That was way harder than it should of been , anyone else on day 1 thinking how the hell will I manage 5k without stopping?
Day 1 complete : That was way harder than it... - Couch to 5K
Day 1 complete
Written by
Maz_87
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73 Replies
•
I'm just hoping App does what it says on the tin 😁😁
When you doing No2?
We've planned for Sunday 🙂
Maz_87• in reply to
I want to go tomorrow but they suggest a break so I’m going again on Sunday too 😀 keep me updated how you do
• in reply toMaz_87
Do take the rest days they are essential 👍
• in reply to
No , you do what it says on the tin and read the help from the bogs and you’ll be fine
Yes me! And probably the majority of people here. I thought I would never do it, or 10k or 10 miles
But in my 50s, I did it and you can too.
The programme is great and really works.
Just stick at it and be prepared to be amazed🙌
Maz_87• in reply to
Ahhh yes , this is exactly the kind of encouragement I needed thank you 🙏 ahh I’m so excited
You will manage it if you follow the programme, you did it today which is excellent! 😊
Just keep going, don't give up..
Maz_87• in reply to
Thank you 😊
AlMorrAmbassadorGraduate
Trust the program, well done on starting C25K with run 1 of week 1 and welcome to the forum, run all the runs slowly and keep ridgidly to the program, no running on consecutive days as that could cause a injury, onwards and upwards to run 2 of week 1.
That’s brilliant advice thank you, I think that’s why I had to skip one of them I went a bit too hard on my first two runs then by run 3 I was still gasping for air 🙈 how embarrassing 😆 so I just carried on with my speed walking
Hopefully by run two I don’t have to skip two runs
IannodaTruffeMentor
Welcome to the forum and well done on getting started.
This guide to the plan is essential reading healthunlocked.com/couchto5...
Don't think about 5k, just concentrate on the next run.
Enjoy your journey.
Thank you 😊 one foot in front of the other and keep going ...don’t look ahead ....just keep putting that next foot forward
Pretty good advice fir life in general really isn’t it 😊
Thanks I’ll give that a read now
dont run too fast, take it easy, you will gradually build up. Its a nice slow jog you should be able to breathe and get tired in between but the gaps in walks and runs are great for a little wind down. I find it hard to pick my legs up more than anything. but it gets easier
Thank you 😊 I think I try to run too fast 💨 which is still slow
The hardest thing for me is I’m gasping for air where my lungs are tiny and weak but without pushing through they will never open up and gain strength so it’s a bit of a pain point that I just have to get past
Thank you 😊
We all learn slow then even slower, don’t rush it, take it easy, and on rest days yoga on you tube is good for breathing
I love yoga and haven’t done that in 2 years either
Ahh amazing advice thank you so much
I’m going to take it a lot slower
Look up slow Japanese running on youtube it’s just a short video
I know it sounds silly but to slow right down i practised indoors and improved posture, you won’t be slow forever I can speed right up for longer now and love intervals where i run until i’m puffed out then run really slow until breathing is back in control
Ooo this sounds really interesting thank you I’ll look into that today
Ooo I used to love interval training too , full pelt then rest
Slow running I’m going to have to really really train at but looks like it’s the key to being able to run for longer than 10 seconds 😂😂😂😂
I was diagnosed with asthma after a nasty bout of flu just before my 65th birthday. So I took up running and my lungs are so much better now. I very rarely have to use my inhalers now, unless it’s frosty.
That’s absolutely incredible I would be the happiest girl alive if I can stop using my inhailers all together
After 6+ hospitalised visits in the last 2 years and severe asthma since a young child/ baby I’ve never not used my inhalers daily
It would be my biggest achievement if I could do what you e done
Well done you must feel amazing for it 🎉❤️
lourunrunGraduate
Yep, me too and I managed my first 5km today 6 months after starting (with a few breaks for holidays and lurgies)
Speedy60Graduate
We all thought that on day one! Take it slowly and follow all the advice- you can do this 👊
UnfitNoMoreGraduate
Now I’m not... but if I take you back to my run one a couple of years ago:
Nice five minute brisk walk... and go... and walk, yeah that wasn’t too bad... and go... huh? That was the shortest 90 seconds ever... oh my god I’m gonna die...
