Many thanks to Hector's House, swanscot and tjflute for blogging about this earlier, and inspiring me. As mentioned elsewhere, there is a now a 'team' called NHS Couch to 5K (C25K) - or you can do it as an individual. (When you register, search through the list of 'teams' to find us.) There are three of us so far!
It's linked to Comic Relief (£5 min donation to register, but you don't have to fundraise beyond that - it's ok to do it just for fitness). The challenge is to be physically active for 30 minutes (ideally 5k) every day for 50 days - 31st March to 19th May.
Now it does say, "Run, walk jog or cycle 5km a day for 50 days" - however, if you read around a bit, you'll find that it is ok to interpret '5km a day' to be '30 minutes of active exercise a day'. So you could walk/swim/zumba/cycle or anything else instead. Plus, the 30 minutes doesn't have to be all in one lump - so a short lunchtime walk could count.
And even if you've only just started c25k, you can register (you might have graduated by then anyway!), as even week 1 is being active for 30 minutes - you could walk on alternate days.
It seems like a really good way for me to increase my activity to daily, as at the moment I'm just doing running every other day, and nothing much in between. It's already inspired me to go out for a walk today, so it must be good!
Come and join us - register today! Woo hoo! I've really got bitten by the fitness bug.
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greenlegs
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Well done glad to see you have been bitten by the fitness bug. Could probably do the 5x50 challenge as I walk the dog most days, but I don't normally count that as exercise! By the way your green badge looks great
Is that a good idea to do it every day? I thought the every other day runs with c25k was to prevent injury or speed recovery or something sensible-sounding like that.
mdec - you don't have to do a 5k run every day (thank goodness!), but it's fine to do walking/cycling etc on rest days. So it's fine to come and join in!
Thanks for the note about this, hadn't heard of it! Joined the team Hopefully I'll be about to graduate by then, so it'll keep me motivated for at least a few weeks after that.
Team of 8 now! So, if (!) we each did 5k every day for 50 days, that would be 2000k altogether!
Information about what you're expected to do does vary a bit on the website (understandable as it's new, and volunteer-led) - I can see that ideally it would be 5k every day, which would be asking a bit too much of my body, but I'm happy to go along with this:
"We appreciate that your preferred activity may not be one of the four listed. As the main aim is to be physically active every day for 50 days, you can count 5km OR 30 minutes of an alternative activity towards your challenge target. For example, a 30 minute swim OR a 30 minute aerobics class OR 30 minute row would count."
There's also a bit about adapting it for disabilities too:
"Here are some other ideas of things you might commit to for 50 days…
- Cover a certain distance each day (walking if you can, or in your wheelchair, a race chair or handbike…). Depending on what challenges you personally, pick a distance that’s something to do with 5! (Maybe 5 m, 50 m, 500 m, 5km, 50km or any multiple of 5 you like!)
So - figure out what will be a challenge for you, seems to be the message. Which sounds good to me.
Ooh this sounds like a good idea! I used to walk 3 miles minimum a day going to work and back, before I moved house and passed my driving test... will be good to get out!
Once logged on, if you go to My Account (top right with an arrow) and then edit profile (far right tab now in the middle of the page) then the last option is to join a team
Brilliant, we are up to 9 team members now. Last year there were only three of us and we didn't form a team, but posted daily updates (on one daily 'thread') on this site.
Sounds good. I like challenges, they keep me going.
I did 'Dry January' this year and went nearly 40 days without a drop of alcohol. Without the thought of failing the challange I'm sure I would have gone that long.
I've registered and joined the team too - hoping it will get me off the couch on days I am not running! Just need to get daughter to pay for me as I don't have a Paypal account (or get her to set me one up, it's kept me off ebay all these years!!!)
I'm in having dithered for a few days (nothing new there...). It would be nice to know where we all are - for all I know the lady in the pink jacket I said hi to yesterday could be one of us.
I can't see any way of looking at each others' postcodes on the 5x50 website or even exchanging info privately between ourselves (I understand some may not want to give out too much info on a website, even here). Any ideas?
I know where you are! I clicked on your name just above here. Not everybody indicates whereabouts they live on here, but I quite like the way it gives an approximate location by randomly plotting your postcode in the rough area - if you've entered it of course. I don't think I'd want to be any more precise than that though. But I don't think you can do anything like that on 5x50.
I do quite like having a vague idea of where people are from - it's interesting seeing how the weather varies, if nothing else! I used to work where you are, and lived in a village only a few miles away!
I know where you are in the same way but not all of the "team" have entered their postcodes. Maybe we'll be able to see each other's tracked progress once the challenge starts, or perhaps a daily (yikes) blog here would be handy. There are 14 of us now - maybe more will still arrive. I was even looking at bike helmets online this morning! It'll be really scary when I look at swimsuits though. Maybe a test dip in the local pool will be needed first.
No - although that would be a good way of ensuring an empty pool I'm sure I can find one lurking in the back of a drawer that will suffice for test purposes.
Cast is off. I have acquired a lovely splint in its place. The arm is looking pretty pathetic but the good news is the physio was very happy with it and i have been signed off. It does feel very strange. A bit sore but nothing unexpected. Good news all round. Yeah!
Did you have a go at park run today? A lovely friend of mine was a back runner. I know you had worries about being slow (which of course you shouldn't be !) but I couldn't think of anyone better to help us c25kers to get to the finish line.
Fraid not - I've been feeling exhausted all week, and think it's probably because I was overdoing things a bit, so I'm reining it in for a few days. Just did 22 minutes today, and then my knee was feeling a bit odd, so walked the rest. But I will get there eventually, and hopefully fairly soon! Nice to know there's a friendly back runner around.
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I'm sure I can find one lurking in the back of a drawer that will suffice for test purposes.
Runniversary
New Members - If you are feeling in any way disheartened because you 'cannot make 5K'...please don't be :) 
Doing 5K in under 30 minutes and increasing distance bit by bit. Into the groove now !
