Anyone skip week 7 or week 8?

[Tobefittobehappy]

Wondering if anyone has done this and whether they have been successful? Either going from week 7 end to week 9 or week 6 straight to week 8? Feel the changes are quite small and I'm keen to get to 30 minutes by a certain date.

Thanks

[Innuendo Graduate]

My advice would be to complete ALL runs. Stamina wise, this will leave you in good stead for life after the programme and more than anything, will leave your muscles and bones strong enough for tougher runs.

I'm doing the programme again with freinds in addition to extra workouts and I can honestly say that if I missed anyof the runs, I probably would have struggled to keep up with the pace now that I'm running 'alone'.

[Oldgirl Graduate]

No it never occured to me to do that, the programme has been tried and tested and works well. As Innuendo says its designed to build up strength and stamina in a safe healthy way for the future.

[gdeann Graduate]

I am into week 7 and I know personally, I would never question skipping a week or two. I need every single day of every single week to help build my stamina and endurance. This is a wonderful program as written. Good luck to you in whatever you choose to do.

[GoogleMe Graduate]

It does look as though there's not much in it doesn't it? I wondered, I mean, 2 minutes difference between Week 8 and Week 9? But if you're in it to build fitness into your life there's really nothing to be gained from rushing.

[Tobefittobehappy in reply to GoogleMe]

I think I'll put my faith in the programme, but perhaps change speeds during the 4x 25 min runs. Thanks

[Pelephant Graduate]

i can see what you are saying but this plan has been designed by people who know what they are doing. Every step of the way when I've thought something a bit strange it seems to work out in the end. I would say it's not really about just running for 30 minutes, because probably a lot of people could do that once (and maybe injuring themselves in the process) It's about building your confidence and fitness, giving you a good base to take this forward into the future. I'm just about to start week seven, and I'm aware that this will be 4 X 25 minutes runs in a row but what I was thinking is I might try and spice things up a bit by making one of them a hilly run, to see how I get on. If you are afraid of getting bored maybe you could try something like that ... or maybe doing some speed work with those 25 minutes. Hope this helps.

[Tobefittobehappy in reply to Pelephant]

Good idea about mixing up speeds! Thanks Boredom is one of my biggest problems.

[suki_007 Graduate]

I didn't skip any runs but I ran 30 minutes each run from week 8 run 1, so did six 30min runs in all. Maybe you could do that instead if you wanted? I don't think you'd feel like you'd really graduated if you didn't do all the runs.

[Tobefittobehappy in reply to suki_007]

Oooh sounds a good idea, I may give that a go we shall see thanks