And so it went on. Last November I ran a half marathon, and it was easier than the first run of C25K! That sounds ridiculous right? It’s true though... I’ve still to do a tougher session.
The difference between run one and run two was something to behold... and was down to a few people, but the three biggest factors were me doing some learning and the advice of OldFloss and IannodaTruffe and they’ll be guiding you on your journey too. The main thing is... I ran it like I was 16... I was way way too fast and it hurt. I’ve always been a 100% effort person... this shouldn’t be that... maybe it’s 50-60% as a newbie, now I run most runs at 40%. The key to distance running and this plan is to slow down. As my current in ear coach reminds me “it’s a timed run, it won’t end sooner if you go fast, so go at an easy effort to give”
The above mentioned IannodaTruffe has put together an FAQ page that covers almost everything you’ll need to know to get through this plan, and it’s advice that will still be true no matter how far you take running. Here it is healthunlocked.com/couchto5...
Reading and learning are as much training as the runs themselves... distance running is at least as much mental as it it physical... train well every day... run every other day... and you’ll achieve anything you want to.
So yeah, day one is brutal... and on day 1, 5k is impossible... but the impossible with work becomes a mere challenge in time... and you can rise to any challenge, just like you did today. When you first complete 5k, 10k is impossible... but not for long! And so it continues, as far as you want to go.
From one day 1 survivor to another... you can do this... enjoy your journey.
😱
This fills me with SO MUCH HOPE
thank you ,I think the quote “my first half marathon was easier than my first run of C25K” I will carry with me with every run from now on...
..,my mind is blown 🤯
I hope to in a year from now be able to reply to this same comment and say ...it’s true,after completing my first half marathon
At the moment that feels like a funny joke / miracle but I’m sure I’ll feel differently 6 months down the line
Thank you for your lovely insight and sharing your story
I never realised how fantastic this community is and how much I think this dude if it is going to be the thing that pushes me through those “I’m not doing it today I’m too tired” moments when I’m back working my 10-12 hour days at the salon
Thank you xxx
I remember saying “ I only ever want to run 5ks”
Then “ oh I accidentally ran 7k because I was enjoying the run”
Then “ perhaps I CAN run 10k but no more than that...”
Then last summer at the age of 66 I ran a Half Marathon distance. Took me over 3 hours but I did it!!
Now after a injury and a couple of illnesses I’ve just done C25k again and built back up to running for 30 mins again on alt days.
Keep checking in on here and you will get plenty of advice and support. Good luck
I think that’s where I went wrong too I’m always 100% effort and met my limit at run two on this run because I was going to fast maybe
Amazing advice I’m definitely going to do as you said and go 50-60 effort next time
You’ll do this... you’re learning already! Slower running builds your body for endurance... I have more reading on that subject if you want to understand the science behind what slower running will do to your body. mensrunninguk.co.uk/top-fea... although it’s a Men’s Running article, it works for everyone 🤣
I love reading up as much as I can on anything I’m learning so that’s perfect thank you 😊
All that getting to 5k will take is you not quitting... some good learning and some good old fashioned stubbornness is a powerful mix 🤣
Well stubborn sis my second name so I should be able to manage this 💪🎉
Come talk to us lots... there’s many inspirational people on here, many helped me along... when you’re having a bad day, someone has been there, and when it’s going great, we love cheering people along... you’re never alone. Right now in my running that’s important... I can’t run with anybody because of the current restrictions, but I never run alone, all you guys are with me.
I can already see how this runnning community is going to really help me when I want to give up
Irish-JohnGraduate
Seriously, I honestly never thought I'd even get to week four. Day one absolutely knackered me.
Four years later, thanks to the programme and this forum I'm moving up to a Full Marathon.
As unbelievable as the programme seems, it works. I promise.
Now that is AWSOME WOWA how inspirational
Good luck with your marathon your going to smash it
I’m so Glad I’ve started xxx
It's a bit long - but might be of usevto you. It's my post on my first Runaversary
One year ago.
June 1st 2016. Irish John is morbidly unfit, overweight, unhealthy, clinically depressed and looks and certainly feels twenty years older than he is.
