Post C25K

[Summerblossom]

Hi 👋 I’m approaching the end of the C25K and I’m curious, at what point can you start running daily once you’ve graduated, and how long do you run for? I would like to run for 1 hour every day but don’t know how to build up to that.

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

6 months is the minimum recommended time you can start running on consecutive days after you graduate from C25K.

[John_W Graduate Ambassador]

It's going to take a long time before you are strong enough to sustain a daily 1 hour run. What you're asking of the body takes a lot of work and patience and you really run (pun) the risk of injury by doing too much too soon. Trust me, been there, plenty of t-shirts.

As a beginner, it takes 1-2 years of regular running for the body to completely adapt to the forces and stresses you're putting it under.

As above, give it 6 months of running 3 times a week, with maybe 1 of them getting a bit longer each week. And then build very very gradually. Transition to 4 runs a week (so once a week you do consecutive days) very slowly. And go from there. All the time, checking to see how the body responds.

But please be very very careful - running injuries (especially over-use ones) can creep up on you from nowhere and then ... BOOM! You're on the injury couch (IC) for 6-8 weeks and you've lost most of your fitness.

My advice for a beginner is certainly in the first 1-2 years, would be to have 2-3 rest days per week.

After that, you'll have a much better idea of how your body responds to regular running.

Build the habit first of all. And 'walk before you can run'!

Cheers

John

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

I am in agreement with John_W

The occasional consecutive day run after you have the very minimum of six months regular running on your legs might be okay, but running for an hour each and every day is a big demand and does not give your body any recovery time.

Your age and other fitness make a significant difference in how to answer your question.

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