W4 R2 DONE but NOT fast and less than 2 miles !!!!!

[Circle_On_Legs]

Well, I am amazed. I have got this far. 61 years old and I was three stones to heavy (in the obese category). In the past five weeks I have lost almost one stone. I hadn't looked ahead at the programme and was a trifle daunted to suddenly jump from 3 minutes to 5 minutes of running this week. I say 'running' but its slower than my walking, except today I actually managed to be a little faster. I can walk fast. I walk the dog every day for at least mile. Now she has to run every other day. I think she is loving it.

However, I can't see that I will ever do 5k (3.1 miles) in 30 minutes or anything near. Every run day the route is exactly 2 miles. Which is from my gate to the end of the lane and back again. Laura usually says good bye to me after the 5 minute warm down walk and I still have another 5 to 10 minutes to go. Honestly when I only walk that far I do it in 40 minutes. I know it doesn't matter if I don't cover 5k at the end of W9 or ever in 30 minutes, but it would be good to hear feedback from people who were also slow runners, but did find they speeded up without too much pain.

Also, I am curious, because Laura says there must be a rest day, I don't have one. Does this make a difference? I have a rest day from running, but every day I walk briskly for at least a mile with the dog, and yesterday I cycled for 9 miles - I hate cycling - I didn't do it for the exercise, but the alternative was walking and there was no time for that. Is the lack of rest, detrimental to my running speed? I am not so out of puff and red in the face as I was in W1. I looked then that I may explode. My legs don't particularly ache either. Now I have written this, I hear you say, well put more blinking effort into to it and go faster. I did try that today, but I was a little frightened I would burn myself out and not make the total 4 runs. As I said earlier, I did do them, and I was the closest to home than any of the previous days when Laura bade me farewell. I can't say I enjoy running, but getting there by will power and determination.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

First “rest day” means “non running day” and exercise is recommended as long as it isn’t high impact on the legs... cycling and walking are both excellent for running.

Speed... it will come later. Maybe you’ll run 5k in 30... maybe you’ll do it in 35, I dunno. The thing is it’s not that important... cardio in 30 minute chunks will improve your life expectancy, that’s the point of this. As running gets easier you can go longer on some runs and faster in some short runs, then you’ll see improvement.

For now, slow and steady is the perfect way to do this as it builds endurance better than fast running and without endurance there can be no 5k speed.

Good job on the runs so far, enjoy the next one.

[Circle_On_Legs Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Thank you for the advise. Managed W5 R1 yesterday. Still steady but I did it and 6 weeks ago it would have been impossible. I'm proud that I did it.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to Circle_On_Legs]

That’s great... you got this now

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

UnfitNoMore has said it all.

You might benefit from reading the guide to the plan healthunlocked.com/couchto5... especially regarding rest days.

C25K builds stamina...........speed comes later.

That said, you do have to put in the effort.

[Circle_On_Legs Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

Thank you. On to week 5. Now. Run 2 is tomorrow.

[BaddieThePirate Graduate]

Take it slow and easy, it would be terribly messy if you did explode and that really isn't the point of it! I can now do 10km, but I'm still nowhere near 5km in 30 mins, but I Am faster than I was. Speed doesn't matter.

Good luck with the program and well done on your weight loss 👍

[Circle_On_Legs Graduate in reply to BaddieThePirate]

Thank you.