Week 8 Run 2

[Zelda7]

I've just finished W8R2 but I'm not making anywhere near 5km. I'm doing around 3.5km usually. If I go faster then I tend not to be able to finish the full session. Does anyone know how many kilometres I should be doing at this point?

[HappyNoodle Graduate]

Week 8 👏🏻🙌🏼👏🏻🏃🏻‍♀️

You run as many k as you actually do. The idea is to be able to run for 30mins. You may be able to do 5k in that time at some point but you may not. Celebrate the time and think about the distance later. My first 5k two years ago was nearer 40 than 30 mins and I didn’t get it to 30 mins, I injured myself not stretching, although I hope to this time!

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

You are doing great, so worry not about distance covered.

C25k is solely duration based and only a small proportion of graduates cover 5k in 30 minutes during the plan, as this poll shows healthunlocked.com/couchto5....

Graduation requirements are that you complete three thirty minute runs, preferably within a week.

[Redpanda101]

I can only guide you by my own experience. When I finally finished couch to 5k it had taken nearly 16 weeks. I had to re-run some weeks (When finding it to hard) and I did miss one week through injury. At that point I wasn’t at 5k, but I could run for 30mins, well mostly. I kept up the running and in couple of months I felt ready to join Park Run. Before the lock down I had run 26 Park Runs with times around 28mins. I regret not joining Park Run earlier as it really doesn’t matter if it takes you 40 or 50 mins to finish. If you need to Walk it’s not a problem. There are hundreds of people trying to do what you are doing and it’s nice to have a little support.

If context helps, I’m 56, male, and a year ago I found out I had horrendously high blood pressure. Now I’m running 15k ish a week and blood pressure is near normal.

Just keep going, you will get there.

[Seaside22 Graduate]

Don't worry about it - 3.5k just means that you're normal! The 5K in the title is really there just for snappiness. I think the thing is just to concentrate on one dimension at a time. For the moment that dimension is time. In the future it can be distance, speed or whatever you decide. Happy running.

[Crolla]

I don't think there's a rule or an average about how far you should be running by now. I completed the C25k two years ago, but it took a while for me to actually run 5k in 30 minutes. Even now, running three times a week, I only just scrape it. It's going to depend on age/gender and general fitness, I guess.

The name of the programme is a bit of a misnomer because really it should be Couch 2 Running For 30 minutes ... but that's not as catchy.

Anyway, good luck and happy running!