After finishing week 9 of C25K: ?

[DavD]

I'm not on week 9 yet - hopefully I'll get to it soon - but I'm curious about what to do next once graduated. Is it better to train until achieving actual 5K in 30min before using the NHS 5K+ podcasts? Or can we directly start training with those to help us achieving this same goal? May sound like a stupid question, but from what I've read while browsing the net, everyone has a different opinion about it so your help would be very much welcomed. Thank you!

[piggyland1 Graduate]

You can use the NHS 5K+ podcasts to increase your speed, to hopefully get you up to the 30 min stage.

To give you some ideas....

Once I have graduated, my plan is to do the stepping stone podcast 4 times for one week. Then for 2 weeks, do the stepping stone podcast twice a week, the speed podcast once a week and the stamina podcast once a week (total is 4 runs a week). After that I am going to do the 5x50 challenge and then a couple of 5k races as hopefully my time will be good. And then do B210k!

Not sure if that made any sense, but hopefully it did haha! It's good to have aims for after the plan, but just make a plan that is suitable for you! What is it you want to do? Increase speed, increase distance etc? Figure that out and you can figure out a plan for after c25k that is appropriate for you. Don't forget that you can of course just run 5k 3 times a week, with your own music, and make it a chill out time, and leave it there. That is perfectly fine

Hope this helped

~ Olivia

[DavD Graduate in reply to piggyland1]

That's exactly what I needed! Thank you!

I'd love to be able to run 10K one day - hopefully I'll achieve it in about a year or two! Haha!

[piggyland1 Graduate in reply to DavD]

Just take it steady, listen to your body, and you can do anything! Good luck, and never give up!

[Anniemurph Graduate]

I think there are so many different options, that's why we're all doing different things! I can't yet do 5k in 30 minutes, so that's my next target, using the c25k+ podcasts and also what I've learned during c25k. Then, because I have entered Race for Life in July, I want to do a couple of Park Runs before RFL so I know what running in company is like. I have no ambition to do 10k and my only aim in taking up running was to make sure that I do regular exercise in order to improve my general fitness.

I struggled slightly after graduation because of the lack of structure and goals - so I set my own. You'll do the same, I'm sure, and the c25k+ podcasts are one way of achieving more. Good luck!

[k6daisy Graduate]

Hi there. I graduated three weeks ago and have just continued to run around 32 mins. I have noticed that I seem to naturally increase my speed each run so havent bothered with the C25K+ podcasts. To be honest I listened to them and didnt fancy them! I was doing around 3.75k in week 8/9 and am now at around 4.2k in the same time. I am going to try this for another couple of weeks then after will increase my time gradually to around 40/45 mins so I can do 2 * 30 mins and one longer one at a slower speed in the week. I think it all just depends what your objective is after. Mine is just to do improve fitness and lose weight, but Im not thinking of B210K or anything like that just yet. Good luck!

[greenlegs Graduate]

I graduated about 2 months ago (how time flies!) and haven't used any particular plan at all, and it's suited me really well, which has surprised me, because I really liked the structure of c25k and was worried I'd miss it.

I did aim for a parkrun (5k) perhaps a bit too soon, as I was only doing just over 3k in 30 minutes, but couldn't resist joining in with several others on here doing their first parkruns all on the same day - so I did a few slow practice 5ks, two of them along the parkrun route but not on a Saturday morning ('freedom' runs - you can log them on the parkrun site when you've got yourself set up with a barcode). Other days I did shorter faster (not much faster, but with more effort!) runs or a mix of slower and faster spurts (look up fartleks!) I'm still very slow, but don't care, as I know I'm gradually getting a bit faster, and my stamina has come on really well.

Mostly though, I enjoyed not having to aim for anything in particular, and I have really enjoyed getting used to being a runner. I've now joined the 5x50 challenge (to do 30 minutes of exercise every day for 50 days, starting from 31st March) and have amazed myself by actually covering 5k every day for the first four days. Two of those were walks, and yes, I am a bit tired, but I have enjoyed all four outings enormously, and am so pleased with myself!

I am doing a Race for Life 5k in June (that I signed up for while still on the c25k programme - but assuming no injuries (fingers crossed) that should be fairly easy by then - I've done it before walking, but will run it this time, hopefully somewhat faster than the 47 minutes that my last 5k took.

I'm a bit unusual in preferring not to run with music - I'm lucky enough to live in the countryside, and I like hearing the birds, and experiencing everything around me. I've just splashed out on a garmin forerunner 110 with a heartrate monitor, and I am being very geeky with it. I *love* it! So - probably not at all typical, but you asked for a range!

Oh, and I'd highly recommend reading 'Born to Run' by Christopher McDougall and 'Chi running' by Danny Dreyer - though you can read a fair bit about both on the web. Really interesting.

Most of all though - have fun running.

[DavD Graduate]

Thanks a lot to all of you - everything is very helpful and I'm definitely buying these books! Have a great day everyone!!