Day 1week8 done! It wasn't as bad as the last day of 7,and I upped the speed a bit.I don't suppose the 5km includes the walk haha.

[A1nsworth]

it will take me forever to do 5km

[shinjin Graduate]

The most important thing is running for the full 30 mins. Speed will come later, as your fitness increases. If you can, chart your heart rate and you will see it decrease run on run. As it does, you are getting fitter and can increase the speed.

I am just getting back into this and my run last night was controlling my HR with the speed of the treadmill. I have been out of it for a while, but after a disasterous Saturday run, yesterday gave me hope. I will put in the full 30mins on Wednesday, then push for distance in my case as have to run at least a 9k in less than 4 weeks. You can equally increase the pace and hence the distance, by watching your stats.

Good luck and badge time soon!

[LMS2110 Graduate]

Well done A1nsworth, great positives vibes which will set you on the road to graduation very soon

At some stage in the future then the 5k might well be done 30 mins ... ie additional to your warm-up, but for the time being, just follow Laura's directions and do 5 mins walking and simply follow with the 28 or 30 mins running before the cool down walk again. If you're using a smart app or satellite watch to chart your running, you may well do the 5k in the running time alone .... But it really doesn't matter a jot at this stage - for graduation you just have to run for 3 separate 30 mins (sandwiched between the walks). A few people gave recorded the 5k but I believe rather more have not (quite).

I'm one of the old fatties who graduated back in May, and whilst I have done 5k a few times I'm nowhere near 30mins .... So I'm bumbling along, keeping fit with between 30 and 45 min outings, 3 times a week and getting slightly different distances depending on the conditions of me, my asthma, the roads or the weather!

Just keep enjoying the running, good luck for the next 2 weeks and think about increasing your speed in the months ahead. Happy running

Cheers, Linda

[A1nsworth Graduate in reply to LMS2110]

Brilliant response.Good to hear you have continued because my mind is now thinking beyond 9weeks.Asthma is a hard thing to cope with and I would think its been hard for you during the hot weather.I have suffered bad hayfever all year and it is only now easing off.I actually think I had a bit of asthma,that's why I have done all this on the treadmill.Anyway well done to you and keep running and posting x