Advice on how long I should be consolidating my runs for

[whovian1991]

Hi guys. I hope everyone's ok, or ok as possible with everything that's going on, and that this message reaches you guys ok too.

I was just messaging to ask how long I should be consolidating my runs for by any chance, before I move onto making progress towards running 10K.

It's just that I haven't really been doing any running since I graduated from doing the Couch to 5K at the end of September last year when I combined doing my last run of week nine with doing my Cancer Research Race for Life 5K challenge in memory of my Grandpa.

If there's anyone who might be able to give some advice on how long I should be consolidating the progress I made when doing the Couch to 5K app, I'd really appreciate it.

It's just that I wasn't sure whether I should be consolidating my running for longer than I would have needed to had I started consolidating my runs after I'd completed doing the Couch to 5K at the end of September last year.

If there's anyone that might be able to give me some advice on the best way to progress with my running further, I'd really appreciate it.

I know I've probably made things harder for myself, as I recently signed up to doing the Air Run 10K race in Kew Gardens at the end of March raising money for the Alzheimer's Society in memory of my late Nana, which I'm still hoping to do.

As far as I know I think the race is still going ahead at the end of March unless things change, depending on what happens with the pandemic.

I've posted a photo of one of my runs when I was doing the Couch to 5K app, as I managed to run 10K on some of my runs when I was doing the app as I ended up repeating a lot of my runs when I don't think they had gone that well.

I don't know if I should be taking that into account when I start running again, that I was running 10K on some of my runs when I was doing the Couch to 5K app before.

Thanks in advance for reading and for any advice you can give, as I'd really appreciate it.

Take care and stay safe everyone.

With lots of best wishes from Jonathan.

[Cmoi Graduate10]

Umm, I'm absolutely not an expert, but if you haven't been running for the best part of four months, I think you can only go out, take it slowly, and see what you can manage. You might want to try some runs from the earlier weeks of C25K to get you started.

Don't forget to take rest days, and don't be surprised if it takes you some time to get back to what you were doing before either.

As for increasing to 10k, I'm a huge fan of Ju-Ju's Magic Plan, at: healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...

[CBDB Graduate10]

Not sure if you have already integrated Strength and Flexibility workouts into your routine, as when you regularly run 10k runs these will become more important.

So the following 12 week plan might be something to consider healthunlocked.com/strength...

But I would also advise to consider starting slowly again, possibly run-walking intervals to make sure you don’t pull something.

Some runners simply start mid way through C25k again. Or you could simply do the 12-week plan that incorporates Strength and Flexibility : nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/1...

When I did the 12-week plan I managed in the last third to increase my duration of runs, reaching 60 minutes.

Hope this helps to make a decision.

Happy running!

[damienair Administrator]

Get back to running 5K comfortably again 3 times per week. That is step 1, then do that for about 6-8 weeks. Then start working towards 10K. I got to 10K by adding 500 meters onto a long run each week. So if you are running 5K x 3 times per week, just pick one of those runs as your long run, Saturday or Sunday work best. Then on week 1 add 500 meters so as you do 5.5K, the following week run 6K, next week 6.5K etc. It is a nice easy way to build up to 10K. For your other 2 runs during the week just run 5K. The magic plan is also excellent.

Damien

[Tasha99 Graduate10]

I didn’t consolidate at all and got to 10k within 3 weeks of graduation. However I had to consolidate more on the other side befo moving up to a half.

[nowster Graduate10 in reply to Tasha99]

Not everyone is 🦸‍♀️

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

I didn’t suggest for a minute that I was and I clearly said I had to consolidate a lot the other side.

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

I’m so fuming at your comment, I can’t tell you

[nowster Graduate10 in reply to Tasha99]

It was intended as a compliment!

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

🤔 hmm ok

[whovian1991 Graduate10]

Hi guys. I hope everyone's ok, or ok as possible with what's going on, and that this message reaches you all ok too.

Thanks for all your advice so far on my post too, as it's really appreciated.

I'm not sure what to do for the best though, as I know it's probably not a good idea to push myself too hard to begin with when I haven't really done any running for a few months now.

I'm just conscious of the fact that I should have really started training for the 10K race I'm meant to be doing at the end of March raising money for the Alzheimer's Society in memory of my Nana.

I'm not sure whether I could maybe consolidate my running progress from doing the Couch to 5K app whilst building up towards running 10K, maybe doing what Damien suggested.

If anyone's got any advice on what might be the best thing to do I'd be really grateful.

Thanks everyone.

With lots of best wishes from Jonathan.

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to whovian1991]

Moving to 10k is much easier than getting to 5k. Do the magic plan.