Noob questions

jeffd247

I'm only on week three of C25K so I am very new to running. I was an athlete in college, playing football and lacrosse, but never ran more than a couple of miles at once. Now that I am older (39), I'm trying take what I knew about fitness and apply it to what I am doing now.

Having said all of that I have some questions that might seem silly, but they are based off of contradictory information that I have read as I get started. Again, I know these might be really dumb questions... I just don't care.


1. Is it really that terrible to be doing more? I'd like to run every day of the week and rest on Sat/Sun. Is that so bad? Each day is a challenge to complete, but I feel up to taking the challenge every day.

2. Sometimes I skip ahead on a run. For instance, last night on W3D2 I ran all the way through the last two 3 minute intervals (skipping the last walking interval) because I felt I had the energy and just wanted to know if I could make a 6 minute run. On Wednesday I will do W3D3 as prescribed by the program, but am I doing myself a disservice by jumping ahead from time to time?

3. I want to know how far I can run. Tonight is an "off night" for me so I was going to get on the treadmill, walk for 5 minutes and then see how far I could run and how long it would take. I just want to know a "baseline". Is there any reason to resist the urge to do that? I know I need rest, but can't I get that on the weekend?


I know these questions show my impatience, but mostly it's just curiosity to see what I can accomplish. It seems to me that throwing in one of these days a week can't hurt... but I'm not an experienced running so I don't know.

CherylP67

I just graduated from C25k. I started on August 24 and completed the program October 9, it was a 9 week program. I ran 4 days a week most weeks and 5 days 1 week..

I think the program is designed for very sedentary people. I had been walking and dabbling with Jillian Michaels videos when I started. At first it was easy, but I still took my time, I didn't want to burn myself out or get an injury (I had arthro knee surgery a year ago).

I think that maybe you are more fit starting and the beginning is easy for you. If you feel good then I think you're fine, many people don't even use c25k programs, they do their own thing.

Listen to your body and you'll be fine.

yamsteroo

Cheryl has it spot on - listen to your body and you won't go far wrong.

Everyone is different and coming from various base levels of fitness - personally I needed my rest days (though had to back to back a couple of runs to fit them into my schedule) but if you're starting off fitter but just new to running, you might find you recover quicker.

I think most of us have at some point in the programme kept running after we were meant to finish for the day just because it was feeling really good but as Cheryl said, just listen to your body (joints especially) and you'll be the best judge of what you're capable of.

Be warned though, it can get addictive

likitisplit

No questions are dumb questions. But it's great to have a group away from the experienced marathoners so you are getting experiences closer to your own as well as the great insights you get from CarsonRuns and David Martinez.

I've only been running for 11 months, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

An adult of average fitness can run themselves into an injury on their first run. It takes awhile for your muscles, tendons, blood flow and lungs to adapt to the demands of running. That's why C25k is a progressive program. The injuries runners sustain aren't usually joints or bones, but soft tissue. Plantar Fasciitis, IT band pain, pulled hamstrings, shin splints...anything that causes enough pain to lay you off from running for a week.

The every-other-day or three-to-four-days-a-week pattern is one that you should be following anyway as a new runner, even if you're going out and running for a straight 30 minutes (or more) every time. You NEED the time to cross train and at least one full rest/stretch day.

That feeling of being able to run for twice the distance is a good one. It's what you should be feeling. Most of your running will be at a pace/distance where that will hold true. It wasn't until I started training for a half marathon when I encountered distances that challenged me, and that was only for one run a week. You should also be running at a pace where you can hold a conversation through the entire run. The C25k program helps teach you how to pace yourself in a way that makes running sustainable.

However, there are new runners who don't follow the C25K program. They just lace up, head out the door and run. If that's what you want to do, you might want to research the best approaches on Runner's World, Active.com, etc. There are a lot of great books on running: Anatomy for Runners is awesome, as is Tread Lightly.

However, C25k is a proven program that works for a large number of people. It was put together this way for very, very good reasons. It's only 9 weeks - you will (hopefully) be running for the rest of your life.

jeffd247

Thanks for the great replies everyone.

I agree that C25K is a great program, and I do intend to stick with it through the end. So far; Day 1 is a challenge each week, Day 2 sucks and Day three is always a great run.

I trust the progressive formula, but I also think once a week I'll do my "free run" where I just run as far as I can and repeat day 3 once per week. That's just a nice bench-marking tool for me personally. Last night I was able to run a full 20 minutes (very very slowly) and my quads are sore today which is a feeling that I like. I'm still very-very out of shape but maybe not as bad as I thought..

I can really feel myself getting addicted to running, and compared to the other things I've been addicted to... this might be the best for me.