first day of 5k training. SO EXCITED!!! c25k

gooberr4

I have officially started training for my first 5k race! i'm using the C25K training program starting at week 4 (since I've been running on my own the past 3 weeks) I'm so excited and today felt great! the workout was "easy" enough that I could finish it completely but hard enough that i struggled towards the end.

Anyone else training? Does anyone know a good website where i can find races in my area? What's a good time to aim for?

loricarr73

i just did my first half and am now on a runners high so congrats to you! you are going to love it after your first. go to runnersworld.com and coolrunning.com...both of these sites are fantastic...just got my second training schedule from coolrunning and im loving it...

good luck...keep us posted

schorkj

Only you will be able to determine what a good time to shoot for should be, based upon your workouts in preparation of the run. You don't want to go out at a world-record pace if you will be unable to walk for the next two months.

dancingnancies

i am training for my first 5k too!!! and i am doing c25k!

when is your race?

mine is in april. i was also wondering what a good time was to complete a 5k.

GOODLUCK TO US! :drinker:

gooberr4

when i ran this past summer i did a 5k in about 32 minutes but I know that I stopped in the middle a couple times at least. (i wasn't racing....just curious to see what my 5k time was) I want to be able to run most of it without stopping and if i do have to stop...i only wanna stop for a couple seconds.

paperboy

Hey, I've been running 5Ks for about two years now. That's actually how I lost the bulk of my original weight (70 lbs). I've also run two half marathons in the past six months so you are definitely starting on a good path.

Where to find 5Ks... Google 5K and the name of your city. There are a lot of these things around me. Some are hyper organized, some are just thrown together. You want to make sure you find someone that does official timing. Active.com is a good resource to find races in your area.

I wouldn't want you to blow out your legs either, but if you've run a non-competitive 32 minute 5K, I'd say you're probably looking at between 30:45 and 31:15 as a good finish time. And that's right in the pocket of a 10 minutes pace. My first 5K I finished in 33:45... I did the same race a year later and finished in 25:14.

RUNNING TIP: Find one person in the crowd of runners and tell yourself... "OK, if I can just beat her, I'll have accomplished something) For my first race, it was a 70 year old woman wearing a Canadian Maple Leaf jacket... a year later, it was a 26 year old co-worker... which may explain the difference in my times.

If running is something you're going to want to keep doing, you may want to check out NIKE+ gear as well. Seriously cool stuff that allows you to track and time every run while still listening to your iPod/iPhone playlists. Check out nikerunning.com.

As far as the stopping is concerned, I still have to stop from time to time too. I've been told (and it works for me) as long as you don't walk for more than two minutes and you don't attempt to start running at the same pace as when you stopped to walk, you should be fine. At this point, I'd focus on finishing with a time you're happy with.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

gooberr4

Thanks for the advice! I have NIKE+ and LOVE IT!!!! im 16km away from the green level so all i think about all day is running haha. I think I'd be happy with a race time of 30-33 minutes so I'll aim for that. I'm also going to try that trick of picking someone out and beating them. Sounds like fun haha.

Another question...how do u know ur keeping a good pace during the run? I usually run on a treadmill but when it gets warmer and closer to the race i plan on training outside.

paperboy

OK, so this was the last post I commented on. How is the running going?