Feeling proud, I finished week 7

[Leanne78]

I completed week 7 tonight and I'm really pleased. Laura informed me that I had a minute left and if I was feeling ok, I should try and give a bit more. I speeded up the pace and when she told me it was finished I decided to keep running at the same pace. I made it right through the warm down walk! I did add a 5 minute warm down to make sure I don't suffer tomorrow.

This has left me wondering if I'm not doing enough during my regular runs as I was able to run at a quicker pace for another 6 mins. Do you guys think I should be trying to speed up or just concentrate on graduating?

[vivh61 Graduate]

Well done. Personally I would concentrate on graduating - for one thing, it's hard to judge how fast you should go on the whole of a 30 minute run, and you may start too fast and then regret it or even not finish. And it would be a real shame if you ended up not completing a run because of this. So I would say, take it steadily through all the runs, as you have been doing, and if you can run a bit quicker towards the end, then do. Once you've graduated you can increase your speed and / or distance as you like.

Happy running!

[Hidden]

And so you should feel proud, well done I asked the same question, take it from me, just concentrate on graduating! Haha

[JoolieB1 Graduate]

I ran 5k in week 7 but it took a bit of getting over, so sticking to the programme to graduate

[gary_bart]

I know that on some of my later runs, I would run on if there was anything left in my legs (working on the assumption that I'd done too good a job of making sure I completed the c25k requirements by not overdoing things earlier), and often that would take me through the cool down. I think this is fine. It means you didn't risk hurting yourself earlier on (when the risk is the highest), and you've just got some fitness you haven't properly used up, as a result.

I also know that when I started putting on that burst of speed at the end, later, that there was nothing left in my legs afterwards, no matter how carefully I'd kept in check before. You could probably empty out the legs by pushing right up to a full sprint, but then I think you also increase the injury risk (where just going on for another 5 minutes doesn't appear to do any harm). So you're probably doing things just fine right now.