Week 8

[Tillyminty]

Reading through week 8 posts. Do most people hit 5k distance during this week? Ran w7r3 today at about 3.5k in 25 mins. Continued up to 43 mins to reach 5k. Just wondering. Happy with the progress I am making and know it's not about pace just curious what most 1st timers are achieving.

[Irish-John Graduate]

I sure didn't. The US version had me running 35 minutes for graduation and I was nowhere near 5k. I have only started reaching that since about three weeks later, takes me 40 minutes on a good day However, I have also ran further since - building up distance and stamina bit by bit and not worrying about speed too much until I figure if I am a "natural' 10K runner or a '5K runner

[Tillyminty Graduate]

Thanks for that Irish John. Agree totally. Good to know its not just me.

[Joy57 Graduate]

I'm on week 9 and nowhere near 5k - more like 3.5 to 4

[MrsLis Graduate]

I've just finished Wk8 and I'm quite a way off 5k - to be honest I'm just pleased I can move ('run' might be overstating it!) without stopping for 28 minutes, and hopefully 30 minutes next week so that I graduate,

I've decided that I'll continue to increase the length of time week by week until I get to 5k and then decide whether I want to go for speed or 10k, although from what I've read on here, they are very much linked anyway.

At 58, having never done much exercise, I think I have to be realistic about my speed and my expectations. I'm never going to win a race but I'm just pleased that I'm toning my wobbly tum and enjoying my early mornings out in the cool clean air.

Good luck with Wk 8 - and Wk 9 of course!

[Tillyminty Graduate in reply to MrsLis]

Yes, like you, I am pleased that I am finally doing some regular exercise and feeling the benefits. I am 48/overweight and figure that speed/distance improvements will come gradually when I am ready.

[Hidden]

Must admit for my first 9 weeks I was just grateful and elated to do the time . I know I was only probably doing 4K over 30 minutes. In time running regularly doing 5K over about 31 to 32 minutes and built up to now nearly 6K over about 38 minutes !

Found that my pace has increased over time. moving house soon so has upset my routine but today did 5K instead of my usual 6K. time was not great about 33 minutes ! But as I posted today I didn't feel any aches and pains. Think the doing 38 minutes and 6K meant that todays 5K felt like a "Walk in the park".

I think you'll find also that sometimes your progress will come in leaps and bounds.

[Dusky-Chicken Graduate]

I was doing about 4.2k when I graduated 3 weeks ago, Today I ran 6k but it took me 42 mins. My fastest 5k is still 32 mins. My target is still to do 5k in under 30 mins but I have no idea how many weeks that will take. I am hoping for the leaps and bounds as Joepublic said above

[Tillyminty Graduate]

Thanks for responses. Key message really is that progress will come in time. Just completing each run is achievement enough!

[VeganNelly Graduate]

I was very interested by your post because we always run outside and I don't have a pedometer, tho my sister has one which allowed us to do a very rough sort of conversion from strides to distance but we are really very hazy as to the distance we are running. Just about to start week 8 tomorrow and been very excited to be able to run for 25 minutes regardless of what distance we are covering, but feel curious now. We are thinking of getting s secondhand treadmill as our youngest wants to run a bit more and we thought it might be good in bad weather, so if we did that we would have this info.

[Zev1963 Graduate]

I certainly didnt reach 5km in 30mins at the end of C25K. More like 35mins for 5km. But that isnt the aim anyway really. The aim is to be able to run continuously for 30 mins. Which is a really excellent thing to be able to do.

If you then continue to run for 30 mins 3x each week then 5km in 30 mins will come eventually without trying, as your fitness will gradually improve.

I completed C25K in Nov 2014, my longest runs are now 25km, and some of my 5 km runs are well under 30 mins, but by no means all of them. It just depends how I'm feeling. My early morning mid week runs are often more than 30 minutes for 5km, but that's fine. The important thing is to enjoy it