Today I woke up my usual time and started the Graduation Week. I did run 1 of WK 9 just before 5 am in the morning. The warm-up and stretches before the 5 minutes brisk walk certainly helped. The weather was also not too hot today another plus point. I had two days rest from WK 8 and felt totally recovered. The run went smooth, I must admit throughout my run I just kept remembering all your encouragements. My Next run will be on Tuesday, I would love to start increasing my speed but I’m not sure when I should do this. I was wondering once we graduate from C25K is there any way of recording music and getting to know the run times similar to Laura guidance? I feel I might get tired of listening to the same music of WK 9 as I don’t intend to start running more than 30 minutes very soon. Thank you all.
WEEK 9 - Graduation Week: Today I woke up my... - Couch to 5K
WEEK 9 - Graduation Week
Happy graduation week! 
I just use my own music now and I check my watch for the timings. You're right Laura's music can be hard to like after the 20th repeat haha! I think there are other ways with techie apps and stuff like that. I'm sure people will be along in a minute with some great ideas. Well done you!
waiting to hear from others
Well done - just 2 runs left till graduation and yes, actually I think you're quite right to celebrate the whole week Running for 30 minutes is a real achievement.
There is an app which just has Laura that you can listen to your own music with, but I've seen mixed reports about it - some people find it crashes and complain about being left without her.
Do you have a smartphone? I use an app called endomondo (but there are plenty of other options). Every time I've run a km, it tells me the total running time I've taken and how long that last km took (lap time). You can also set it up to give you intervals - 5 min low intensity (walking) followed by 30 mins medium intensity (running) and then 5 more mins low intensity. I think it tells you when you are half way through each section and also your progress at each km. You could put in consecutive 10 minute medium intensity intervals and then it would (I think) give you the time after every 5 minutes. But maybe it would only tell you every 10 minutes so you'd have to put in 5 minute intervals. Anyway, you can play with that.
Running for 30 minutes at a time is a great way of maintaining your fitness. Try varying your route a bit if you can to stave off boredom. After a while you might like to mix things up a bit, but there are plenty of ways of doing that within 30 minute runs. (Intervals and hills come to mind).
Thank you, I will have to explore all these ideas soon
Good luck azaralkindi, you're almost there! When you've graduated. there are the c25k+ podcasts to look at or, as you say, running for 30 mins to your own music to build up your stamina. That seems like a really sensible way to go I reckon. To find the number of beats in a particular piece of music try jogfm or just google the song name and bpm. If you try Spotify there are loads of running/fitness compilations you can check out too. I used the podcasts but I think the app allows you to listen to Laura whilst playing your own music. I'm sure there are loads of people more tech-savvy than me on here who can and will give you more/better advice. All the best, graduation is in sight
I will google for Spotify running/fitness compilations and see what I get
Hi and much to look forward to! The 3 C25k will be perfect for you. The speed one is only about 20 minutes long so you could carry on running for a further 10 minutes at a slower speed after to make your full 30. Rock my Run app is very good and lots of choice if you upgrade. I find though the best music is always the music you love to dance to it is surprising how it can invigorate a really good run. One of my daughter's rap songs ended up on my compilation called 'Frisky' whilst not my kind of music that song in its full version has served me well at parkruns! Good luck and keep enjoying the gift!
Do you mean 3 C25k ? couldn't find anything on this. Do you mean WK3 of C25K?
Can be found here in the top right hand corner-
nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/...
Yes I got it, perfect, this should keep me going for a while. Many thanks Carole
Nearly there!
If you want to run to your own music, you can use the runkeeper app in the background which will log your distance and give you call outs on the time which you can set to suit yourself.
Good luck with the rest of the week.
Well done! It feels good doesn't it! I also run early in the morning, I agree with you regarding the music, I turn the volume down for that awful song, 'Julie'.... isn't it dire..... Laura could bring out some graduate music to run to for us all, I graduated over a month ago and have stopped listening to the music, but do miss Lauras encouragement
It feels so great. by 6.30am you are done with everything and you have the whole day to for yourself. Carole from the group recommended this link for music. nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Couch-to.... I have just downloaded it. It is really good gives you lots of instructions from Laura
Fantastic, thank you so much for that....I will do the same!
Hi. I use the app RunDouble. You can sync your music to it and keep repeating W9R3. The only talking is to start your run, you're half way and you've finished. It costs only 99p or £1.95 if you want an app to take you further, e.g. Couch to 10k. Less than the cost of a cup of coffee! Only downside is the GPS doesn't always connect. Hope that helps.
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