c25k v walk run

[sbrown1264]

Hello all

I am currently on week 5 and run 1 was done on Saturday, yesterday I was trawling the internet and came across the walk run program on the mayo clinic website, so I thought, ok I have nothing better to do today so I gave it a go. Walk for 45s and run for 15s, now for my thoughts and observations.

1 I covered a greater distance, walk at 3mph and run at 5mph

2 no pain what so ever in my legs

3 I sweated more, in fact it was pouring off me

so I would like your thoughts and opinions

Regards

Stephen

[Realfoodieclub Graduate]

There are a few of us that go on to walk run after finishing. I am doing a half marathon in May that way. I do 2 min run and 1 min walk. I would say I needed the whole c25k program to get my joints and muscles in the right place to start building from there. my times are faster than if I just run and my heart rate prefers it. If I were you I would consider finishing the program as you have the long run to come you have no idea how your body will adapt to a 20min run and then onwards to 30 min. You will be surprised at how everyone thinks they don't like continuous running and go on to love it. I would give it a go first.

[sbrown1264 Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

I intend to continue with c25k, but I was just curious about the different method, so I thought I would give it a go. My take on it, is the same as diets, people find what works for them and choose accordingly.

As a lifelong couch potato, I am enjoying the c25k, I do my program on a treadmill. I have been reading about the parkrun events that take place and wondered what level do you have to be at to participate as if I tried one now it would take me well over an hour to cover 5k.

Stephen

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to sbrown1264]

If your walking pace is 3mph I would be surprised if you 5km time is well over an hour. Most walk run programs are running for the longest time so it seems unusual that the one you have read about has you walking for 45 seconds and running for 15 s. I f you wanted to have a go at park run I would maybe try a 1min run then a 1 min walk. There is a good pace calculator here for walk run runnersworld.com/tools/run-.... Good luck and remember running is all about confidence so go easy on yourself.

[Bazza1234 Graduate in reply to sbrown1264]

Stephen

I incorporated the C25K programme into Parkrun - I started doing this from W2R1 onwards. I simply did whatever the C25K run asked of me during that week - but at parkrun instead of on my own. This included the 5 minute warmup/cooldown walks as well. I obviously did not complete 5K by doing this - so I just got to the parkrun finish line in whatever way I felt like each time - sometimes I ran , sometimes I walked. My first time at Parkrun was 42 minutes -- 30 minutes for the C25K part and an extra 12 minutes to get to the line. I am now on the edge of breaking the 30 minutes to run the full 5K (non-stop)

I enjoyed being with others right from my first exposure to parkrun - and I think that anything that encourages/supports us to get out and run and keep up our motivation is good!!

[sbrown1264 Graduate]

To be honest, my walking pace and jogging pace is about the same. I walk at 3mph and on week 5/run 1, my jogging paces were 3.3, 3.0 and 2.8. I have read on this forum, the aim is to complete each level, so my runs get slower!

So much for being a couch potato for too long, but the funny thing is I have always loved walking, up Ilkley moor, Ingleton water fall trail. I think the worse thing for fitness is passing your driving test, you don't walk as much, or is that just me.

Regards

Stephen

[Bazza1234 Graduate]

Stephen

This is the programme that I have often encouraged some people on here to do -- 15 months ago, as a 67 YO who had never been able to run ever in my life, I wanted to do C25K - but was very wary of hurting myself/having a heart attack/etc and running 1 minute 8 times over was ( I thought) too much for me So I did this Mayo Clinic programme - which only had me running 15 seconds at a time - and after 7 weeks, was still only demanding me to run for 30 seconds at a time , but for up to 6.4 klms.

When I completed that programme , I went on to complete C25K and now run 10Klm non-stop without too much problem.

That Mayo Clinic programme was designed by Jeff Galloway who encourages people to do run/walk of fairly short interval durations. But he is mostly interested in getting people to do this to run Marathon length runs. Although I can run non-stop for 10K, I can't even imagine walking 42 klms -- so if ever I was to consider such a thing , I would definitely do a Galloway programme. I did this last year (using a 2/1 ratio) to do the famous 14 klm "Sydney to Surf " run with approx 80,000 others