Week 9 run 1, the end is in sight - or is it the end of the beginning?

[Chocotwit]

Well, I have finally done it: run non-stop for 30 minutes. I am feeling very pleased with myself if a little sore! Knees are ok, ankles are OK, hips are OK, self-belief is better than it's ever been! OK, only two more of those to go and then...

What?

Wondering whether to: (1) keep with the 30 min runs for a few weeks, and try to go a little further each time (I'm NOT doing 5k in 30 mins yet, that's for sure!)... (2) add 2- minute increments each week til I'm doing 5k, albeit in more than 30 mins... or (3) do a mixture. Probably (3) although I do worry that without Laura telling me what to do I'll lose motivation, especially as it gets colder / damper / darker... so maybe I should do the 5K+ podcasts next.

What do you think? What worked for you?

[Oldgirl Graduate]

Well done on getting to week 9, be proud as well as pleased you deserve to be both.

Your right to start thinking ahead and planning, make up some nice playlist music of your choice, then download the new podcasts NHS C25K+, I love the Speed one, its short and sweet and will help to build your strength and stamina and build up your speed too, mix it with a longer run aiming at getting to the 5K so perhaps plan out a 5K route for yourself. I still mix up my running this way and it makes it much more interesting. At the moment I'm concentrating on hills, I need to master them to give me the confidence to enter more 5K events which is something I've put off doing apart from Parkrun. Oh thats something else you could perhaps give a try to, check out if you have one in your area and give it a try, you'll enjoy it i'm sure. Good luck for your graduation, won't be long now

[Chocotwit Graduate]

Thanks Oldgirl, excellent advice I'll definitely try this approach. There is a regular Saturday park run that DH and DS do, although unfortunately I don't fancy it yet as they're both rather fast and I suspect will lap me a couple of times! But also we orienteer, which is fun because it involves going offload and navigating as well as running, so I will definitely also try to mix it up with some hills.

[Chocotwit Graduate]

I mean off road! Damn autocorrect lol!

[swanscot Graduate]

I would do a mixture of runs. I've just graduated and am aiming towards 10K now, and my 3 runs each week all focus on different things. One is a timed run, which I'm slowly increasing week by week and in which I'm tackling what I've been mostly avoiding to date - hills! The second run is based on intervals and hopefully will build up my speed. The third run is what they call in running terms LSD - Long Slow Distance; I'm building on my distance - no matter how slowly - at 10% each week.

[Chocotwit Graduate]

Thanks Swanscot, that makes a lot of sense. How long is your timed run? Do you increase time and hill at the same time or alternate?