Hello,
Just a quick catch up, I've slowed right down, still one week ahead of myself but not running everyday, making sure I have the rest days.
My question is how should I tackle week 5 run 3 tomorrow at Parkrun? Should I just stick to it exactly or can run from the offset for the 20 minutes and walk 10 minutes at the end and do an extra run if I feel I can manage it?
Thanks for all your great advice x
Warm up..and just do the run.... 
Enjoy Parkrun. But stick to the App. Don’t be tempted to get caught up and do too much.
I did a few Parkruns whilst on the C25K plan. I’d make Parkrun the 3rd run of each week.
Bring your Barcode. But important to make sure to follow the plan.
Enjoy.
We recommend that you stick to the programmed run. It is very easy to get carried away, and while you may well be able to run for longer than the twenty minutes, you will definitely be upping your injury risk by doing so.
Start your warm up walk at the off and just follow the app.
You will get a time for 5k and you will have the pleasure of working away at it the months to come.
Okay will do, thanks guys 😁
I agree. I was tempted to do more but sick to the plan. It works. Good luck and enjoy.
Good luck Cuppacat, you are very brave! I’m week 9 and haven’t ventured to a Parkrun yet. Let us know how you go 🙂
Good luck we are on the same stage, taking my Hubby out soon to join me.
What I found was that if I did the warm up walk at the start of parkrun rather than before, the speed merchants got out of sight and I wasn’t tempted to overdo it. Don’t need to do that any more but when I was doing C25k that’s what worked for me. I may have snuck in an extra 100m slow jog at the finish just for the look of it.... W5R3 is a great run but it’s a run where not going off too fast is more than usually important .
You could check if your local park run is also running a couch to 5k group. I know ours is and they completed week 4 today, so this may well fit into your plan. You are doing really well, I graduated a few weeks ago and am still finding the park run challenging. Good luck !
How did it go?!
Hello everyone, all went well. I did it exactly as per the app. Managed the 20mins, however, I probably could have walked faster at the end 🤣
After the C25K finished I kept to a speedy walk, did have a tiny run at the finish just to cross the line. Also got a PB, beat my time by the grand amount of 1sec 🤣
Feeling like I've climbed a mountain today and feeling very proud that I ran for 20 mins 😊
Thank you guy for the great support, feel part of a great group xx
There was a Russian pole vaulter who deliberately would only raise the bar 1cm at a time so she could break a World Record more often (and in her case, win a big cash prize)! 1 second increments sounds very sensible - you will be able to carry on setting PB’s for a very long time to come!
Seriously, well done for getting out there and doing your first Parkrun. Awesome effort 👏👏👏
Hi Cuppacat,
I did Parkrun on Christmas day coinciding with my W9R1. I am still happy I did it, because it was the first timed run I did. Well, run may be a bit of a stretch of term. I did my five minute warm up and was patiently accompanied by the back runner. Then I started my run. Because the parkrun is not the flat ground I had been doing all my couch25k runs on, I had to stop after 16 minutes to walk. I felt very disappointed, but not nearly as disappointed as coming 345th out of 349 runners. But as my support group on here pointed out, just turning up was an achievement, and actually finishing the course was another. It set me back 5 days until my graduation, repeating W9R1 then proceeding to W9R3 on 5th Jan. Since then I have not done a park run but just finished week 1 of bridge to 10 K (2 weeks behind now). I plan to do my second park run some time in February, and perhaps plan one per month. I will feel a lot more confident soon because I have changed my run route to include a long uphill and downhill section that occurs in the first 5 minutes, and the last five minutes of my run. Last week I stopped half way up the return hill, This week I was able to complete the hill and run on for a further 0.5km. Job done.
Week 5, run 3 tomorrow
Week 5 run 1 tomorrow
Week 5 Run 3 tomorrow - eeek!
Week 5 Run 3 Complete 
Week 5 run 3 in the bag!
