I’ve received from friends and family have been incredible. Everyone has noticed I’ve lost weight and told me how much better I look. This is motivating.”