Tech question

[Asthmaticsnail]

Hi, for those of you who track your distance and pace with Fitbit etc, when do you start recording? I’ve been recording from when I start my warm up walk and finishing it when I’ve done my warm down (and sometimes forgetting and stopping it about half he later) but I’m trying to measure any improvement I’m making and I’m not really sure if I should set my Fitbit onto the excercise - run just as I actually start to run - ie when the 5 mins warm up is done. What do you all do?

[SueAppleRun Graduate]

When we were doing c25k i started recording at the beginning including both warm up and cool down, by the end I started recording running oart only, warm up for us was about half a kilometre walking, now we walk for a while then when we feel ready to run we press go, i don’t think it matters too much as the programme progresses you and over time you will notice natural speed increase as you get fitter and stronger anyway That’s probably not a very helpful answer though

It’s an individual thing

[Asthmaticsnail Graduate in reply to SueAppleRun]

Thank you, it’s just that I think I’m actually slowing down instead of speeding up although I’m definitely getting fitter - but maybe I’m going easy on myself and not getting so out of breath because I’m slowing up. I think I’ll (try and remember to) set it when I start running and stop as soon as I stop. I’m not worried about speed - I know I’m very slow - but it would be nice to see progress however small and feel achievement so I don’t loose my way.

[SueAppleRun Graduate in reply to Asthmaticsnail]

Slowing down isn’t a bad thing, what week are you on? the longer the runs got the slower we ran, then one day we realised our slow easy run that we could keep up fir half an hour was faster than our flat out breathless runs we did in the beginning, I have run 10 k twice without stopping and it took 1hr 43 mins, I’ve seen people run it in an hour but it’s till the same distance The joy of being able to run and know we are fitter and stronger than before we started is the prize, I’m 65 by the way so will never be fast

[Asthmaticsnail Graduate in reply to SueAppleRun]

Just completed my third run of week 8 this morning. 😊

[SueAppleRun Graduate in reply to Asthmaticsnail]

That’s brilliant, I think we were still logging the warm up and cool down walks until we graduated then felt a bit like cheaters and stopped suddenly we could run the whole 30 minutes comfortably and beyond, it really is some journey

[Diabeticdaddy Graduate]

I always include my warm up and warm down. My runs can vary but I can feel improvement by completing the week moving onto the next. I think the program is designed in such a way that you see improvements week to week.

[limu_mu Graduate]

You will definitely notice some improvements with the C25K plan, one thing I learnt that I wish I could tell my pre-graduate self is not to get too obsessed with numbers! All your runs will be different. 👍🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♂️

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

If you want to measure your running, measure your running. If you want to measure your overall workout, measure it all.

Please don't expect to be faster or run further run on run. Running is not like that especially when working through a training plan, such as C25K, which has different weekly durations.

[Sparkey5000 Graduate]

I record from the start of my walk mainly because then phone goes in my bum pocket and I’m not fiddling while starting to run. Totally personal choice.

[Hidden]

I have a Garmin watch and I use both my phone as well as my watch. My phone I put WITH warm up and cooling down (but I delete that run afterwards) just so I can hear when I have to do what. And my watch I start when starting to actually run and turn off when the running is over and I have to start the cool down.

I was wondering about the same like you, but I decided that I want my runs recorded, not my warming up and cooling down as those don't matter.

[Killerblue]

When I was doing Couch 25k I didn’t record until I was into it a while as I didn’t know how to so I just did what Jo Wiley told me to do. Since then I’ve been bought an Apple Watch and I’ve found Strava and NRC. I’ve now gone the opposite way and record on my watch from the moment I leave my house so I get the whole time, distance, pace etc then I start Strava and NRC on my phone when I start to run so I know exactly how much I have run and pace etc. My phone and watch also record automatically my steps which I watch each day to see how I’m doing 🤗 Strava is the amount that I use in any posts.

[Tasha99 Graduate]

Yeah don’t measure the warm up and cool down. You’ll be able to see when you start doing the runs with no breaks but really don’t worry about it until way after graduation in fact you should be slowing down as the runs get longer.

[Asthmaticsnail Graduate in reply to Tasha99]

Thank you - I definitely am slowing. I’m about to start week 9 next week and I was hoping I might get faster but I’m thinking after today’s run was a slog - just getting to the end is a bonus!! 😬

[Tasha99 Graduate in reply to Asthmaticsnail]

Getting faster takes months and months. And if you try to go faster ask the time, you and you getting slower due to fatigue. Slow running makes you faster. With the occasional faster run every so often.

[Asthmaticsnail Graduate in reply to Tasha99]

Thank you. Maybe I’m just expecting too much of myself then. I am mostly just happy to battle My ‘don’t want to do a run’ demon & when I actually do do a run I then have to battle my ‘can’t do this run’ demon so IProbably couldn’t cope with a ‘you were no fast enough’ demon too. 🤣

[Mikew84 Graduate]

I only bought a watch around week 3 or 4. I measured the whole session while I was still doing intervals (so up to the end of week 6) but I'm not sure if it gave me any meaningful information, other than knowing how far I'd travelled each time.

From week 7 when all the sessions were single runs I started recording just the running itself. It's nice to see small improvements, as long as you don't get disheartened when you do a run that's slower than the last one! Since graduation I've actually got a bit slower - in fact completely stationary at the moment as I've had issues with my left knee and right ankle

[Asthmaticsnail Graduate in reply to Mikew84]

Oh no! Sorry to hear that. Rest up and get better soon.

[swissfish Graduate]

For the interval runs (ie those with run - walk - run - walk etc) I used to record the whole thing including warm up and warm down, because I didn't want to have to constantly stop & start recording.

But for the longer runs I record only the running part.

John

[Zip54 Graduate]

I record the whole thing including warm up / cool down walking. I've set my fitbit to record 5 minute laps so I get split timing for every 5 minutes then I can see how I'm doing during the run and separate out the warm up / cool down. This obviously only works for run lengths which are a multiple of 5 minutes.

[Asthmaticsnail Graduate in reply to Zip54]

Crikey, that’s technical 😊 I’ve only just worked out how to put it on run mode 🤣 that does actually sound really useful as I bet I’m fasterFor the middle five minutes. I’m going to investigate thank you. 😊

[Zip54 Graduate]

😊 The other good thing is it gives my wrist a buzz every 5 minutes so I'm no longer dependant on the c25k app telling me how long I've done - great for after graduation.