I’ve completed week 6 today, I’ve never tracked distance until today’s run. I did 3.10km in the 25 minutes I was running - I know everyone says go slow but is this too slow? It’s about 5 miles an hour which when I go onto MyFitnessPal to enter calories is just a walking pace. I was happy to be able to complete the 25 minutes without stopping but if all I’ve done is walk faster than usual that doesn’t feel like much of an achievement! My heart rate was around 140-50bpm for most of the time so I was exerting myself! Just wondering if anyone else had been measuring their distance and not got as far as they had hoped?
Thanks!
Written by
Rainn1
Graduate
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There’s no too slow! Your pace is one that will serve you well and help your body develop rapidly.
I’d contact UA about MyFitnessPal... no way 5mph is walking pace. Sure, some race walkers can do it, but there’s no way that the rest of us can for any length of time... I’d be shocked if the average person could do half a mile at that speed.
I was looking forward to running some events from April to November this year, which isn’t happening... so I’m still following the training I had planned, but I’m refusing to do any speed work. When my plan says it’s speed or tempo day, I just run the distance comfortably... in the long run it’ll benefit me.
Numbers are interesting... but can a number define your run? What if you couldn’t see any numbers? What if you just had to go off how you feel about the run? That’s the way I judge my runs... if it was enjoyable I’m happy... if it was a longer run than I’ve done before, I’m happy... and every run is helping my future running. No app can measure these things, but they are (or should be) why we run. I do record my runs, but I run to perceived effort... I look at the stats, but I don’t care about them.
Thank you for your really encouraging words. I did feel absolutely elated when I completed the 25 minutes non stop and very proud of myself until I saw the distance on strava which brought me back down to earth with a bit of a bump. Maybe for the next few weeks till graduation I won’t bother tracking and look at improving pace once I’ve got a few more weeks under my belt (and a few more stone off!)
Yep, I wouldn't get hung up on stats, go by how you feel. I'm pretty sure some walkers could overtake me.... but "am I bovered?" naaaaah, I know I'm improving with every run. So hey ho and off I go 🤪
I got overtaken by two proper ‘runners’ a few nights ago, one stopped to have a wee in a bush and I still didn’t catch him up (quite glad though) haha
Measure performance by comparing yourself now to before you started the programme. There is a definite improvement and if you continue to run, you will continue to improve. Good luck!
Thank you - 6 weeks ago running 60 seconds felt like I’d set fire to chest and my legs were made of wood. Last night I felt like I could have gone on running forever!
I did a 4 mile walk (6.43 k) couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see if I could finish in under an hour. 59 mins 20 sec later and I couldn't have gone much faster without breaking into a jog, My fitness pal could have got another mile in, hard to believe.
I’m walking just over 7k on the days I don’t run and have been trying to get under 1 hour 15 but I just can’t do it, you’re right it’d have to be a jog so I suppose that does tell me my pace is defiantly faster than walking when I’m ‘running’
I really appreciate you taking the time to do the maths it certainly puts it into perspective! It normally takes me about 1 hour 15 minutes to do my normal 7k walk which my normal walking pace - can’t imagine doing 20k in that time!! I think I’ll just stick to using MFP to track calories for the time being and disregard what it thinks of my pace
I’ve just done mine today and I was slower than you ha ha.. I think pace doesn’t matter at the mo it’s stamina .. speed will come in time.. I’m just chuffed I did it and comfortably 😁 we’ll done btw 👏
My 15 year old daughter has been coming out with me since Wk5 (we're doing Wk9 R3 tomorrow). She doesn't have her mother's sheer determination to keep going (spurred on by me telling myself, "I am NOT repeating this run!" ), so she will stop running and walk beside me for a bit, which must look interesting to anyone passing us. Who cares? We're not fast (I hope we can get faster) but we're very determined...!
That’s so funny, most of the time I’m running I’m also saying to myself “I’m not repeating this run” over and over - I’ve even said it out loud a few times but luckily the only spectators to my runs are the cows in the field - they’ve seen some sights this last 6 weeks haha
Love this! My daughter can walk quicker than me running for sure too! I’m slower than a slow thing running, and always feel elated if I catch a walker (a rare occurrence). I also often feel sorry for walkers who stand aside for me in country lanes, because they really don’t know how long they are going to have to stand there waiting for me to shuffle along!
I’m so glad it’s not just me who feels bad about that! Do you feel the need to try to speed up just so they’re not waiting so long? I do, crazy really!
Congratulations on completing week 6! Isn't this an amazing plan which brings us from not running at all to running 25 minutes in a row in such a short time? I still cannot believe it.
I felt right from the beginning that my distance would be much shorter at the end of the course as I don't only run slow but also have very short legs which make tiny little steps. 😂 When I first tracked the distance at the end of week 5 I saw that I had been right but I was so proud of myself for managing the run which I had been nervous about for weeks that I didn't really care. I will complete week 7 today and my average pace is 6.7 k/ hour so significantly slower than yours.
I think that maybe 6 k per hour might be a good walking pace and that, as already mentioned in other replies, MFP's info is utter nonsense. Have you considered to make them aware of their lofty and unrealistic info and to let them know how discouraging this can be for people?
While I don't like the thought too much that it might take me about 45 minutes at some point to run 5k I think that it is much more important that I have the stamina to run for 30 minutes non-stop which I am now convinced I will have. So I still track the runs as it also helps me with defining a good route for the longer runs, however, I try to not focus on pace too much. It wouldn't really help to force ourselves to go much faster or to make bigger steps and to end up totally exhausted or even injured which might result in us not being able to run for weeks, would it? My personal plan now is to get to the 30 minutes first, to do this for several weeks and to (literally) slowly start working towards 5k then. Enjoy the next runs!
I think I’ll contact their support team after the responses to my post! I needed to get in touch anyway as it also doesn’t accurately import my Fitbit steps!
I think I’ll do the same, just focus on getting to 30 minutes and take it from there on pace/ distance. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back soon and say I’ve done it
I used to feel disappointed by my distances. I've graduated but started again after stopping for quite a while and am determined this time to get to 5k. When I graduated 1st time, my furthest distance was 4.7k and I was disappointed until I was reminded that the plan is aiming to get you running for 30 minutes not aiming for a specific distance, and I was doing that.
My daughter has come out with me once and commented that she thinks I'm running a bit faster this time round. Yaay! Good luck and keep going 😊😊
When I graduated I was running at around 8 min/km and this week I managed my very first 5k in 32 mins. I was so amazed as I really didn’t think I could get even close to that. I’m 60 and have never run and am not what one would call having an athletic build but I did it - and if I can anyone can! Just focus on building your stamina at the pace you alone are comfortable with and look at building distance once you’re regularly running for 30 mins at a time. Enjoy!
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it certainly puts it into perspective! It normally takes me about 1 hour 15 minutes to do my normal 7k walk which my normal walking pace - can’t imagine doing 20k in that time!! I think I’ll just stick to using MFP to track calories for the time being and disregard what it thinks of my pace 
Week 6 Run 3
Week 6 Run 3- FAIL
Week 6 Run 3 done....
Week 6 Run 3 ✅
week 6, run 3 done!
