First 10K: I did my first 10K today - hurrah! It... - Couch to 5K

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First 10K

Alpal2020 profile image
3 Replies

I did my first 10K today - hurrah! It was totally unplanned but I just felt I could keep going.

I did C25K at beginning of isolation and managed to complete within 2 weeks, have been trying to run 5K 6 times a week since then (about 11 times) and then today 10K! I'm slow, did it in about 72 minutes but hopefully that'll get my 5K time down?

Any tips most appreciated! :-)

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Alpal2020 profile image
Alpal2020
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3 Replies
IannodaTruffe profile image
IannodaTruffeMentor

Congratulations.........but I have to rain on your parade, simply to make it clear to other readers that your approach is highly unwise. Following a plan means doing it as set out, which includes rest days.

When you run, the impact creates microtears in your muscles, which repair and strengthen on your rest days, not while running. Without rest, repair and strengthening are compromised and injury risk increased.

If you want to be the best runner that you can be, then do non impact cross training on your rest days, which will be far more beneficial than running every day. It is not recommended for new runners to run on consecutive days until they have a minimum of six months regular running on their legs.

We are all capable of doing way more than our bodies are conditioned to do, but not without increasing our injury risk. Sticking to gently progressive training plans is the safest way to push our limits, whilst gently increasing our resistance to injury.

You have got away with it so far, but overuse injuries come out of the blue and can stop you from running for days, weeks or even months..........why take the risk?

You may find this guide to post C25k running helpful healthunlocked.com/couchto5... and perhaps follow the links to the posts from those who admitted that they had done too much too soon and regretted it.

Take care.

AlMorr profile image
AlMorrAmbassadorGraduate

As IannodaTruffe says you are risking injury, the isolation lockdown started less than 3 weeks ago, you completed C25K within 2 weeks and then went on to run a 10K, I normally congratulate runners on completing C25K and graduating to 10K but not this time, unless of course you have returned to running after a short break.

MarkyD profile image
MarkyDGraduate

Well done you.

You might care to research how to improve your pace, if you want to run 5km faster. Here is a hint: not by running 6 times per week, and not by a random approach.

Your only other post was announcing you’ve started C25K 3 months ago.

Can I suggest that you post on the Bridge to 10k community? We are here to support the novice runners and “I did C25K in 2 weeks, and suddenly ran 10km” is not encouraging to the vast majority of our community.

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