Survival of the Fittest

[Wolfboy]

So a group of us at work have signed up to the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest it’s a 10K Obstacle run so I’ve started up C25K to hopefully get in shape and raise my fitness level ready for October.

I skipped week 1 as I have a reasonable level of fitness, did W2 and W3 at the beginning of December and then had a little break over the festive period picked up W4 Sunday just gone, and did W4R2 yesterday. So far so good but I do find myself running too fast even though I can see my pace I just can’t seem to stick to 10kmph I’m running at 11 – 13kmph and I’m not sure I can keep up that pace for more than 5mins solid at the moment.

Has anyone got any advice to help with pace or should I just keep up with my “natural” running speed and wait for my fitness to catch up before progressing to W5?

Also has any one got any experience of Survival of the Fittest I’d love to hear your view on it and any advice you have.

[beatricerose Graduate]

I played around with c25k when I did it, what you might find is doing the 'interval' runs at a faster pace spaced with walks is good at increasing speed and fitness, the longer slower paced runs for a continual time are invaluable to extend your distance and stamina. So I would recommend trying to run slower to complete the runs continuously running. Now I've graduated, I do a structure of one interval run with faster paced running with walking, one 'normal paced' 30 min run and one slow long run (6k at the moment).

Once you've graduated, you may be able to up to your 'natural' pace and keep up the distance, but any pace you do is adjustable. I thought at the beginning I was going my 'normal' pace, but for the first couple weeks looking back that was too fast for me, and its only now I can comfortably run 5k at that speed.

Basically speed and distance will come with time if you are patient, if you are really finding it hard to slow down, you could repeat weeks at a faster pace, but I think it would benefit you to try it slow! Does what I've said make any sense or was it just me babbling?

[Wolfboy Graduate in reply to beatricerose]

Yeah that makes sense I've got a little time before the run (that's why I've started now) to work on pace/speed/stamina I just need to slow it down a little. I might try and find some music to listen to that has a bmp that suits a 6mph pace see if that helps rather than just listening to the voice in my head saying "your going too fast!"

[beatricerose Graduate in reply to Wolfboy]

Not only that, having friends who have done tough mudder etc. (ie. long runs with obstacles) I think stamina is the key. If its like tough mudder there are breaks between the obstacles while you wait for everyone to climb or swim or whatever in that section, and having done a section particularly fast doesn't help, what helps is being the one who can last 10k and not collapse just at the end because your legs are jelly (which happened to a friend of mine haha I think he crawled at the end...)

[AdamB Graduate]

Ignore the speed that you run at. Stop looking at your watch. If you can finish week 4 at one speed, you can start week 5 at the same speed. Then (and only then), if you find it too hard going at that pace, slow down so you can finish.

Trust in the programme. Weeks 5 and 6 are a "head" thing. It's only your mind playing games with you that makes you think that you can't run for more than 5 minutes. We've been there. We cracked the "voodoo spell" and ran for longer. So can you.

[Wolfboy Graduate in reply to AdamB]

I've got W4R3 to do tomorrow I don't see that being a problem so I'll move on to W5 next week and see how it goes the worst that could happen is that I "HAVE" to slow down because I can't run any more but at least I'm out there!

[agedsnailspace Graduate]

The running comments have been dealt with, but if you are looking to do an obstacle course, do some upper body work, too. C25k will get you the stamina you need, but you will need strength in your arms (rope climbing; cargo nets; monkey bars) if you want to make a good showing around the obstacles!

[Wolfboy Graduate in reply to agedsnailspace]

That's the plan for my off days like tonight I'll do some upper body work push-ups, pull-ups, dumbbell work etc.

Men's Health have a good plan to follow to help with upper body strength but I might need to join a Gym (later down the line) for a few of the exercises.