c25k n00b

ravenstar25

I am on week 1. Okay - I started week one 9 days ago. I'm not a light girl - I still have 100 pounds to lose. Now that my blood pressure medication has started doing it's job it's safe for me to do a more hardcore workout so I figured I'd start with something for couch potatoes which describes me pretty accurately. But now that I'm looking at week two I'm wondering how this is supposed to be humanly possible for me right at this point since I"m still gasping for breath like a fish at the end of each jogging segment doing the "week one" section. I can tell improvement is happening, but I don't think I've gotten worked up to week 2 yet. Is it the end of the world if I do week 1 for two whole weeks? I mean I literally don't think I can jog for 90 seconds, lol. 60 is still killing me. Sad but true.


ETA: I am managing to hang in there for 30 minutes including the 5 minute warmup and cooldown.

JenMc14

There is no reason you can't repeat week 1 for as a long as you need. Also, you might want to slow your running pace a bit. I know I thought I had to RUN, but slowing down helped me immensely.

emmalousmom1

great you completed week one, you know what continue on with week one, don't move on to week 2, even start over from the beginning, you may not hit week 2 for a few weeks, don't push yourself until you are ready to move on, if you push yourself too far, you may start to hate it and give up or you may hurt yourself, , so go back to week 1 day one, see the if you can see a difference from when you first started, you will still get all the benefits of the exercise:)
Great work!!!

HeatherBittner

You can do any week as many times as you like until you feel comfortable moving on. I did this at the end of last year and there were a couple of weeks that I repeated at least once. It is a great program and I know you can do it!! :happy:

mreeves261

I am repeating week 3 right now. The beautiful part about C25K is you can progress at YOUR pace. If you feel you need to repeat week 1 for a month then do it. Only you know how your body feels. I will probably repeat week 3 1 more time since I am working on my breathing right now. Practicing "belly" breathing, taking longer, deeper breaths instead of short and shallow.

This is what I say. Try week 2 day 1, if it is still too difficult go back to week 1 and complete it again. Try week 2 day 1 again, if it is still too difficult go back to week 1 and complete it again. Rinse and repeat until you can move up to the next week. That's my approach. I would rather do it slower and be safe about it than try and follow to a tee and burn out on running all together.

Fell free to friend me. I will offer what advice I can.

ravenstar25

Great! Thanks guys, I have been dreading week two I will move on when I no longer feel like I"m about to die at the end of every workout :P

crissyniko

I'm in week 3 and was amazed I ran for 3 mins straight. After I got through the first cycle of 3 mins I convinced myself I could do it again the next cycle. It's all mental! I slowed my pace and completed it. Will be doing day 3 tomorrow.

melaniewest19

Great job! repeat all you need to, but not so much that you are not pushing yourself. I have been doing it for 8 weeks and just starting week 6. My biggest complaint is that i never feel like "I did it" bc its always more running the next time. But then i think 8 weeks ago i couldnt run 60 seconds and now i do 8 minutes(its hard but i do it) Good luck

yamsteroo

There's a great C25K support group (there's quite a few actually!) which gives loads of advice to new runners; might be worth checking it out as then you'll see you're definitely not alone.

I agree with the 1st reply though, you can slow it down until you're barely moving at all if it means you can finish the time. Get the time sorted then you can look at speeding it up later in the program.

katesmash

Everyone's said the same thing I"m going to say. Do it at your own pace. If you feel that you aren't ready for the next week, repeat the previous week. I know I tried doing C25K last summer and I took forever, and never did finish it. I wasn't consistently getting out and doing the 3x/week and then I got frustrated with myself and gave up.

I'm sure it's similar to doing 30 Day Shred... if you still feel like you are dying in level 1, don't move up to level 2, even though you are on technically on day 11 or 12 or whatever.


Also, just to throw this out there too.. I know these programs are out there for a reason, but there's nothing to say that you can't "create" your own program and decide what YOU can handle during your walk/runs. Myself, I tried the C25k last year.... it got me out there and sparked my love of running. Now I go out there and I don't use any kind of program or app to prompt me when to walk and when to run. I track my runs using Runtastic so that I can know how far I've gone, etc... but I choose when I run and when I walk. I decided to base mine off of the music that I'm listening to. Right now, what I do is warm up and then the next song I will run during the chorus of the song. Some choruses are longer than others, sure... so there is no hard & fast rule saying I'm running for 30 seconds or 2 minutes or whatever. But last night I ran during every 2nd song's choruses, and recovered during the songs in between.

crista_b

I am repeating week 3 right now. The beautiful part about C25K is you can progress at YOUR pace. If you feel you need to repeat week 1 for a month then do it. Only you know how your body feels. I will probably repeat week 3 1 more time since I am working on my breathing right now. Practicing "belly" breathing, taking longer, deeper breaths instead of short and shallow.

This is what I say. Try week 2 day 1, if it is still too difficult go back to week 1 and complete it again. Try week 2 day 1 again, if it is still too difficult go back to week 1 and complete it again. Rinse and repeat until you can move up to the next week. That's my approach. I would rather do it slower and be safe about it than try and follow to a tee and burn out on running all together.

Fell free to friend me. I will offer what advice I can.

This is good advice.

I've repeated each week at least once so definitely don't feel bad if you have to repeat any days/weeks. One thing I noticed was that if I waited until I didn't feel like death on a week before moving on, I would still sometimes have trouble completing the running intervals on the first day of the next week, but instead of going back, what I did was repeat the day 1 on my next run and push myself to finish it.

I've also found that if I feel like death during a running interval, it helps to pick a spot ahead of me (usually about 50-100ft ahead) and say to myself "Okay, at that tree/bush/crack/etc. I can walk" and push myself to get there. Then when I get there, if I'm not collapsing, I keep running and pick a new spot. There were a few runs so far where I repeated this process for the last minute of a running interval. But, it kept me going until the app said to walk.