My journey to 5K.

[stevenpeterdate]

I successfully completed the couch to 5K last September and managed the whole 5K in 34 minutes. Let it lapse over the winter but started again in February and am up to week6. Tips I found that helped me.

If you find a week tough, do it again to help build up the stamina.

In the early weeks on runs 2 and 3 use some of the walking recovery time to keep jogging.

Look up the following weeks runs and see if you can incorporate part of that into your current runs. Especially useful when going from week 7 to 8. On week 7 run 1 do the 25 minutes on the second run do 26 the third 27. Then the transition to 28 minutes for week 8 is simple.

For info I am 62 and until last year hadn’t run for over 30 years and I was never very good then.

Steve

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Welcome to the forum and well done on 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.

Enjoy your journey.

[MissUnderstanding Administrator On a break Graduate]

It’s really interesting reading how different people have followed the same programme. For me, it was important to try and stick to it (almost!) exactly as written so I didn’t try and go too far/fast then get injured. I can see that adding an extra minute or two to the runs by week 7 would be most likely be fine. I’m not sure that beginner runners (in general) should be deliberately aiming to keep running during the recovery walks, especially so early in the programme as week 2/3.

My top tip is just focus on one week at a time, or even one run at a time, and not worry too much about what’s coming next!

It sounds like you’re doing really well-good luck with your last few weeks of c25k.

[Instructor57 Graduate]

Well done with your progress on the re run of the program.I would advise that new runners stick to the program timings though .

It works 😁