graduated

[busybee]

Ran third run of week 9 at the weekend - is there a follow on from couch25k could do with something to keep me motivated and even to extend the 5k a little!!!!

[Dansmum Graduate]

Congratulations on graduating busybee, hope to join you on Friday.

I understand that the new B210k podcasts will be on here this month, so keep an eye open for those. In the meantime there are quite a few Graduates on here running further or faster 5k's and hopefully one of them will be able to give you some advice.

Good luck and well done again.

[glendam52 Graduate]

cogratulations on graduating the programme I too have just finished so am hoping the new podcasts will be with us by the end of my holiday.

[Alaiyo Graduate]

Big congrats on graduation!

To take it to the next level, you have a choice to make: do you want to focus on running farther, harder terrain, or faster? (Whichever you pick is fine - and will boost the other stats too as a side effect.)

To run faster: find a way to track your pace. If you have some decent equipment (phone app with GPS, garmin, nike+, etc) this is really easy. If you just have the basics, perhaps pick a route you like and pay attention to where you usually get to at different times (or songs on your podcast, or updates from Laura on the podcast). Choose parts to speed up for briefly, and eventually increase your pace for longer intervals until you are just making better time. (Example: after Laura says I did my first 5 minutes, I will run the next 3 blocks faster, then return to my normal running pace. Then at 10 minutes, I will do it again.) Some people do the program all over again, but run "slow" during the walking parts and "fast" during the running parts, starting back in week 1.

To run farther (longer): Logistically, this is the easiest. Just don't stop running when the 30 minutes are up. Try to add no more than 10% time/distance to your runs each week, or at least stay in the ballpark. If I want to run longer, I usually just run straight through the cooldown, and perhaps let the podcast start over again. 10% of 30 minutes is 3 minutes, so ideally you would run for 33 minutes, but if you want to run 35, that is probably fine. Run through the cooldown, then have lots of discipline and be sure to still do the 5 minute cooldown walk afterwards.

Different terrain: Treadmill<running track<flat road<flat gravel path<hilly road<hilly path<trail running - (give or take). Unless you are already trail running, you can choose more challenging terrain. Treadmills are the easiest (although you can increase the incline to increase the challenge). Running on other surfaces strengthens different muscles even more. Hills are a killer cardio workout going up, and calf workout coming down. Running on (SAFE!) uneven surfaces will build up the stabilizer muscles even more while you run. You will find your workouts remain quite challenging if you choose harder routes, even if you go slower and run for 30 minutes only.

Good luck with your next phase! (P.S. It is also perfectly great to just run 30 minutes 3x wk as before. You will at minimum keep your existing gains, and probably get slightly faster and stronger without really thinking about it. The above is because you asked about an intentional increase in difficulty.)

[BettyTwinkle Graduate in reply to Alaiyo]

Thanks for all of the above, it is really helpful. I graduated 3 weeks ago and am doing Nike+ distance and trying to shave my time each time. Currently 34mins for 5km; maybe slightly helped this morning as a milk float was coming down the lane behind me, which was narrow so I would either have had to stop to let it through or run like stink to get to my finish .... voice telling me only 200m to go!!