What was everyone's starting pace and as you progressed through the programme and beyond did you become faster?
Also is there a speed programme you can do. After I complete the C25K I would like to do some speed training and be able to run 5K in a decent time (I only have little legs).
I ran too fast at the beginning but then I got wiser and slowed down. I run even slower now 
Why do you wish to be so fast?
I did speed up, but quickly plateaued and haven't made much improvement for a while. You can search for the C5K+ podcasts when you've graduated, there is one called Speed which is intervals. There are a two others too, all with the lovely Laura.
I don't want to be fast at the moment, I am just curious at people's start pace and whether the training through the programme led people to slow down to a comfortable pace or gradually increasing there pace as they were building up muscle and fitness.
Speed training after C25K is just another goal I wouldn't mind improving my performance of a 5K run instead of increasing my length.
I have improved pace since c25k but not drastically. I run very comfortably at 8:00min/km, reasonably comfy at 7:30 min/km and can't yet quite run 5k at 7:15 min/km (its a hard pace to keep up).
That's my 5k pace- I can run faster over shorter distances- and at 8min/km I can run longer distances- I ran 6.5k at 7:26min/km too
I started too fast but my pace slower down through c25k and has now gone back up but I think I have a lot more stamina now at those speeds. I would like to be faster but I see no point pushing it, I'd rather extend distance to 10k, especially as I found pushing speed always brought on my shin splints.
I have no idea how fast I was... although the ridiculous number of attempts required to crack Week 1 clearly shows I was going too fast at that point.
I was quite excited some time after graduating when I got down under a 10 minute km. My PB 5k is 43 minutes. Had flu last May and I am back getting excited if I am under 10 minutes a km again... although I do like challenging terrain (see my other post)... that PB was on a canal towpath and I don't much care for the impact on my body when I do a lot of that, lovely though the scenery is.
I have done my first 2 week 1 runs on a treadmill. R1 I did on zero incline, 4.0-4.2 mph walks and between 6.5 and 7.5mph runs. I found I covered a distance of 2.41 miles in the 28 minutes.
R2 I did yesterday on a 3.5% incline, walks at 4mph, and runs around 7mph. 2.36 miles covered.
I found the above fairly comfortable running breaking into sweats by the end of the second run. I could run faster but I want to complete rather than break records at the moment. I'll be doing at least one of my runs each week on a treadmill to see the distance and note what has become my natural speed. Whether I speed up or slow down I'll let you know!
I think body strengthening comes before increasing speed. Our new runners legs aren't really up to speed work at the end of nine weeks training. You will speed up somewhat just by running regularly. If you do too much too soon then you'll get injured. Faster running involves much slamming of the legs, so proceed with caution, would be my advice
Most importantly, have fun. Enjoy yourself without having to worry about faster/further/longer. It takes the fun out of it
PS: Reason for treadmill at least once a week is that I live on flat fens, no real hills for miles, so the TM gives me the chance to run up some hills
While going through the program pace really isn't important. It's all about getting your body used to running. One of the reasons for this is after you graduate it gives you the ability to find out what sort of running you want to do. Some people are built for speed and getting faster and faster really suits them. Some are built for endurance and running longer and longer distances are for them, some lucky ones are built for both. It's important you get the basics together before you start to test your body as to which way you might want to go. Your body eventually will let you know how it wants to proceed.
My first parkrun was about 33:30. I got it down to 29:05 once or twice, but then started doing longer runs. I now do around 7 minute kilometers on most runs. I visited two different parkruns recently and did just over 6 minute kilometers, so it all depends where you run.
Increasing distance is easier than going faster, at least for me. What I'd like to achieve is better than 50% age graded score at whatever distance I do.
As someone who has come through the programme and graduated, I wouldn't even measure speed. The programme is asking you to go from 1 minute runs to 30 minute runs in 9 weeks and this is very challenging in itself. Towards the end of C25K, I really needed my rest days to be able to do the next run and even after graduation, I just ran without worrying about speed at all. I noticed my speed just naturally increased with my fitness. I think pushing your body to run faster than is comfortable might result in injury.
According to my spreadsheet I was doing 6mins40 per km in week 6 when the continuous runs kick in and I got that down to 6mins30 by week 9. That was late November.
For my fast 5k runs now I'm around 5mins 20 - 5mins 30 per km. PB = 26mins46s.
Again I am not bothered about speed as of yet. I know I am new and that I just need to complete the programme which I am doing. I have got through every run without experiencing complete exhaustion.
Some of us love stats and as I am a web developer I love to find out all I can and using that data to do some analysing. Stuff like this keeps me motivated and having another goal in sight pushes me to keep up. As a nice project for me, I want to download all the data and build a nice data presentation panel which I can combine my weeks data.
Yes speed is one of my goals after the 5k but that will depend on what my body can handle. I know some regular 5k runs will be needed to find a comfortable pace and get a base line. Only then I can work on getting stronger and improving my time slowly . Ideally I would like to complete a 5K in a reasonable time instead of improving distance. I am just doing some research before hand and seeing what training programmes are out there (Gentler the better).
To my knowledge people using this forum vary from pre-teens to over the age of 80. Many participants have underlying health issues, while others may be very fit. This all means there is a huge range of both starting speeds and finishing speeds after the end of c25k. There will always be somebody faster than you and always somebody slower.
You will speed up in time. At the age of 57, my first recorded runs were at approximately 7 minutes per kilometre pace during week 6. Two and a half years later I have run 10k in under 55 minutes and 5K in 25:32. This is without being a competitive runner. To put my efforts into perspective, Mo Farah runs at approximately twice my speed.
Comparison can be fascinating but can also be demotivating don't get too hung up on it. What I can say is that c25k definitely works, good luck.
What is a good pace?
W8 done! What comes after w9?
Sustainable pace...
For Graduates: What was your speed at (or near) the time of graduation?