Filled with a kind of weary curiosity, he sets off to see if he can do D1W1 of the preposterously-promising app he stumbled across while playing with a new cell phone.
Yep - weary curiosity.
Weary because I was absolutely bored to death with walking but it was literally the only thing that I was doing exercise-wise, and only about two miles of that a few days a weeks, weary because could not face the monotony and hassle of swimming at the only venue available - a usually crowded pool, and homicidal traffic around here scared even me from going out cycling. Since finishing a thirty year career that was also a lifestyle over a year beforehand I was literally dying by degrees mentally and physically - weary of life and myself.
Curious because running for sixty seconds did not seem TOTALLY impossible - but with Asthma, screwed up footbones, only about a year and a half off a twenty cigarettes a day (and sixty or more on weekends) almost forty year nicotine habit, two forms of asthma, and wearing jeans and ratty old trainers 'cos never in a million years was I going to buy 'Running Gear' - well, it would certainly not be something to bet on that I would get even get to a minute or maybe two of continuous running...but at least it would be a change from walking the damn Park and it would be interesting to see how far I would get before having to quit...
The only encouragement I had was having read a graphic account in the ads for C25K by a graduate who suffered the physical horrors of hell to get to graduation and - 'I DID IT!!! ! I damn well DID IT even though it nearly killed me!"
I could relate to that.
NOT the graduating part, Lord no - but the 'running nearly killed me' bit !!! For the first time in my life I got an inkling that MAYBE running was not 'something you can do relatively effortlessly or absolutely not at all.."
MAYBE it was something I could do a little tiny bit of...furthest I'd ever run continuously in my life was no more than a hundred yards and that was in a bona fide an emergency (and it completely knackered me!)
So off I set.
365 days ago I wondered if I could run for one minute maybe twice. I did not believe I would do the whole of Day One. It was just going to be a break in the awful monotony of my days...
But - I DID THE WHOLE DAMN THING!!!!...I managed to do ALL of DAY ONE!!
Granted a lady walking by me at the end had to be dissuaded from completing a 911 call for an ambulance for me. I was bent over double desperately trying to breathe through all orifices and was 'slightly blue' around the lips and eyes'....it didn't matter!! I had run the WHOLE STAGE!
Damn! Maybe I will keep going with this programme!!!
I kept going. My dream was to someday finish W3 and maybe see how far I could get in W4....
my dream was to run half way around the slightly-over- 7/10ths of a mile Park pathway without stopping....
my dream was to run once around it without stopping...
I must be dreaming if I think I can run two times, three times, FOUR times around this Park without stopping...
and finally my determination was to do the four and a bit laps that would let me graduate with 5K...
Which I did.
And then there was the wonderful 5 miles without stopping morning.
And then came the rather foolhardy and presumptuous 10K without stopping...
And a 33:27 5K race was in there among this last 365 days.
And of HUGE importance was the finding this great Forum and the genuinely open-hearted and decent people I have come to know here...
And their were LOTS of 'practice' days before and after graduation and no doubt more in the future, lots of 'I just don't WANNA finish the distance this morning' times, lots of 'Am I REALLY doing this?' Gremlins in all manifestations trying to stop me even on 'rather good run' days.
There was the accosting of the Park Pervert, getting hit by the 'Walking Meditation' Lady, the newly discovered gift for scrambling up a high wall when chased by slavering dogs, the asinine comments by the smirking passers by, the frustration of Pram pushers blocking the route, the rain and the snow and the ice and the cold... the temps in the high nineties and the humidity worthy of a Turkish Bathhouse...the fingers freezing in winter before finding gloves that fit without making me feel like Sasquatch...
All I have to do is go out the door in my Running Gear and I fully come alive every second day or so. And though I still run on my own, thanks to you all I never run alone...
This last year - what a gift!!!
Thank you C25K -and thank you all
That made me cry 👏absolutely well done you .wow!xxx
If I could do it anyone can It's the programme and Forum supporters that are special, not me
I will look forward to congratulating you on your graduation M
runwithdogGraduate
yes,i remember week1 and early weeks,gasping,beetroot face,watching the seconds
BUT
the plan works,drink plenty every day and it doesn`t matter how slow you are,all that just falls into place later.
so many people on here say `if i can do it,then any1 can`
well done
!
