Reaching the 5k

[bec_florence]

At what point should you be reaching 5k during the 30 mins

[SueAppleRun Graduate]

That depends on lots of things, age, how long you’ve been running etc. Are you following the c25k ? what week are you on?

We’ve been running since early summer and it still takes us 47 minutes to get to 5k and i’m not sure we ever will

[bec_florence in reply to SueAppleRun]

Thanks very much for the reply, I find myself pushing myself a lot because I want to reach the 5km. But this means I’m ignoring the ‘you should be able to hold a conversation’ advice during the running sections 😂

[SueAppleRun Graduate in reply to bec_florence]

You can still reach 5k if you go nice and slow, we ran our first 5k about a month after graduation and it seemed to take forever

This programme should get you from doing no exercise to running 30 minutes at a steady pace and without injury, if you push yourself too much you risk injury and believe me a month or more off running is depressing

[Fatgirlslim19 Graduate]

Hi, well done for doing C25K! It's a it of a misnomer really... Hardly anyone does 5k in 30 minutes to be honest, it's a very small percentage! The programme is designed to get us running for 30 minutes and it's much better to focus on your duration than your distance.

[bec_florence in reply to Fatgirlslim19]

thank you for your comment! I’ll try that tonight 😊

[Hidden]

There’s really no ‘should’ about it. Follow the programme and you will be running 30 minutes by the end of 9 weeks. That may involve 5k but probably won’t.

That can all come later 👍🏃🏾‍♀️😊

[bec_florence in reply to Hidden]

Thank you, that will keep me going 👌🏼😊

[Realfoodieclub Graduate]

I have been running six years and still haven’t hit 5km within a 30 min run. We are all different and run at different paces, one of the best things about the program is that your pace doesn't matter, you will always be able to run for 30 mins at the end. Rfc x

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

There are only about 10% of people who have ran W9R3 of C25K in 30 minutes or less, there was a poll some time back asking about the distance they got to on their graduation run, the majority were around 4.2/4.7 kilometers, second was around 3.5 km, only a few got sub 30 minutes on their graduation run.

Looking back on my old Smartphone I got to 4.2 kilometers on my graduation run last year, if I had carried on running up to 5K my time would have been around 36 minutes.

[Bike_and_Run Graduate]

Just run at your own pace and don't worry to much about the distance. I'm assuming this question relates to after you've completed C25K. I certainly wouldn't be focusing to much on your distance until you've graduated.

If you're able to run for 30mins 3 times a week your doing really good. After a few weeks you'll likely start to increase distance without trying simply because youre getting fitter, stronger and so start to get a little faster.

If you want a little extra help in those consolidation runs, there's a series of C25K+ podcasts which will also help.

[Hegley Graduate in reply to Bike_and_Run]

Thanks so much for mentioning the C25K+ podcasts - I'd never heard of them before! WIll definitely check them out.

[HuwC Graduate]

It took me about seven weeks of ‘consolidation’ and extending distance to get to a sub 30. I find I can only do my fast 5ks at Parkrun as there are lots of people I try and keep up with. I’m now a year after starting couch to 5k and have done four half marathons and do the 5k in around 28 minutes. So don’t worry about your time but keep going and you get faster. The most important thing is to keep up the three runs a week.

[Tasha99 Graduate]

Took me 4 months after graduation and at no point could I have held a conversation in that run 🤣

[LeeU Graduate]

It has already been said that only around 10% of people who graduate run 5k in 30 minutes, I can't run 5k in 40 minutes but it is a goal I'm working to.

Yesterday my wife, who is due to graduate on Monday when on a longer run with me, it was meant to be a 30 minute run for her but she plodded on and hit 5k in 57 minutes.

I know that's a slow pace but she still did it, my first 5k took me 50 minutes but I'm down to 42-43 minutes now.

[Silverfox1943 Graduate]

I graduated last Nov and plodded for a further 3 months before trying a park run, gradually increasing speed and distance to 5k.

But injuries started and knocked me back 3 months. Restarted doing everthing really slowly and only setting small targets.

I'm now doing my park runs in just under 35 mins, possibly never in 30.

Time will tell, but I'll plod on and just enjoy it. Thats what it is really all about. Stay injury free.

[Headmaster5]

I started C25K in Jan 2019. I can now (November) do 5k in 32 minutes. I’m late 50s and had never run before. It gets easier.

[Trawa]

I'm 36 female, slightly overweight who have not really exercised before and never run in my life. I graduated 2-3 weeks ago and did my 1st park run in 36:20 - but weather was great and terrain was flat.

Yesterday I run for 50min and did only 6K because the 20min up the slight hill nearly killed me! lol

[Larrykat Graduate]

I am a year on from graduation and my PB for 5k is 43:05. I can run steadily for an hour and a half now, so I am not bothered by the distance covered. I think the C25K title was used because get of your ass and get some exercise does not have the same ring to it and is not very motivational. Forget the distance, focus on time on feet, the distance will come, but pushing too hard leads to injury not improvement. Keep up the good work.

[paul1960 Graduate]

Just to echo what everyone as said time is not important I have been running for over 12months and I have done 5k 10k and hm and still cant get past 35mins for 5k so dont worry