Started running need advice

coreyreichle

Hermie123451982 wrote: »

Hi everyone so I decided to start running as my form of exercise to get fitter and loose weight. I have a goal in mind of a distance in the future I would love to do but so far I'm about week 3 in and about 7 runs in and I'm finding it hard I manage to run about half a mile then have to stop for a breather then start again and can only do 2 miles before I'm completely exhausted. This is getting easier and my times are coming down each time I run. Am I expecting too much to be able to start running more than a mile without having to stop. Would love to hear from some other runners that have gone through this or who are at this stage aswell many thanks.

Slow down.

Seriously. Slow down.

Build mileage, speed will come, all on it's own at the start.

For the C25K, you should be able to complete each week. If you can't, repeat it.

lisawilkes20

Hermie123451982 wrote: »

Thank you for all your comments and from the general consensus I need to slow down. Maybe I have been too hung up on times as ideally I wanna do longer distances rather than quick miles. I looked at my mile split from last night and it was 8.49 for my first mile. I have downloaded the C25K app and will start that and build gradually gonna try and go out more than 3 times a week aswell as that will help. Gonna get my new shoes today getting my feet and stride measured in tony pryce (uk) just feel like a fool going into one of these shops as I really don't look like a runner lol. Hope they don't snigger too much. Thank you again for all you advice. Good luck with all your goals aswell.

Dont want tp put you off, as a new runner, I got the bug, went out 4x a week & ended up with a knee injury, which resulted in not running at all for 10 weeks. Saying that you should be fine doing C25k. Good luck & enjoy

Madux1818

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

Hermie123451982 wrote: »

Hi everyone so I decided to start running as my form of exercise to get fitter and loose weight. I have a goal in mind of a distance in the future I would love to do but so far I'm about week 3 in and about 7 runs in and I'm finding it hard I manage to run about half a mile then have to stop for a breather then start again and can only do 2 miles before I'm completely exhausted. This is getting easier and my times are coming down each time I run. Am I expecting too much to be able to start running more than a mile without having to stop. Would love to hear from some other runners that have gone through this or who are at this stage aswell many thanks.

Slow down your pace, and that should allow you to run more easily. It might be useful to use a structured plan like Couch to 5K, to help you to moderate your pace while improving your aerobic capacity.

I did C25K about 3 years ago, moved on to Half Marathons and now tend to race marathons and ultras.

Wow, how soon after C25K did you graduate to half marathon?

MeanderingMammal

It took me a reasonable time, as in about 14 months from starting C25K to racing the HM, although partly that was about identifying the race.

I took about 12 weeks over C25K, repeated weeks a couple of times as I had a bit of illness. I then spent a bit of time consolidating at 5-7km before moving on to a 10K plan. In that 10K plan I was doing long runs of 18km, so in principle I could have raced a Half by about 9 months after starting C25K, although I don't think it would have been a good experience.

As soon as I'd raced the 10K I started a half marathon training plan that had me at 24km long runs.

I focussed on half marathons for about 18 months before going for a marathon, although that was delayed by about 4 months as I'd got a calf tear quite early in that plan that meant I had to do the half at the event instead of the marathon.