How slow is slow?

[Cozzy30]

Hi all,

I have been lurking for a while and will be restarting c25k on Monday. I have started a few times and I seem to get to wk 3 and ‘something’ happens, either I injure myself (not from running, i’m just accident prone) or I get ill....

anyway, I understand that you need to go slow, to be able to complete each run, but was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of what speed they might go on a treadmill? I know it’s individual, but I consistently doubt myself and my speed. I really want to do it this time, so any help and support would be appreciated.

I would also like to add that I am 5 stone overweight and quite unfit, but this group really motivates me to just do it 🙂

[Elfe5 Graduate]

I don’t know anything about treadmills, but when I started C25K someone said that it’s fine to run at walking pace if you need to. That was both a surprise and very helpful- it made me realise that I could go as slow as I needed.

You naturally get faster over time without really thinking about it. 😃

[Cozzy30 in reply to Elfe5]

Thank you, that’s really helpful 🙂

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

It’s at a pace where you can still speak in full sentences, so that would take a little test in the treadmill, start with walking and up the pace every minute until you no longer can.

Of course from there you can slow down more if you need to in order to complete a run.

[Cozzy30 in reply to UnfitNoMore]

That’s a good idea, thank you 🙂

[Hidden]

I was 5 stone overweight when I started initially on the treadmill. I had a 1% gradient and my walking speed was 4kph and my "run" speed was 6kph. Funnily enough, those figures are still what I'm doing six weeks later but I have moved outside now as it's much better than being stuck inside my stale-aired-gym. There was some improvement on Friday, as I seemed to have been doing nearly 7kph on my 25 minute continuous run.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

The recommended pace for C25K is an easy conversational pace, as described in the guide to the plan healthunlocked.com/couchto5... which has many other tips.

Enjoy your journey.

Keep posting and you will keep running.

[The_Fat_Controller Graduate]

You can go as slow as walking pace if you need to, the only difference being that both feet need to be off the ground at the same time for it to be called running. There were weeks when I had to slow down to that speed. My thinking behind that was that it was better to slow down and finish the run rather than keep the speed up and have to stop before the time was up. Anyway, it worked and I graduated C25K in July. The first few weeks you think you'll never do it, but if you complete all the runs, no matter how slow, you'll get there in the end. Just stick with it and you'll do fine.