Another new graduate

[Bredders]

Hi - first time posting after following forum throughout C25K for the requisite 9 weeks. Like it lots. Completed C25K about two weeks ago then actually did 5K in just under 32 min. Reduced that to just under 31 min a week or so later and, since then, have hovered around that figure. Would like to get below 30 min for 5K but don't want to push it too hard. Oh yes, and I'm asthmatic. On every run, the breathing is somewhere between tricky and really hard. I've read lots of advice and use the inhaler before and after (but never during). But, as many others have noted, one of the main things the C25K programme teaches you is just to keep going when things become difficult. Not to be stupid with yourself, mind, but just put up with some discomfort in pursuit of a goal.

If only sport at my school forty years ago had been so rational! Modest though my achievement is, the fact is I'm running more and better than ever in my life.

After all that preamble, I'm interested in best kinds of next steps: I'd like to get to 10K and think I can. How quickly do you step up the distance?

I miss the deeply rewarding sense of weekly progress in C25K and don't want to lose that momentum.

[loisamelia Graduate10]

Hi Bredders and welcome. Well done on graduating the c25k and for the progress since. There are some beyond 5k podcasts, but they don't follow the same style as the c25k. I haven't tried them but plenty of other people on here have. There may also be other programmes that do a similar job to c25k but to get you to 10k, I haven't really looked.

I did my 10k 2 months after I graduated from c25k. I just kept adding on a little bit each week to my long run ( I do 3 x runs a week-or try to-with one long run and 2 shorter). The advice is to add 10% each time and I did stick roughly to this. For me I enjoyed listening to my own music and planning different routes with a focus on distance.

Whatever you do, enjoy it! Good luck out there

[misswobble Graduate10 in reply to loisamelia]

You are right to be cautious . Ten percent increase per week distance wise. Take rest days and cross train on those, cycle, walk, whatever 😃

C25k+ podcasts are the best! Tough but excellent. Once you have those off pat move on distance wise using your own music or there's the famous Sami Murphy Bridge to 10k podcasts off here. Week one is a bit quite but they sort it out from week two. It's fab 😃🏃‍♀️💪 I never leave home without it, several years later 😃

[MarkyD Graduate10 in reply to misswobble]

Good advice for MissW and Loisamelia. Just to be clear, the 10% rule applies to your total weekly mileage. Whilst you are building up to 10km you could do 3 runs per week:

- Longer run, as slow as you like, try 5.5 or 6km at first;

- 5km run, maybe parkrun;

- Recovery run: about 3km with (or without) intervals. You could try C25K W2r1, but with sprits instead of the running.

But ju-ju- posted a 10km video program here at the start of this year: look for her weekly posts.

[MarkyD Graduate10 in reply to MarkyD]

... sprints...