skipping a week in C25K?

amc2509

I've been following the C25K program and am amazed at how fitter I've become... I've had a lot on my mind this week and I don't know if its because of been distracted that I keep messing up my podcasts. I was due to start Wk5 on Tuesday and went out to do my run quite late. Because it was so dark I didn't do my usual quiet traffic free route but ran along a busy road on the footpath. Because of the traffic I missed the bit where she told the people on Day1 to start the 3 min walk. Only when she said to start the second 5 min run I realised. I had run the 8 min at this stage and felt fine so I decided to just complete day 2 and repeat it again if need be. I finished the run fine and felt great afterwards so decided to go for the big 20min run last night... Again I was very busy yest and wasn't going to go out last night as it was raining, but then I said what the heck, there is no gaurantee that it won't rain on race day (I've signed up for a 5k in April). Anyway I headed out on the footpaths again and listened for Day3 instructions. I thought she said at the start that this run was going to be the longest yet at 25min, but I figured either she made a mistake or I didn't hear right. Now I did think throughout that the day 1 and 2 intervals sounded strange but I kept running until I heard her say Day 3 you have completed your run. I was at my driveway at this stage so didn't bother with the cool down, When I went in I took out my mp3 player and realised I had done wk6 day3 by accident...

Now my dilema, from wk7 onwards all runs are long runs. Should I start at wk6 day1 tomorrow or wk7 day1... like, at this stage how important is it to do the short runs. I assume they help build up stamina. BTW I managed to run 4.4k in the 25min run, so I was really pleased with myself

simples88

Impressive! I found the c25k not 'fast' enough to keep up with what I was capable of so I switched to the training program on www.athleta.com and started at week 4...it's a faster -8week-5k training plan. It may be worth taking at look at to get a little further. They also do a 10k and half marathon training.
Good luck

simples88

I think your in the uk...if you are maybe this website may help www.parkrun.org.uk as a challenge. It's supposed to be motivating in a group

PerdieM

Hi there. I'm no expert, and I didn't follow the C25K programme that you're doing, but I did something similar when I started running last year that I got from a running magazine website. Advice on its forum was not to get too obsessive about following the programme exactly, but to listen to what your body is telling you. My programme was 9 or 10 weeks long and I progressed really well up to about Week 6, then struggled a bit, but by repeating a week, I got back on track. If you've accidentally skipped a bit, but you found you could manage it easily, then why not go with it? But if you do start to struggle, just go back a bit and redo a section. I'd be very happy with that kind of pace, btw! Good luck with the race in April.

Fit_Canuck

I finished the C25K program this week myself and it's true your cardio will improve much faster than the rest of your body. So you may feel like you do more but try and follow the system. You'll greatly prevent injury in my opinion, it worked for me like a charm!

Think about it, what's the rush? Follow the program as it is and then you'll have plenty of time after that to really push your limits.

momof3and3

I am not familiar with the program, but am a runner. Most training programs have one long run a week, the rest of the run days are either intervals, speed, recovery runs and tempo runs. It is suggested to run 4-5 days a week, no more than 2 days in a row. SInce you are doing so well, I would start to tailor the program to suit your fitness. Since you can run 4 miles already, I would use that as your base to start adding in more mileage. You shouldn't add in more than 10% per week, this helps to prevent injury and over-training. So if you run 10 miles this week, add in one more mile....

Runnersworld has some great training programs for free....

amc2509

Thanks for the feedback guys... think i'll do week 6 this week... good point about the injurys, I hadn't thought about that. So I've 2 more interval runs and then I'm into long runs. It means I won't have finished the program by the 5k Race Day, but I'll be at the start of wk 9 so will hopefully be able to run the entire thing. Now I must concentrate on playing the right podcast when I head out (DOH)

Thanks again