Post week 9 weeks

[Steve_L]

I've seen people describing runs with weeks beyond the ninth, graduating week (eg W14R3). Is there some kind of a plan after completing C25K (other than the three podcasts I'm aware of), or do people simply describe their runs as continuing from their W9R3?

[Rob_and_his_westie Graduate]

It's entirely up to you at that point. The C25K plan stops at W9R3, but there are a number of alternatives. There is an NHS plan for going faster which you'll find on the same site. Of course, that presupposes that you want to go faster. You might want to go further, in which case some advocate a "Bridge to 10k" programme (aka B210K) which isn't an NHS thing, but I'm sure someone will provide a link for it. You might like to try running with others and there's a few options open to you there.

My advice would be to consolidate that new found ability to run 5k for a while until you are comfortable with doing the distance regularly. Perhaps different terrain: road, parks, treadmills are all different experiences and route planning is definitely part of the fun in my book! Keep up the three times per week thing, make yourself a playlist, or perhaps run "naked" as they say and listen to the birds! There are no rules and you can use the time to decide what you do next.

[Steve_L Graduate in reply to Rob_and_his_westie]

Thanks for that. I was just curious having seen what I described. For myself, I certainly plan to keep running at least 3 times a week, and to begin with, I'll be surprised if my focus is on achieving 5K rather than just the 30 minutes. I'm only doing about 3.9Km in my week 8 28 minute run so far, though my pace is slowly improving. Though people have said otherwise, I'd much prefer to be comfortably doing 5K before my first parkun, which I'm looking forward to.

[ViaM Graduate]

I had to make this decision this morning, after my first post-graduation run and whilst importing the stats into my computer. Up till now I used the format 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, etc. So I did wonder what format I should use from now on. I think I will continue with this format as it tells me how many runs I do per week and, further in the future, how many weeks I have been running for since I got the running bug. So, today's run was 10.1

[Steve_L Graduate in reply to ViaM]

That sounds like a plan to me! I've got fidgetty legs today, looking forward to tomorrows run!

[ju-ju- Graduate]

There are all manner of plans, however I did my own plan to 10k but I did buy Audiofuel ( Silky steve) to get me there and its really good!

[misswobble Graduate]

You can run a lot with the 3 + podcasts. They'll keep you well busy for a while and then the natural progression is to do Bridge to 10 k following some kind of structured plan. You need structure so you don't over run.

Steve You don't need to have run 5 k to do a Parkrun. Just try it. You never know, you might just surprise yourself.

[Steve_L Graduate in reply to misswobble]

Thanks for that, MW. I'll give myself another week or so before trying, though - maybe Saturday week

[Rob_and_his_westie Graduate in reply to Steve_L]

May I humbly suggest you read my review from last Saturday......

healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

[Steve_L Graduate in reply to Rob_and_his_westie]

I already read it! Good stuff.

[Hidden]

For my Garmin logs I'm following a MyAsics plan which happens to have four runs per week over a 17 week period (including recovery). I've labelled my runs WxRy simply as an easy way to log what I'm up to, plus it feels reminiscent of the C25k journey It is a 'personalised', standalone plan and not an extension of the nine weeks. The plan also gives you a set distance and target pace (hence why mine will also say jog/pace/comfortable/etc.)

You'll see the Garmin titles revert back to "Knackered, wanted to stop 10k" and "I hate intervals 5k" for a while once I'm between running plans

It is worth having a plan in place of some kind for when you graduate as it can be very easy to let things slip once you have completed the nice structured C25k. Some people cope well with it, others (including myself) faff around for a bit and it takes a while to realise where you want to be (even if that is a simple case of I just want to continue running three times a week).

Not long until graduation for you now

[Steve_L Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thanks - I'll have a good think about that over the next week and a half so I don't feel aimless after graduating.

Yep - just 5 more running days, hopefully. Looking forward to tomorrow - I found myself commenting on how my legs feel ok today, and thinking that I *could* run today, though of course I won't!

[Hidden]

literally the world is your lobster now totally up to you on which way to go , take sometime to consolidate the 3 runs a week and 5k , the main thing is to enjoy running plus now it is spring

[GoogleMe Graduate]

Don't forget Realfoodieclub's Quests here - 6 weeks and you set your own goals.