Should I try to speed up?

[BobDylan67]

I did my first 30 minute run today. I didn’t find it too hard, but I only covered 3.2 km. I don’t seem to be able to go faster

[Determined55 Graduate]

I think I’m about that speed too! I thought about whether I’d like to go quicker or run for longer and I’ve decided running for longer is more important and maybe better for me 🤷‍♀️?

[John_W Graduate Ambassador]

Very simply... no.

The fact that you didn't find it too hard is actually excellent. That means you are going at a perfect pace.

There is no requirement to do 5k despite the catchy title. It's a time-based program. The requirement is to run (jog!) 30 minutes, 3 times in Week 9. Nothing more or less.

Only 10% of graduates get to 5k in 30 minutes, so you're in the vast majority.

Carry on what you're doing, it's working well!

[BobDylan67 Graduate in reply to John_W]

Thankyou. I thought the majority got to 5k. I’ll keep going at that pace and maybe in the future I’ll get a bit quicker.

[John_W Graduate Ambassador in reply to BobDylan67]

In fact, it's less than 10% according to this poll:

healthunlocked.com/couchto5....

When you graduate and then consolidate, you'd be best focussing on increasing the time on your legs, by lengthening your runs a bit each week, rather than on speed. Much healthier and sustainable way of running in the short to medium term.

[a_in_gsr Graduate]

Thats okay! I graduated c25k last year and looking back... all that I would have done is slow down! Right now you have gone from not running at all, to running 30 minutes. At this stage, getting time on your feet is the most important, as you are tying to build an aerobic base from which to build things like more mileage, and ultimately speed from. But you can't do those things without an aerobic capacity!

After c25k, as you slowly up the amounts of km you run, it is likely you will naturally drop your pace. This is normal, and it comes just from running more, especially at the beginning. For example, in the year I have been running I have lowered my easy day run pace by over a minute/km. This has come just from running. Getting faster takes time!

Ultimately, right now, the goal is to make running feel doable, and ultimately easy. From there, you can slowly up your mileage, and form there comes speed.

[Irish-John Graduate]

Five years on, and my pace barely wavers from a solid 38 min 5k

Very slow if I compare it to Mo.

Lightspeed if I compare it to my Couch days

My feeling is that after Graduation and Consolidation, after a while the vast majority of us find the perfect nexus between "fun" and "achievement".

I COULD half kill myself by eventually being "a lot" faster - but thats no fun.

And I COULD just trundle along with my "slow" 5kms - but that would get boring.

So - not being built or equipped for speed, I get my kicks from distances

I like that nowadays 5km is "maintenance", 10km a "good working run"

Ten miles - a fun challange.

HM - I know I have put in a challanging effort.

And the one FM so far - dang, that was a very tough but very fulfilling run.

I am presently really tempted to enter the upcoming MC 50k...but sanity tells me to get at least two more FMs under my belt and then decide

And basically thats the best thing anyone can do - decide for themselves what floats their boat

Hope this is helpful and wishing you many happy miles in your future

[BobDylan67 Graduate in reply to Irish-John]

Thanks, great advice 👍

[Voldatort Graduate]

I ran around that speed today as well, clocking just over 3km in 30 mins but I tend to carry on for a bit as have been finding that 4km is my favourite distance 🤷‍♀️ Post graduation.