Let’s do this!!!
There’s a lot of us running this plan, and I hope that doing it as a group will give us even more encouragement that we are already used to.
First things first... I’m going to put two replies up to this. They will simply say “timed” and “distance”. Please reply to the one that matches the version of the plan that you’ll be running.
We will, whichever version you are on, have you running twice as much in just 8 weeks! You have probably already looked at the plan and seen that the 3 runs each week are different... most of you will run less than last week in week 1... how cool is that? We have a short run, a long run, and a 5k/30 minuteseach week:
Take the long run at a conversational pace, just like you were advised to run C25K. This one is all about hitting our goal and building endurance.
The 5k or 30 minutes could shout “parkrun” to you, and I expect a lot of you may well be parkrunning it every week. That’s fine, but as you’ll see further down, we need to run smart.
The short run, could be used as a nice conversational paced run, or maybe you’d like to use it as a tempo run (that is a run just above comfortable) or even a threshold run (ie race pace.) if you’re new to speed work and want to give it a go, split the run into intervals if you like. The 2.5k could be 1km quick, 0.5k slow, 1k quick or similar... which would be easier than trying to run the whole thing above comfortable. What run types you use this one as also needs us to run smart.
Run like a girl! That is, run smart! Running is not only about the muscles, it’s about the mind too. I read an article once by a woman who started running with her husband by doing C25K... he “ran like a guy” and left her behind... she ran smart, and graduated weeks before him. We need to be running 75%, or more, of our running comfortably... that’s how the elites do it, Mr Kipchoge runs marathons at 4:30 per mile (or less) but trains as slow as 9:30 per mile on his long training runs. So, for those looking at parkrun with that 5k, the best advice I can give is to only think about time/PB every other week at most, take the other one nice and easy. Keeping the amount of speedwork down will make this easier, your muscles will condition better, need less repairing, and reduce the risk of injury. There is no absolute requirement to run any of this above comfortable pace.
There’s an exercise each week. This isn’t the only cross training needed... this is our featured exercise to try/work on each week. If you’re not already doing so, do some strengthening and flexibility work a few times a week. If you’re looking at where to start, NHS strength and Flex is a great place to start... the forum for it is here healthunlocked.com/strength... so please join. Stronger bodies get hurt less often, and now we are going up in distance this becomes more important.
So... week 1.
Distance runs are 2.5k, 5k, 5.5k
Timed runs are 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 35 minutes.
Runs can be done in any order, but I’d never recommend putting two long runs back to back.
This weeks featured exercise is planks 😱😱😱 we don’t expect you to be in a plank for 20 minutes at a time... like running it needs building up slowly. There’s a 30 day plank challenge app that starts off nice and “easy” with a 10-15 second plank and builds slowly daily. I’d recommend planking 3 times a day. It’s a short exercise but really helps the core muscles to strengthen, and that strong core makes running more comfortable. The picture above shows the low plank, which is great to start with... if you can’t do the straight one, start with the knees down version.
Almost forgot... here’s the plan itself for reference and some good links. healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...
Have a great week everybody... we got this.
Anyway, I'm finally ready to progress to 10k now. Really looking forward to it!
