Life after C25K

[Chocomom]

I graduated in March the day before my 60th birthday. I was amazed that the program worked for me. I have never been a runner. I run 3 times a week. I did 3 weeks of Stepping Stone, 3 weeks of Speed, and 1 week of stamina. Stamina is really hard! How does everyone mix their runs up?

[Bartontiger]

Well done and great to hear you haven't stopped. I too was a non runner and at 56 thought it wasn't for me. I graduated in January and since then ran my first race on Good Friday, a 5 mile run at Bridlington. One of my proudest moments is being able to run along with my daughter and wife, they take it steady for me and I have also joined Barton and District AC. They mix the training up with hill and speed work. The rest of the time I just try and very the routes and run between 3 and 5 miles 😀

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

Congratulations on your graduation, it’s a brilliant achievement!

Mixing up your runs builds a stronger running body and helps to minimise the chance of injury so you’ve got the right approach. You can mix up by running shorter faster runs, longer slower ones, hills, trails if you run on roads, roads if you run on trails, intervals, run up and down some steps, beaches (be careful here, build up very slowly)..... Running on different surfaces brings big benefits too.

As an initial starting point and what many people do after graduation is 1x average paced 5K, 1x faster run of eg intervals/fartleks or hills (3/4K) and 1x longer slower run which builds on your distance if that’s what you want to do. Otherwise just do another 5K.

But whatever you do just make sure you enjoy it. It’s so easy to get off that path and get tied up with pace and distance that we forget to have fun 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

[SpanishShuffle Graduate10]

Me too. My 60th was end of Feb. Since then it has been up and down but still getting out at least 3x pw. I have found a couple of routes I like and add to these by turning up different streets, up little paths or doubling back.

Just posted about today's run. Managed a full hour and then a 5k walk home.

Just steady as you go and enjoy the scenery. Listen to your body. Time/distance will improve no need to push too much.

Happy running 😊