Hiya guys, I completed week 2 run 2 this morning but I don’t know what to focus on more at this point? Endurance? Time? Pace? Distance? I used to complete park runs and I had gotten my pace down to 6:15 for 5k but I was walking for what seemed forever, now I’m doing a shorter distant with a worse pace and in more time, I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere?
Also do you guys start your run tracking apps (I use Strava) including your warm up and cool down walk or not? TIA
Welcome back to running. Time is the only thing to focus on... endurance can’t come without it, pace without endurance hurts, and distance is a product of pace and time. Treat every run as a recovery run... allow the muscles to recondition to this and in a few of months you’ll be faster without putting much effort into it. Slower running builds faster runners mensrunninguk.co.uk/top-fea...
Check out the guide to the plan for lots of tips to make this easier and better for your development. healthunlocked.com/couchto5...
Enjoy your journey back to 5k.
Thank you so much, this has helped me a lot to figure out what I should focus on, I can’t wait to get back to where I was (or better 🤞) than I was 4 months ago.
I had a couple of months off in December and January and was just getting back into it as we went into lockdown. A coach I follow suggested that every run should be done easy to make it the best part of the day. So I dumped all the speed sessions and just ran at a comfortable pace. I’m now HM training again and my comfortable pace has improved. I think I was doing a little too much tempo stuff earlier. My v02max is rising run by run... and according to Garmin my fitness age is 20 (I’m 48) which is a significant improvement. I was following a Garmin coach HM plan, but had to pause it as it’s not working fully since their outage... so had to find something else to amuse myself today. My best 5k of the year to date was 30:57 so I figured I’d go beat that... I’d have been happy with 30:55, delighted with sub 30... and if I hadn’t had to walk 3 times to socially distance I’d have been around 27 minutes... 28:03 shows on Strava, so I mustn’t grumble! Slow running really works!
Oh wow, this stuff really does work that’s great news, I think my fastest park run time was 32:37 and almost cried when I pushed myself extra hard on the last one before lockdown and only got 32:44, I can’t wait to get back on track and confident for when park run starts again 
Interesting post and article about running slow, but if it isn’t a stupid question, how slow is slow? My average pace for 5k is usually about 6’10” and even when I try to slow down and average 6’30” it feels like I am really slow, but I am guessing I probably need to be a lot slower than that to consider these as slow runs to build endurance etc. Is there a time I should aim to do 5k in for it to be at the right ‘slow’ pace? Thanks
It’s more to do with effort... which can make pace vary from day to day. I would call my 5k pace “uncomfortable” and then there’s comfortable and easy... there’s around a 2 minute per mile spread for me there on average. My 5k pace is consider 7/10 effort, comfortable 5, and easy 3-4. Today’s average pace was 9:02/mile... first two miles were 8:35 and 8:44, which was the pace I was pretty happy with... I’ve been running 10:30/mile or thereabouts most runs, and my Garmin plan has me running between 10:09 and 11:09 as my “easy” pace, which is perfect for me at the moment.
Have a look at the end of the article where he’s talking about training to heartrate... running to perceived effort is very similar, but doesn’t need a HRM.
Many thanks, I will pay a bit more attention to my heart rate zones and try to find a pace which keeps me more in my cardio zone as opposed to peak zone (according to my Fitbit), currently average heart rate is about 145bpm, which feels fine. Thanks
I’ve read that a slow pace is so you can still hold a conversation while running and/or walking, but this will vary for everyone, your average pace is quite fast so those extra 20s would be quite a bit slower (I’ve found out recently just how long 20s can seem when running)
Must admit I tend to run on my own so never really tried to have a conversation, but I will try talking to myself on my next run😀at least now with a few months of consolidation running, my breathing is a lot more relaxed and controlled. When I next run I will see if I can slow right down, as I averaged 5’35” on my last run (only 3km) but I put that down to the excitement of my first run in new shoes !!! I am sure that excitement will soon wear off !
It’s great these days. You can happily talk to yourself without people thinking you’re a looney. All you do is put earbuds in and they think you’re on a phone call lol.
That’s true I never thought of that !
Welcome to the forum and well done
your progress.
This guide to the plan is essential reading healthunlocked.com/couchto5...
and includes advice on minimising impact, stretching after every run, hydration and strengthening exercises, all of which will help.
C25k is about building stamina and endurance, not speed, hence the recommendation to jog at a pace at which you can speak clear, ungasping sentences as you run.
Speed develops once you have stamina and endurance.
If you want to measure your overall workout, then time the whole session.
If you want to know your running pace, just time the running.
Enjoy your journey.
Awesome, I’ll give that link a read now, I think I’m going to start recording after my warm up from now on. So should I complete the C25k then work on improving my pace? Thank you so much for your help 😁
Congratulations on completing W2r2! And a good pace too - well done! Because you used to run 5K in 6:15 (wow!) I’d suggest just letting your body find its muscle memory again as you build stamina back up!
I used to inc. the warm up/cool down walks in my Strava but I have just tracked the actual running this last week to get a more accurate pace/distance. I think it may have thrown me if I had made the change earlier though ...
Keep going - you machine!
Throw you in a good way or a bad way? 😂 and thank you so much, I can’t believe I lost motivation for 4 months after getting to where I was... it’s so much more difficult now 😅
I think throw me in a bad way ... I’d have got fixated on the pace too soon maybe?! It may feel difficult now but you are doing great! I labelled weeks 1-4 the ‘horrible run’ weeks - found them so much harder!
That still looks pretty fast in comparison to me.
Thank you! My legs are already starting to ache eek!! And I struggled to run the 90s more today than I did on Monday too, I think my body had just got used to the 60s and started to slow down 30s too early 😂
Are you in the UK? It is quite a bit warmer today than Monday so it felt harder for me too
Yes I am, that could be the reason, I never thought of that
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