What is the ideal pace to go at on a treadmill for couch to 5k?

[ShaneK_]

Just started this week on the treadmill & was wondering what is an ideal pace? So far I've been doing 5.5km per hour for walking & 11km for running

[RunBrianRun Graduate]

Gosh, that seems rather fast to me for a newbie. That’s easily sub 30 5k pace which I doubt many of us were running at on week 1. I guess if you feel ok with it and aren’t getting any pain then it should be ok but others on here are far more experienced than me and will offer good advice.

[Thriftyvickie Graduate]

I’ve just finished week 1. I’ve been doing 6k an hour walking pace as it says brisk walk & 10.5 for running but I was wondering also if that was too slow / quick. I tried 9k for the jog - and found it hard to run that slow.

[Tbae]

I think you have the treadmill on one degree and a belt speed of 10km/hr and you are not overstriding and getting your extra oxygen.

You are already flying.🤔

If not reduce it, you need to find a core comfortable pace and monitor how your repair day activities are fairing also and your recovery going forward.

Plenty stuff to think about , so no hurry. Keep you injury free.🤔

It is your journey.🌟👏👏

[felicityhuang9]

Week 1 day 1 for me today- I did something similar, 10km/h for the jog and 7km/h for the walk. Are you numbers in miles/ h or km/ h?

[MarkyD Graduate]

The pace settings (or speed in km/hr) are notoriously inaccurate on treadmills, and vary from machine to machine.

So the speed that you set must be right for you on the machine that you are using. Any advice from us on this forum should be taken as a guide.

So... if the walking speed is brisk, and the running speed means that you could hold a conversation, then that is ok.

My opinion is that either your running speed is too fast (11kph) or your waking speed is too slow (5.5kph).

[Hidden]

Goodness. Initially this post made me feel pretty inadequate as my speed on the treadmill is around 6 or 6.5 kph walking and 8 or 8.5 kph ‘running’...fastest I’ve run to date is 9 kph, but have also run at 7.5 kph. Then I thought it just proves we all have our own happy pace which will be different for each individual and will also change over time for everyone, so there is no ideal pace.