Pace

[Peperami66]

I know Laura keeps saying it's about stamina not speed, but I was so elated to finish my C25K this week, but deflated to find out I can only do less than 4K in that time. All on here seem to be so much faster 😔

[Curlygurly2 Graduate]

Congrats on your graduation, don't forget your badge! I wouldn't say everyone here is faster, I'd say a huge number graduate doing exactly your speed, some of us (me!) still do about that long after graduating. When I graduated in September my first 5K took me 47 minutes, I've knocked about 9 minutes off that time since. You can do the C25K+ podcasts, they will help with speed and stamina.

Happy running xx

[Peperami66 Graduate in reply to Curlygurly2]

Thank you Curly, I need to be able to track my distance properly. Is there a recommended basic Garmin type watch? My pedometer is useless, seems to depend on where it is on your waistband as to distance.

[Ullyrunner Graduate in reply to Peperami66]

Try using a free app first if you have a smartphone. I find that runkeeper provides all I need. Really, don't worry about speed - many of us never get to that holy grail of 5k in 30 minutes. Just think how amazing it is that you are running for 4k - bet you weren't doing that a few weeks ago!

Speed will come with practice.

[Peperami66 Graduate in reply to Ullyrunner]

You are right, I am so pleased to have come so far, what is this with the badge, is that the graduate bit on your profile, how do I get that? I got the t shirt but have not allowed myself to wear it until graduating, so will wear it for a run tomorrow

[Ullyrunner Graduate in reply to Peperami66]

Look at the pinned posts on the forum. There is one that tells you how to ask for your graduate tag, wear it with pride. You can buy an actual badge too which is pretty cool.

[Curlygurly2 Graduate in reply to Ullyrunner]

Yes Ully is right. I've been using Runkeeper on my phone for ages, I've just bought a Garmin Forerunner 10 this week because I think my phone is on the blink not because RK is no good, it's really very good indeed! There are others too, MapMyRun and Endomondo are a couple I've heard of. Alternatively I believe you can download a desktop app of RK and plot your runs manually afterwards assuming you can remember your route. You need a stop watch or something to time your runs.

[Pigivi]

No ... 11 months after graduation and my best 5 k time is 41 minutes....

And honestly I prefer to be able to run slowly for 1 hour than break records for 20 minutes

Speed will come later, and "patience is the virtue of the strong" (that is a liberal translation of an Italian saying)

Happy running!

[Coddfish Graduate]

Hi Peperami. Don't be deflated, you have achieved so much, and it's not the case that everyone on here is faster. There are quite a few slow and steadies here, including me!

When I graduated in March I was usually running around 3.4k in 30 minutes. Since graduating, I have tried various things to increase my pace, but find I can't sustain anything over 7k per hour for more than about 20 minutes. I can run 5k now, but it takes me 43 minutes, my target is to get it below 40 minutes. I am female, 58, 5'4" and have a short stride - at least that's part of it. It disappoints me sometimes when other runners swish past me, but I am also enormously proud of where I have got to.

Keep going, you will make small improvements.

[islandrunner Graduate]

I'm not fast !!! week 8, doing 3.2k for 28 mins ! Am ok(ish) with that, as I seem to be slightly improving with each run.

I feel your pain though ! Once graduated I'm going to work on increasing the pace a bit.

[Tomas Graduate]

Congratulations with the graduation

As others have said, don't worry about how quickly other people can run. Most of us are not that fast, and none of us are you.

Having said that, if you do want to work on your speed, there are podcasts and programmes and blog posts and books and video clips galore to get into. It can be fun to chase speed improvements, and it can be satisfying to knock a few seconds off your personal best. But it can equally be satisfying to simply go out and run for 30 minutes without any worry about distance or pace.

[Hidden]

Well it's not true to say all on here are faster ! Or even all runners ! I just looked at our parkrun results for last week and 16 people were between 40 and 53 mins for the 5k.

1 year after graduating I am still nowhere near the 30 mins/5k and probably never will but but I AM very happy with what I CAN do because I've never been able to run at all before. BE elated with being able to run for 30 mins and use that as a base to build on. Many Congratulations.

[AncientMum Graduate]

We're not all quick, honest!!