Consolidation runs increasing by 10%

[Ourkel]

After the couch to 5k when increasing by 10% how often should you do this? Eg every run or every 3 runs?

[John_W Graduate Ambassador]

If you're wanting to increase - then base your increase on your TOTAL weekly load, either in time or distance. In the first instance base it on time.

So if you're doing 3x 30 mins one week, then 3x 33 mins the following should be ok. But please play it by ear and be careful.

[Ourkel Graduate in reply to John_W]

Thank you, this is what I planned to do so glad you could confirm, I used to do 3 runs in a week but have to have at least 2 days off now my runs are longer (I hope that's normal) so have been taking it easier

[coronaclimber Graduate]

I completed C25K a while ago and am now working on a bridge to 10K. I can't remember where I found it, but the programme I am using and a lot of the others I looked at tend to mix it up rather than increasing every run. That way you don't increase your overall load as much, which is probably a good idea if you are finding it takes longer to recover as you run further. You can do this approach using distance or time

Week 1 - 2.5k, 5K, 5.5K OR 15mins, 30 mins, 35 mins

Week 2 - 3K, 5K, 6K OR 15mins, 30mins, 39 mins

Week 3 - 3.5K, 5K, 7K OR 15mins, 30mins, 44mins

Week 4 - 4K, 5k, 8K OR 20mins, 30mins, 50 mins

Week 5 - 4k, 5k, 8k OR 20mins, 30mins, 50 mins

Week 6 - 4k, 5k, 9K OR 20mins, 30mins, 55mins

Week 7 - 4k, 5k, 9K OR 20mins, 30mins, 55mins

Week 8 - 4k, 5K, 10K OR 20mins, 30mins, 60mins

This way by week 8 you are running 10K and a total of 19K in the week whereas if you increase every run in length you will be running 30K a week by the time you reach the 10K target.

They say you can do the runs in any order so what I have been doing generally is the long run on a Monday then the shortest one on Wednesday, then the 5K on Friday and I try to run the 5K at a faster pace than I run the 10K. Then I have two days rest before the next longer run. However if you go out on the Monday and feel tired you can cut it short and then do your longer one later in the week so it does allow you to vary the programme quite easily depending how you feel. You could also take 2 days in between if you wanted and do 9 day "weeks" and the same as with c25K you can repeat weeks etc. Just see how you feel

I don't think there is a podcast but I just use Runkeeper to announce 1K laps so I can keep track of how far I have run (you can set it to announce 1/2k laps in those first few weeks but I just used the 1K and guessed the distance.

I do 5 minutes brisk walk before ad after each one, the same as in c25K and set runkeeper going at the end of the warm up.

It seems to be working pretty well for me and I am running 8K now. Good luck.