When I started C25K just over 4 weeks ago, I had a 5k circular route mapped out. So when I got to the end of Laura's session but still had some distance to go before I was home, I decided to throw in a couple of extra iterations to get me home. So instead of W1 being 8 runs at 60 seconds, I did 12. It felt challenging, but I preferred it to having a 15 minute cool down walk. As I've been spending two months before starting C25K doing regular 5-8k walks most days, I used my rest days to have a gentle walk instead of a run.
This worked well during W1, W2 and W3. In W4 I had to make the route slightly longer to 7k in order to still have a chance of doing a few extra iterations, and I felt less motivated for the walks on the rest days.
This week I'm doing W5 and I have extended my route to 10k. The idea is that when the going gets tough, I'll know that I have already covered that distance and that number of minutes. With that said, it *is* beginning to get tough. Very. Friday evening my legs, shins and knees were hurting, but Saturday morning was fine. So I went on a gentle walk instead of running, but ended up overdoing that as well and almost limping home. Finally yesterday I did the W5R2 and repeated it in total three times for my 10k.
My legs and knees have recovered overnight, but I think I am at risk of overtraining, so today I'm not doing anything. No run. No walk. Sitting on my bumb doing my job and then getting an early night.
Tomorrow I shall be trying W5R3. The good news for me is that I ran for a total of 48 minutes yesterday, so I know that 20 minutes in itself shouldn't be that scary. The bad news is that I'm getting stubborn, and have gone from just adding a few extra iterations of 60 seconds on to now thinking that I *have to* complete the session at least twice, just so that I still have some "extra training" in the bag for when I get to the longer weeks 7, 8 and 9. And of course it's also bad news that my shins and knees are beginning to warn me about overdoing stuff. So I need to find the right balance between stretching myself as much as I can, but still not stretching myself so much that I end up having to take time off for weeks to recover.