Thank you I really can’t wait to keep on with this and see what I can do in a month or two
Everyone’s comments are so inspiring
SueAppleRunGraduate
Day 1 nearly killed us, Willow was bent double gasping for breath and my puffing and panting sounded like a sick steam train, nearly a year later and I can run gently and easily for just over an hour albeit very slow and Willow can run gently for about half an hour mWe are 64 and lifetime smokers hence the loudness if breathing, i’m smoke free now and can run quietly for an hour but still not very fast
Keep it up and enjoy
Lol that was me today 😮 and wow ,an hour 🤯 that’s so good and well done that’s incredible that you no longer smoke...the fact that you used to smoke and can now run without sounding like a steam train gives me hope too because your smoking lungs would be similar to my asthma lungs 👌💪❤️
Nickray47Graduate
Well done on day 1.. I’ve just completed my first week and starting on week 2 tomorrow
That’s awsome well done 💪 how did your week 1 go?
limberlouGraduate
I struggled with 19 seconds in my first run.🤣I managed it though. Wasn’t quite at 5k by week 9 but I COULD run for 30 minutes. It took me 42 mins to do my first 5k.
Not many people managed the whole 5k by week 9 but you WILL run for 30 minutes!!! Trust the programme and if you struggle.. go slower and then slower still. Good luck 🤞😁
agirlinwinterGraduate
I thought I was going to die after the first run. However I graduated and I’m running for 30 minutes now. I’m not running 5K in that time - a lot of people don’t run 5K by the end of the programme. Keep going and let us know how you get on 👍
pippkinsGraduate
Welcome & well done in getting out there and doing your first run!
It's true - the first run IS the hardest!
And as others have said, take it SLOWLY - your body is learning to sustain a new movement for longer; tonight and tomorrow morning, you may feel like your muscles are complaining, big time! Mine certainly did 
but take your rest day, as this is when your muscles repair and strengthen, so don't cheat LOL! The aches will fade over the next few runs.
Japanese slow running (Niko-Niko) is what I used in my early weeks on C25K, it helped me so much as it prevented me doing a full sprint and wearing myself out. Don't fixate on how fast you can go at this stage, save that for graduation.
If you follow the plan, you WILL get there, I graduated this week and cannot believe what my body has achieved - from my 90 seconds of knackeredness to 30 minutes non-stop jogging and not wanting to stop - YES, you CAN do it too!
Trust the plan - happy runnings!! 
sTrongFuseGraduate
I started in March last year and have since gone on to run 2 half marathons. The secret is to just slow it down to the point where you think you can't go any slower, then slow down some more. The speed will come eventually, but first you need strength and stamina and that what this programme builds steadily.
Good luck, you can definitely do this.
Thank you so much for that advice to slow it down then slow it down some more to build strength and stamina 👌
Yeah me 😓😓
pete1212Graduate
Well done on your run and for getting started on c25k just trust the plan it does work brilliant forum lots of help and support and good advice make sure you have your rest days they are important happy running 👍
Mark1909Graduate
You will get there, we all stared somewhere, Apart from a slow mile on a machine, I hadn’t run for years and certainly not outside. But stick to the plan and if it doesn’t go your way week to week and it feels too much carry on with the run of the previous week and make that step up when you feel ready.
Starting running is shocking your body if you haven’t run for a while but I’m sure you will find it okay. Good luck and enjoy 👍
Hi, congratulations on doing run 1, that's the hardest step,
I felt the same after the first run but stick with it and keep it nice and slow, that's what I did and I graduated and believe me if I can do it anyone can 👍 believe in the programme and you'll be fine, you'll get loads of support here,
Good luck and most of all enjoy your journey 😊
Maz_87• in reply to
Thank you so much 😊
Yes 100% I did it today and I do admit the last few seconds of each run I had to slow down to a walking pace!! X
Yeah , on my first run I couldn’t believe how long a minute is but I’ve stuck with it and now on to week 2 , which seems a little daunting but I feel whoever put this program together is advising the right thing
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