I start week 9 today

[Hazel1960]

This is my third time of trying the C25K and the first time I've got this far.I'm very pleased!

I'm confident I'll manage the 30 minutes but the 5K will take a bit longer. I tried to measure my speed and it comes out somewhere around a 15-minute mile. So I'm awfully slow and don't seem able to speed up. Also it doesn't seem to get any easier. My legs feel like lead and I really can only run on the flat (luckily I live near a big river and run alongside that). Do you think I need to do some leg strengthening exercises? Would that help me get stronger and pick up speed? Can anyone help?

Hazel (an almost graduate)

[elllou51 Graduate]

Hi Hazel, I don't have advice as such, but completely empathise with you. I feel the same way. The way I'm going, it would take me about an hour to do 5km. I know I will speed up in time but I would like to get there a bit quicker! I'm on week 7 and in my 25 mins, plus walking at either end, I did 3.28 km. I know how frustrating it is. I did however pass a walker yesterday which was brilliant! I know as the weight comes off it will become a bit easier too. I just wish I could fast forward a bit

I am following your post to see what guidance people can give, with interest x

[Hazel1960 Graduate in reply to elllou51]

Thanks for replying. I did used to run 20 years ago and I used to manage 10-minute miles. So I didn't ever expect to win medals but my runs are more like waddles. You mention weight - yes, that is a problem too. I have just lost 4 stones but hope to lose another 3.5 stones. Hopefully my poor body will speed up when it can. I had a little listen to one of the follow-up podcasts about building speed and it sounds like the music is a little bit faster to encourage you to picku p pace. But I think my feet are moving with the music - it's just that I don't seem to be making enough forward progress. I think I need to make myself take longer strides. I guess I'm nervous about then wearing myself out and not being able to finish. Let's hope someone on here can help us with some advice.

[gary_bart]

I wouldn't worry about the 5km yet. You're keeping enough in reserve to meet your commitment to complete 30 minutes of running (and that's quite something compared to before you started). Once you've done your Week 9, and made that 30 minutes a bit habitual, you can do things like the speed podcast.

Think of it like this: Once you've finished Week 9, for the days when the run itself is not enough motivation, you need some extrinsic motivation like a goal to get you out there. (And the point of this is to get yourself running regularly, so that's what you want to try to ensure continues). If you haven't yet clocked your 5km, you now have a goal you can edge towards. (And if you don't hurry about it, you can get a lot of Runs out of that goal; and it's actually a lot of further Runs that you want. Everything else is very much supplementary to that). So by NOT hitting the 5 km mark now, you will help yourself hit the more important target of eg "12 runs in September". You can use the things that don't really matter to keep managing the things that do matter.

[Hazel1960 Graduate in reply to gary_bart]

This is a very positive way to look at this, thanks. And I 'll definitely take this onboard however it wasn't really getting to 5k that I was particularly worried about. It was more that it isn't get any easier: for example, I don't seem to be able to cope with any uphill movement at all, even the gentlest slope. I was wondering whether it was because my leg muscles were just very weak and whether some exercises would help.