For a whole bunch of reasons connected to the Joni Mitchell category (i.e. life getting in the way) I seem to be missing that 5k in 30 minutes. I reckon I'm about 1K below (Garmin experts please translate!) . However, if I am truthful and type in 4.47K in 39.54 minutes, the 5x 50 challenge only clocks 4K. Delete and say I ran 5K and I clock 5K. Right. That is now off my chest. Let's move on.
Garmin users. Is there room for improvement? I've done all the 5k+ podcasts and some audiofuels but I seem to be stuck. Swan? Phil? Sue? Anyone, please advise. xox delia
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DeliaItaly
Graduate
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Personally, I found that when I started upping the distence (I'm aiming for a 10K in May, and am up to nearly 7 now), I naturally got quicker. Going back to intervals in the Bridge to 10K programme helped too. My 5K time in W1 R1 of B210K (10 minutes running, 1 minute walking, repeated four times) was over a minute quicker than my previous best,despite having gone back to walking in the intervals. I'll have to see what happensd when I go back to continuous running (I'm still on intervals at the moment - 17 mins running, 1 min walking, X3).
Having said that, speed is obviously not my focus at the moment - I needto get used to the idea of running for well over a hour non-stop.But my goal after doing the 10K is to do a 5K in July and try to significantly improve on last year's 38 minutes. 30 minutes is still looking very unlikely, but 33 ish would be nice. I'm hoping the extra fitness the 10K will have given me will help.
Whatever you go for, good luck!! And just keep running! That's got to help in itself, I reckon
She's not Laura, and she doesn't say the nice encouraging things Laura's so great at, and sometimes her voice is so quiet you don't quite hear it. But the music is a lot better, and personally I don't really miss Laura's input as much as I thought I would. I'm also finding the programme is staged well, and follows on well from C25K.
Delia, I found my schedule of three different weekly runs helped increase my pace a little. I do one run intervals, one run tempo (used Stamina podcast, also Podrunner podcasts (free)) and one long run a week. I didn't see much improvement for a long while, until I realised I wasn't doing the Stamina run fast enough. I now try to run 'comfortably hard' periods (~10-15 mins) with slow jogs between for a total of 40 mins. I built up my long slow run by increasing the time from 30 mins and adding on about 5 mins each week. I run the long, slow run about 1:30 mins/km slower than my tempo pace.
I'm doing these 3 weekly runs but seeing little improvement. Do you mean you start "fast"? It takes me over 5 minutes to "relax " into my run -- I slow dowm after anout 2.5/ 3 K. But I will give it a try. Thanks Swan, need to drive to Bologna airport to pick up little brother. Well into his fifties, but he's still my little brother
For my tempo runs, I do a 5 min warm-up jog then go onto the tempo part of the sesssion, whether that be a Podrunner podcast of just running with no music.
I know you have the Garmin FR10; do you use the Virtual Pacer? I used this a lot (not so much now as I can gauge my pace pretty well now), but found this helped. I see from your Garmin Connect page that you did your last run of 4.5km in 38mins, but that included a slow first km warm up. After that your pace was averaged about 7:50. Why not try setting Virtual Pacer to 7:30 and try to run 15 mins at that. Push hard and keep checking your pace and push that wee bit harder if the Garmin beeps to say "Behind Pace".
So your tempo session could be 5 mins slow jog, 15 mins at 7:30, 3-5 mins slow jog, then 10 mins at 7:30. If you find the last 10 mins at 7:30 hard, then call it quits after 5 mins and follow that with a final 5 mins slow jog. That way you've got set measured periods when you know you pushed yourself and you can increase the length of these, or increase the pace - slowly.
No major pearls of wisdom here, but at the end of C25K and C25K+ I was stuck on a fairly steady 7mins per km (according to Garmin - other units are available).
I took Swanscot's advice and tried Podrunner - I'm using Staircase of the Gods and about 30mins worth of Skyline 155-160-165 (which I prefer as the intervals are shorter) and I'm now managing 6.5 mins per km. Now, over 5K that is only the difference between 35 mins and 32.5 mins (which I've never achieved) but it is an improvement nevertheless.
I think it's actually quite difficult to get faster - if I increase the bpm I think I use shorter strides and consequently go at about the same speed.
Hi Delia. I can only echo the above. I found that speed came with distance and pushing myself a little harder to make the cut within the time allowed. I have always felt that if you build endurance you can work on everything else later. I have spent a bit of time building up my distance and trying to slow down on the long runs (I know that's not your complaint). I am now doing one long run a week and one shorter easy run plus another focusing on tempo or speed. The mix is great. It is possible to use the C25k+ podcasts, Speed and Stamina certaily to help, but I have just gone to Runner's World and downloaded a plan to keep me going for the next few months, which I combine with whatever music I want to listen to AND the new Garmin Forerunner. Try this link runnersworld.co.uk/racing/f... and select the Smart Coach schedules link towards the bottom. Good luck. James
Thanks for the link James - I'll bookmark it for after 5x50 as it "wants" me to do quite short runs to start with. Do you happen to know if it's possible to convert into km? Although I drive in miles (and weigh myelf in lbs) I do all running calculations in km and mins per km. If not I'm sure I can make a copy and do the maths myself. Just lazy
Hi Ann. I can't see a way of converting from one to the other except by manual means. I tried setting up a spreadsheet to do the work but found it was too complicated with minutes and seconds to divide by 1.61 or thereabouts. Like you, I do all my calculations to the km. I have even reset the units in my car to metric. How daft is that? Good luck. James
I know the feeling! Having now lived in Italy longer than I had lived in the UK my mind is a metric/avoirdupois mess. I think in English weigh in Kilos, walk in miles and measure in inches! And then there are US cups, driving on the right and then on the left -- crossing roads I'll get run down one day as the first thing I do is look RIGHT
Have you considered setting your cell format in excel to time for the time fields, including results if calculating pace. excel will then do the sum and the conversation itself.
Hope that helps / makes sense.
If you need me to write it out longhand or work out the cell formula then me know the detail of what exactly you wan to calculate and and I'll write it for you.
Delia, I think you're saying that you're currently running at a pace of 7m 30s per kilometre (30 mins devided by 4 kilometres) and you would like to run at a pace of 6 minutes per K (30 mins devided by 5K).
So i would recommend a training plan of 3 runs per week:
One easy run ( no pun intended) you enjoy this run, it can get longer, but you try to keep running at a conversational pace an not get out of breadth, IE you could have a chat with a friend. This builds endurance.
One tempo run per week, this is we're you push it more than normal, a little, you could snatch a few words. On your Garmin you could watch your pace and try to run at 7M 15S at first, this is the run that tests your speed increases
Then finally a pyramid training session, intervals where you run as fast as you can then recover and then run again, it doesn't matter if you have to walk during recovery phases. This run is to teach your body to recover, so in time it can pull in oxygen more easily and you pace will get better on other runs as you now more efficient.
Repeat until you do it (thumbs up), then you'll set another challenge, my guess is distance
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it really did make me lol
Worried about my heart rate!
Finally! Graduated at last!
Finally Achieved My Goal 
Finally! Started my C25K today.
was led by an owl for my final run!
