Any advice welcome 😊

[BlondeAmbition72]

Hi there. My name’s Serena and I started running in April this year with the C25K plan. I graduated in July and intended to consolidate but fell into the B210K plan lol and graduated on 19th August. I’ve run a couple of 5k’s and one more 10k since then which I’ve found really comfortable (both 10k’s ran in EXACTLY the same time 1:04:33 - spooky!).

My question is where do I go from here? I have entered the Bath Half in March next year (I signed up right at the start of my running as I like to have a goal!) but I am conscious of doing too much too soon as I think I have progressed quite quickly up to now. Do I simply consolidate my 10k’s and a couple of shorter, maybe faster 5k’s each week for a few weeks (PB is currently 30:46) before trying to increase my long-run distance?

Any advice greatly received 👍😊🏃‍♀️..

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

Hello there!!! An enormous, feisty, audacious, thinking-big welcome to the forum!!!

Ambitious is good, and you have oodles of time to prepare yourself for the Bathalf 😊 Running some more 10Ks and adding in some faster runs sounds like a great idea to me! Get planning your new longer routes, and have fun increasing your distances over the winter 😊

[BlondeAmbition72 Half Marathon in reply to roseabi]

Thanks for the lovely welcome 😊. Looking forward to the longer runs and it’s good to hear I’m not on the wrong path with regards to my training. I’m looking forward to running in cooler weather (I may regret saying that lol!) 👍😊

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to BlondeAmbition72]

It's lovely to have you!

Oof yes, the Beast from the East caused much strife last winter 🤧 Hoping that won't happen this time! But you definitely need to consider layering options for the colder weather 😊

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to roseabi]

btw, that IS spooky!!

[Sqkr Half Marathon]

Hello hello! 👋 That's essentially what I did, I did a couple of shorter runs in the week and then my long run—which started at 10k and after a while just got longer. I'm not sure how long it took, it was a pretty organic, unplanned process, my legs told me they were ready to go a bit further so I did 😊 The base for maintenance and progress seems to be a long run, an easy aerobic run and a fast run per week—be it intervals or parkrun or whatever you like to do to floor the accelerator.

That said, when you do decide to run greater distances/for a longer time I think the differences in how people prefer to train start to come out so there's no 'one size fits all' way to do it, it's finding that balance between the time you have available, what you want to achieve and what your body is telling you. And, perhaps most of all but often forgotten, having fun 😊 There are lots of brilliant and experienced runners in this forum whom all do amazing things, it's a great place to learn and improve. Do get stuck in! 😁

Ps. A good place to start is the jelly baby poll. The correct answer is green.

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to Sqkr]

Sqkr 's mostly right. Except for that last sentence. The correct answer is of course orange.

[Sqkr Half Marathon in reply to roseabi]

Unlike! 🤣

[BlondeAmbition72 Half Marathon in reply to Sqkr]

Thanks for your reply. It’s good to know I’m not way off track in thinking a couple of shorter runs and a longer one each week is the way forward, obviously listening to my body and taking the time I need to recover between runs. I still can’t believe I have run 10k - twice lol!! Anything is definitely possible when you’re in love 👍😊.. and my JB answer would be orange! Sorry Sqkr!! 😯

[misswobble Marathon]

You have to go longer to get fitter to be able to go faster It all takes time of course. Growing slowly by no more than ten per cent a week

Just pace yourself and for gawd’s sake don’t do too much at this early stage. I know it’s tempting but rein yourself in. The fast five k keeps knocking at the door but I think that’s the hardest thing to pull off. Don’t let that drive your timetable! It’s slow running and rest days that build our running legs 😃👍🏃‍♀️💪

You’ve got C25k+, Ju-Ju 10 is the Magic Number programme then Sami Murphy podcasts to play with Lots of homework there 👍

[BlondeAmbition72 Half Marathon in reply to misswobble]

I am definitely going to plod on gently, trying not to overdo things! I have no races coming up, except for the half next year so I’m going to enjoy the consolidation running over the next couple of months before thinking about the plan for the half! I’m hoping the distance will increase naturally without pushing - hey you never know?!! 🤞🏻

[misswobble Marathon in reply to BlondeAmbition72]

It should do if you keep gut in general and eat healthily. Walk as much as poss 😃

[Langley-Loper Half Marathon]

After achieving my 10k I decided to try and get it faster. I did basically a "fast" 5k, a shorter intervals run and a longer run every week - 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12km. Then my best 10k - and it was faster. Then I launched into a My Asics HM plan, three runs a week. Love ticking those boxes off as you progress through. You could probably set one up on their website now, but it might be a bit too far ahead to be tied down, unless you love a good plan and structure in your life (like me).

[BlondeAmbition72 Half Marathon in reply to Langley-Loper]

I am a real lover of structure and a good plan lol! The My Asics plan looks fab. I will definitely look at that a little more closely in a month or two 👍. Ticking boxes makes me very happy (yes, sad I know! 😂). Thanks for the advice 👍

[benwill Marathon in reply to BlondeAmbition72]

be careful with MyAsics plan, Asic's brought out runkeeper and so have moved it all into that. You have to now pay for training plans on runkeeper. But i believe you can still setup a plan on MyAsics you cant save it so your just print it out.

[BlondeAmbition72 Half Marathon in reply to benwill]

Thank you for the warning!! 👍

[Hidden]

Hey, I find myself in the same boat as you, having started in April, graduated C25K in June and Bridge in July. I've set up a custom plan in Map My Run having looked at quite a few options. I have chosen to add in a fourth run, so the short runs are sometimes very short (3K), but it includes short intervals, sprints, long intervals, training pace and HM paced runs and so far it has been very good. I don't stick to it exactly, sometimes I swap the runs around or do a different distance to suit myself. That's allow my progress to be quite structured but still flexible so I would recommend it. I am feeling my right lower calf a bit now having increased to 4 runs for the past 4 weeks, so I may end up tweaking a bit more.

Now, talking about spooky, I thought I was going to add to the spookiness as I knew my PB for 10K was very close, if not the same, as yours! It wasn't though, I am 1:04:38, but very close eh!

I've still got a few things to check off, a Parkrun, an official 10K race and any kind of medal. Hopefully I'll check these off very soon.

Happy running!