what’s going on with week 6?

[Taddi]

just finished week 5, feeling good, thinking ok, each week now must be just increasing the time from 20 to 30 minutes…

then I looked at my next run. Why does week 6 go back to intervals? Isn’t this going backwards? Not sure how I’m supposed to feel about going from a 20 minute run to a 5, but it’s not positive!

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate]

The progression is there. Look at the weeks as a whole. Compare the total time you spend running in week 5 with week 6

Run 1:

5mins, 5mins, 5mins vs 5 mins, 8mins, 5mins

Run 2:

8mins, 8mins vs 10mins,10mins

Run 3:

20mins vs 25mins

[Instructor57 Graduate]

Take your time with week 6 runs 1 and 2

They catch a lot of people out as they feel invincible after the 20 minutes run .

Remember, this is not just about the run time, its also about pacing

[Cmoi Graduate]

You're not supposed to feel anything Taddi ; you can only feel the way you do!

As MissUnderstanding explains, the progression is there, and as Instructor57 says, it's easy to get caught out by week 6 runs 1 and 2, going off too fast thinking that intervals will somehow be easy after 20 minutes' running in week 5.

Please ignore any temptation to go faster and/or do a bit more - the C25K programme works. Happy running!

[John_W Graduate Ambassador]

"from a 20 minute run to a 5"

Look at the TOTAL amount of running time. You are being asked to run for a total of 5+8+5 mins , i.e. 18 mins.

This is an understandablemistake that a lot of people make when being guided by the app .

If you were designing C25K yourself, how would Week 6 look to you?

Work backwards from 3x 30 mins in Week 9 and see what you come up with ... interesting thought experiment!

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate]

”How am I supposed to feel” is a really interesting question and I think Cmoi has nailed it (as usual!)-you aren’t “supposed” to feel anything specific. The run is the run. Clever people have put ten programme together so over a period of time you are most likely to achieve a specific thing. This is just the next training run. I’ve been working up to half marathon distance and every single week has started with a fifteen minute, relaxed and comfortable run. That’s less than you did on your last run. But over the course of the training, the long runs get longer, intervals happen (slightly differently but still intervals) and you get fitter and stronger. Every run has a purpose and it’s just impossible to keep increasing distance/time forever.

How I feel about runs really changes. Sometimes I can’t wait to do them and feel a huge high after. Sometimes is a drag to get out, I hate it the whole time and I’m only pleased that I managed to complete it despite how rotten a time I was having. I run because I am a now runner and on balance, I have many more runs that I love than ones I don’t. Not all runs will feel amazing and that’s ok. It doesn’t make you any less of a runner if you have a duff one. In your position, I would use that walking time that you’re not particularly looking forward to to enjoy your surroundings, or listen to some music, or even think back to the beginning of the programme and how far you’ve come.

Really good luck and hope it’s a better run than you’re expecting. 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️