Life after graduation

[Shireenjoon]

Hello all,

I haven't been on for a while, still running but had sort of lost motivation a bit. I think what I liked about the C25K programme was the challenge and also doing something different week to week.

Since graduating a couple of months ago I have been running 5k almost every other day. On a few occasions the gremlins got me and I finished a lot sooner but the usual routine has been 5K.

Today as I set off the gremlins stated up almost straight away but I told them to get lost. When I got to 3k I wondered if I could go on to do 6k instead of the usual 5? I did and I kept going into to do 7k! Me, run 7K, I can't quite believe it. It certainly put a big smile on my face and I'm feeling so pleased with myself. So I think what I need is to keep pushing myself and enjoy watching the progression.

Would love to hear what others are doing after graduating too.

[JoolieB1 Graduate]

When I graduated about three months ago, I carried on with 3 X 30 minute runs until I had a good day, and kept going until I reached 5kmin 43 minutes. After that, I did 3 X 5k which was very challenging for many weeks. I had a good day and kept running to a 5.5k which to me meant I could do more so I kept doing 5 twice a week and gradually lengthened one run to 6, 7, 8 and then a 10k. This is now my ideal distance but I have had some confidence and niggles in my calves but I am working back towards it. Instead of quitting, I went back to some run-walking which I increased back to just running again.

[Big_fella Graduate]

Well done you! That's great you can build on what you've already done. I'm not quite graduated yet, just done W8R3 this morning, so this time next week hopefully I'll be done...I've already started looking at the Bridge to 10k programme. Like you, I need the challenge and the incremental piece each week. you should check it out. Good luck.

[ju-ju- Graduate]

Well done you!! Lots of people struggle after the structure of C 25k but there are loads of options out there. Why don't you sign up for a 10k and go for that???

[Hillrunner2201]

I wasn't ready to leave Laura after graduating so I carried on listening to week 9 for while😂 After doing that for while I decided to set myself of running10k. This turned out not to anyway near as hard as I thought it would be so I then entered a half marathon race. This was a bigger challenge but again it as hard as I thought it might be. Ive now found that entering races is addictive and a brilliant motivator. I am wondering about doing a full marathon next year now😱 I've never done a park run but that might be a good place to start or maybe a 10k race?

[JaySeeSkinny Graduate]

I'm doing all sorts of things at once! I try for one bog-standard 5k, one interval run (fast bits, alternating with slower bits) and one longer slower run at least each week. I'm missing my longer run at the moment because it's too hot by the time I get up at the weekend (30C today - crazy!), but as soon as I can I'll get back to that. The longest so far was 10.5k and that was about 6 weeks after graduation. I graduated in March at about 39mins for 5k. My fastest so far is now 32:34 - so that's quite good. The intervals help you get faster on shorter runs, the long runs increase your stamina. There is so much to experiment with! But I have one rule - minimum out 3x a week.