Is 4.2mph too slow?

I did my week 5 run 3 on the treadmill on wednesday and find it comfortable to run at 4.2mph but am concerned this may be too slow and not considered a running pace but it is the only way I can deal with the inclines on the programme I use. Also why does laura go from doing 2 x 8 mins runs to doing 20 mins non stop? I thought C25K was supposed to be gradual but this seems such a big jump.

[swanscot Graduate]

> why does laura go from doing 2 x 8 mins runs to doing 20 mins non stop?

> I thought C25K was supposed to be gradual but this seems such a big jump.

Laura is following the tried and tested C25K plan. It has worked for thousands of runners (probably hundreds of thousands) who've completed the programme since it was first devised by Josh Clark in 1996.

Week 5, run 3 is chiefly a mental jump. Some of us think of it as 2 x 8-mins run, with a 4 minute run between. That 4 minute run in between doesn't have to be much faster than the 5-min walk in W5, r2, so it's not that bit a jump physically.

I think of running speeds in terms of mins per km, so don't really know what 4.2 mph translates to, except I know 3mph is considered average walking speed, so you're going faster than walking! Some people worry they are going slower than walkers, so that is not the case.

Since you are so new do not worry about the speed of your runs and just work on form and slowly increasing your distance. Some experts suggest that you should run at a pace that would allow you to have a conversation, but I think many of us found having to do more than politly grunt the merest "Hi" when we passed a fellow runner or dog-walker impossible.