Well it has been 2 weeks about since I graduated and I had decided to consolidate the 30 min run for another say 4 weeks but mix it up a bit. As the c25k was done on a treadmill it was time to venture outside. This was mostly due to not having any outside clobber at all. I knew from what I have read that the opinion is divided that running outside is harder than running on a treadmill, so I had to give it a go.
I can say for me at least it was harder in fact a lot harder but that was ok. 1st plan was to raise treadmill to 1% to compensate for outside conditions. Should have done this to start with as some members have done. Anyway my treadmill is a reebok i-run 3.0 ideal for my needs but does not have powered incline, A Must Have I now think. They say it has 2 levels of manual incline but all I can find is Flat & one level of incline so I set treadmill to this. I intended to run for the 30 mins but was expecting it to be harder, I found it almost impossible.
In the end I did 30 mins run every other day for 5 days but could only manage 5 min run then 2 min walk for the entire 30 mins which with warm up & cool down walk a total of 49 mins. The problem was every muscle in my legs & back were screaming for the whole 30 min run. Furthermore they did not settle down on my day of rest so started next run with aching limbs. By the 4 th run I was really struggling and come the 5th run I had to stop altogether for a couple of mins.
I was getting worse not better and could not make out why it was so hard. More important I was not enjoying the runs at all so had to do some research. There is nothing to say in manual or online what % the treadmill is at when inclined so I had to contact Reebok directly. Got an answer back today and now I know why I was struggling so much. When the incline is set to the only position it has it is at 4% incline not 1% as recommended!!! NO wonder I was struggling, I was running uphill for 30 mins!!
I stared run again Monday for 30 mins and set back to the flat. I have to say even though it nearly killed me running uphill for 30 mins I could feel the benefit. Breathing was back to normal plus legs and back were not aching but more important I could go faster.
I think for once a week from now on I will set treadmill to 4% and just do a few mins as overall it has benefited me. So one run on mixed flat & incline running, one at endurance and 3rd run outside. I think once I get more confident outside I will run as much as I can outside, one step at a time.
Post C25K - Suggestions
C25K graduation post 🏆 
Post C25k apps, advice please!
Please share your post-C25K running plans
Post C25K runs seems harder 
