Route planning

[1HHi]

At the monent I am doing C25k on the treadmill as too self concious to run outside at the mo. I would like to get to this point though and wondered how peopke plan their route. Any ideas welcome.

[B-dog]

I started week 8 today and up to this point, I pretty much just follow my nose with little thought to where I’m going, although I do my best to avoid hills.

[Bandit14 Graduate]

I'm lucky to live near the sea - 5 min warm up walk gets me from home to the seafront and I run up to the next village and back then walk home. Never get tired of the view - plus it's cooler mostly.

I was very self conscious at the start and ran on an old ww2 airfield ( other side of my house) at one point cos it was deserted😊

As I've got more confident I don't seem to mind meeting people when I'm slightly purple in the face.

You'll be surprised that most people don't even notice you - especially if they've got their phone out lol

Good luck getting out and about xx

[ArthurJG Graduate]

Mostly what Bandit 14 said, including the seaside but without the airfield. I was very self conscious especially to begin with: I drove to a relatively quiet section of coastal path which was quiet on overcast days. Even when there were people around they were all there for exercise - either for themselves or for their dogs - so nobody thought it was odd I was running because they were all there for the same thing But guess what I found? (This will not surprise you if you've lurked on the forums for a while: lots of people say the same thing.) NOBODY CARES. The cliché here that 'runners are invisible' is mostly true - the only people who notice you are other runners and you have their respect just for trying.

You're on week 8 so you can run continuously for quite a while - it's not like you're running past people then being overtaken by them again on walking breaks. You pass people coming the other way, you say hello and they're gone. If you are in week 8, you are already at a point where the walkers and dog-walkers wish they could do what you're doing.

The first time I went out was the hardest. I dare you to be brave three times. By the fourth time you won't need to be brave, you'll want to do it.

[Richard7 Graduate]

Hello 1HHi .. if you use the C25K app at the half way mark you will hear a ping. This tells you that you are exactly half way through the routine. So if you start by doing what I call a Hobbit Run (there and back) you can just walk/run until you hear the ping and then turn around confident it will lead you home at around the right time.

Myself unfortunately I didn't realise that until quite late on! So I went out and just added extra walk time on the end until I got home. Gradually as the time running extended I added distance to my route.

From the 2nd run I also used a running app like RunKeeper or Strava to record my efforts. This gave me a good idea of the distance I was doing and then I could use Google maps or the Strava route builder (can't remember if RunKeeper had one or not) to create new routes.