The most challenging weeks on the C25K plan.

[Wannaberoadrunner]

I am curious to know which weeks were the hardest for those who graduated. For me, it was weeks two and seven (especially week seven run two).

My legs felt like they were number and the muscle pain lasted for two days, moving around all areas of my calf and shins. When I went for the third run that for that week, it was pretty much gone; I think it was due to lactic acid or something.

I have never had to repeat a week and there were no major issues, but those two weeks were slightly less enjoyable than the others.

I'm writing this to help other people going through the programme that they are not alone and not every run will be pleasant.

[Whatsapp Graduate]

Good post Wannaberoadrunner . Without a doubt W6 was my nemesis - specifically R1&2.

R3 was actually one of my favourite runs of the whole program, and I think it felt so much better because the two previous runs were not great for me.

After completing a 20 minute run on W5R3 it was strange, not only to go back to interval, but to find them harder than the long run I had just done.

I did a lot of thinking about why and I realised that the beauty of the program is that we don't really factor in all the walking we do. I was traveling further in W6R1 than W5R3 when I looked it up on mapmyrun later - because of all the walking intervals. Of course W6 is harder, why would the program go backwards.

I read a lot of peoples posts saying that they can't believe they have run for 20 minutes when they struggled to run for 60 seconds. The truth is even on day one we are running for 8 minutes inter-weaved with some walking to slow the pace between.

[Rignold in reply to Whatsapp]

yep.

[Shorty7 Graduate]

I think it will be a common answer but definitely week 6 run 1!

[Slinkyminky Graduate]

Definitely wk6 runs 1 & 2

[MarkyD Graduate]

For me, W1r1 was the hardest psychologically. Just plucking up the courage to go out the front door... definitely the hardest.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate in reply to MarkyD]

...and for many

[GoogleMe Graduate]

I really had to work at Week 1... long enough that after completing the three full sessions at last I thought that I'd be doing well to graduate in 9 months. Never needed to do another repeat, ran every other day.

I had a toughie - just disagreeable, somewhere round about week 7-8

We did a poll once, quite a wide spread of experiences. But what you say is right - whatever you find difficult, you will not be alone in finding it so.

[Sandraj39 Graduate]

Another vote for W6 R1 and 2 - I hated the return to a walk breaks after the non-stop 20 min run.

[Burrows79 Graduate]

W6 has been the hardest for me so far, I think the walking breaks use more energy than you realise.

I'm on W9 now and battling the heat I managed R1 with no issues, hopefully it will be cooler for 2 & 3 so I'll be able to push that little bit harder

[RuthMargaret Graduate]

I don't want to sound big headed, but I'm waiting for a challenging week. I'm on week 6 and so far I've experienced as much discomfort as I expected to, and understood that I would be challenged as each week progressed. I'm no exercise nut by any means, but I've stuck to the program, done the stretches and rehydrated properly and it seems to have worked so far. It wasn't ever going to be a picnic - I was always going to be out of puff and sweating like a pig - not a pretty sight! Hopefully it will carry on being achievable and I'll finish without incident.

Then the real fun will begin!

[Rignold]

W1 definitely.