There has been a lot about pace and distance in the chat recently here’s my story…
I graduated 3 months ago and have done 3 Parkruns so far (what a great organisation!) I was determined to go faster on my second PR. Big mistake! Took me about 20 minutes to realise I was struggling, my breath wasn’t settling like it usually did, then I had pain in a calf muscle (I had had no injury all the way through C25k) I Realised I had to slow down and my breathing eased almost immediately the calf muscle thing was bearable and I managed to finish. I had beaten my time BUT at a cost. No major injury but it took at least 5 days before I could contemplate going out running again. A foam roller helped to gently stretch the muscles in this time. Then I did a couple of short (20min) slow recovery runs and was shocked to discovered these runs are aptly named and actually felt therapeutic. Running at the correct pace can, and should, feel easy and comfortable. In my next Parkrun I was only thinking of keeping my breath steady and finished feeling great. Still not doing 5K in 30 mins (injury inducing pb 36m 19s) but I feel good that I’m pursuing my goal to improve my health and have learned the slow and steady lesson. I believe that as stamina/fitness/strength improve by simply getting out there healthily, my time will improve when my body is ready. I don’t need to push it but if I do there are intelligent (planned/organised/healthy) ways of doing it.
Written by
Jog176
Graduate
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Thanks for such an honest and informative post Jog176 . So many C25Kers and recent graduates find it super-tempting to try to go a bit too fast a bit too soon - I know I did!
You're right, taking it slowly will minimise injury risk. It will also help you to build the aerobic base you'll need to build speed and/or distance over time, if that's what you choose to do in the future.
Absolutely. Don't push for speed at the moment. If you do, keep the run at that pace very short (eg. intervals).
Get lots of miles under your feet. Gradually increase how far you run. At some point you'll surprise yourself.
My surprise was when I casually went under 5km-in-30min without thinking about it, as part of a longer run, about 9 months after my first graduation (in which I did exactly 5km in 30 minutes but also picked up a nasty doubly sprained left ankle from overdoing it). Doing 10km under the hour happened a few weeks later.
Thanks - I actually read your post about managing increases in pace before my Parkrun 2 - now reading it again I’m understanding and feeling way more patient with myself.
Bang on Jog176 and as they say in Parkrun "It's a run not a race". From what I have seen so far if you start C25K as a non runner then your time was quite exceptional as in excellent. I find what works for me is finishing and knowing I could still run to catch a bus for example! I gave out the tokens at my Parkrun last week and probably too many runners were running for PB's and exhaustion. It didn't look very enjoyable. Whatever!!!!!
I had the same experience as nowster . When I started running lots of long, slow miles, after a while my pace just naturally increased. I had an epic run which I thought was just an easy run until I looked and saw that I’d set new personal records for 1k, 5k and 10k. The best bit was I just felt like I was gliding along like a gazelle, enjoying every minute. For full disclosure, not every run of mine is like that!
I’ve started listening to podcasts where elite runners talk about their training. If running mostly at a conversational pace is good enough for Eliud Kipchoge, it’s good enough for me! It’s so counterintuitive that running slowly leads to going faster that I still have to keep reminding myself that I’m not doing anything wrong by running at a pace I enjoy. Plus, it’s not even just about the numbers anyway.
Thanks for the post reminding us all about something really important!
Thanks for this post, a timely reminder! Unfortunately ‘Couch to 5K’ is a bit of a misnomer, but ‘Couch to Running Non Stop For 30 Minutes’ is a bit of a mouthful 😉
Some of us will never manage a 5K in 30 minutes…I’ve been running for over 2 years now, and my speediest was around 41 minutes. I’m now more around the 50 minute mark…taking it slow and easy!
Have you tried Nike Run Club? It’s a free app with a whole range of guided runs. Some really useful ones discussing pace/speed/effort are “Easy Run” (25 minutes), “First Fartlek Run” (19 minutes), and “Next Speed Run” (25 minutes). I will say that these are all with Coach Bennett, he’s a bit ‘marmite’…and there’s no warm up/cool down…their warm up is easy running, so you may want to tag on your brisk walking.
Just downloaded NRC this week - have done two runs and find the guided runs helpful and a good follow on from c25k. Think I’m going to like it.
Didn’t make Parkrun today but went out with coach B for a relaxed ‘distance audio guided’ 5K. So no time pressure and the appropriate chat kicks in when you get to certain points in the run (very clever). Went slower and felt great at the end. Still knew I’d exercised and celebrated achievement with coach B. I’m going to do my next Parkrun with coach B.
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