I'm doing a course run by a local leisure centre and am on week 6. I'm a complete novice, not a natural runner and am really slow! BUT, I've kept going every week and can do my minutes (did week6 run1 last night, week6 run2 this morning), and while it's a really hard slog I keep going albeit slowly.
I get the impression that week 9 will be 5k, and I've been told that no matter how long they have to wait for me to do it they'll be cheering me on - at my current speed 5k will take about an hour (not the 30 mins stated) and i dont think i can run for an hour 😫 So, my question is should it be the 5k (no matter how long it takes) or just the 30mins (no matter how far you go)?
Please don't say to run faster. I'm really doing my best and am really struggling with everyone else flying past me, I feel bad enough that even the snails are overtaking me, I don't need to feel worse!
Thank you
Written by
marshaeth
Graduate
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Week 9 is the same as all the others-you just run for the allowed time. Keeping it steady and at a conversational pace is absolutely the right thing to do. There’s no need to speed up. You don’t have to cover 5k to graduate. Most people don’t! You’ve done brilliantly so you don’t need to add an extra requirement to also run 5k in 30 minutes. The programme is badly named in that respect!
EDIT I’ve just remembered this post deals exactly with your question….
Thank you, that has put my mind at rest! I could have written one of the replies on the other post you linked to about the snails laughing as they whizzed past lol that made me chuckle! Thank you 😀
Glad to help out! I hadn’t spotted you’re a newbie here. There’s a brilliant little guide to the programme here with lots of helpful hints and tips. Well worth a read. Most important is keeping it slow and steady at a pace where you can talk in full sentences without gasping. Most of us go too fast! There are a lot of snails here-it’s a great way to run.
Hi, thanks for that! I don't usually run consecutive days, but this week it was either do it or miss out on a run as I've only got one other day free to do it! I figured as a one off it'll be okay!
Hey you are doing brilliantly, and as others have said week 9 is 30 minute run and it doesn't matter what distance you do, I've been running over 3 years now and I can run a bit over 3k in 30 minutes and that's on a good day but I've built time slowly and can run 10k and often run 6 or 7k but I will never be able to run 5,k in 30 minutes. Don't look at others, comparison really is the thief of joy, just run and be proud of what you can do and certainly don't try to run an hour after only 9 weeks running you would risk injury
Well done to you marshaeth what you've achieved so far is tremendous. The important thing is the 30 minutes how ever far you run. More experienced runners here will give you much better advice but I really believe this is the bottom line 😁
It seems to be a common thing with groups offering C25K courses, the final run is your graduation run and that is held at a Park Run. For most people though that will be running for AT LEAST an extra 10 mins which is I feel a big jump for most. It can act as an incentive, the whole running with the pack thing but maybe a couple of weeks consolidating would be good before 5k?
Bear in mind though that there's absolutely no obligation to run all of a parkrun. It would be perfectly possible to do the C25K warm-up walk, run for 30 minutes, and then walk to cooldown for as long as necessary.
That said, parkrun and social running aren't my thing. I simply wouldn't have signed up for group runs followed by graduating at a parkrun, far too stressful for me.
Most replies are assuming you are following the OneYou app. If you are doing a course that’s led by someone be guided by them because they might not be following the same version of couch to 5k. But remember two things: first, you have got this far without being left behind so why assume week 9 will be different? And second, by week 9 you’ll have three more weeks of training under your belt so you’ll be a stronger runner than you are today because the training does work, that’s why we do it! Of course you couldn’t do that long a run today but you don’t have to: that’s what the next three weeks are preparing you for.
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