C25K

[emo731]

Started week 4 today. Really struggled. Had my COVID jab yesterday. Hoping this is the reason. I’m 56 year old male. Overweight. Hope this thing gets better. Really enjoyed weeks 1-3. New run today which was a bit hilly. Gonna revert back to straight areas. Any advice appreciated. Cheers.

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

Congratulations on starting week 4, but I think you should have given yourself 48 hours after your Covid 19 vaccination, onwards and upwards. 😊 🏃🏾

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Welcome to the forum and well done on your progress.

Everything going on in our lives can impact on our performance as a runner. Restedness, hydration and nutrition are at the top of my list of variables that need to be optimised to enable enjoyable running.

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.

Enjoy your journey.

[nowster Graduate]

It might not just be the jab. Week 4 is a big step up in activity too.

[Mikew84 Graduate]

My advice would be to change as little as possible as you go through the programme. The sessions themselves are changing so try to keep to the same route, time of day etc. so that you're not adding change on top of change. I stuck to to the same routine as I went through C25k, to the point I thought I'd jinx it if I did anything different! Adding hills is definitely going to make a big difference. As for the jab, I've heard people say it left them feeling a bit woolly-headed the day after, so that may not have been helping you today, either.

Good luck with the rest of C25k! You will feel so good when you get to the end.

[emo731 in reply to Mikew84]

Thank you. Great advice. Have just read your past posts. Many congratulations on your progress.

[Mikew84 Graduate in reply to emo731]

You're welcome. Sounds like we both started from a similar position (mid-fifties, overweight!). Having gone through C25k, it really does feel like progress, because I could barely run in week 1.

You've clearly made progress too because you've made it to week 4 (which is no mean feat). Covid jab aside, you will inevitably have good runs and less good runs, especially as they start to get longer. But that's fine - all the while you're getting through them you are notching up progress upon progress.

Keep it up, and keep us posted!

[Rennur Graduate]

I did a 5K two days after my jab last week. It was my slowest so far. May have been the week's break for the bad weather as well. Beware - I felt rubbish 4 days after the jab for a day and a half (confirming how slow I am!) It hit Mrs R 7 days after. Of course, we may just have caught a run of the mill cold!

[joeyg76 Graduate]

I had the vaccine just before I was about to start week 4 too. I felt quite unwell after wards for a couple of days, so I gave myself a few days off to recover and repeated a couple of week 3 runs before I progressed to week 4.It’s quite a jump from week 3 to week 4. I wouldn’t introduce hills until I felt more comfortable running the longer times.

[Acmamba Graduate]

Well done on getting so far. I stayed on the flat until I completed C25K, sticking to the same route. I now do various routes including hills, but I think it's probably best to stick with the flat route to start with,

[Choufleurie]

I start the new weeks on my trusted flatter routes and get a bit hillier for each of the other two

[Dreamoh]

Not advice, but we had our COVID jabs about 3 weeks ago. We were both quite fatigued for about a week - I think you did really well to even get out and run. Impressive 🤩

[emo731]

Went back out yesterday. Week 4 run 2. Smashed it. Must have been my COVID jab that made Week 4 run 1 a bit difficult. Confident again.