I think it depends on what your level of fitness was when you started. It sounds like the 5k program wasn't too difficult for you so you might have had a base level of fitness that was higher than the typical 5Ker.

One key to avoiding injury is to have a solid running-based strength training program. I haven't had a running-induced injury since I began doing serious strength training 18 months ago, despite running 50-70 miles a week.

I think as long as you are doing that -- and are willing to back off on the running if signs of an injury to start creeping in -- it would be fine to start targeting longer distances.

I went right from C25K to the Hal Higdon novice 10K program. Once I completed that I just focused on maintaining that for a couple of months over the winter. Recently I started increasing mileage again and am training for my first half.

I started running about 2 months ago and am nearing the end of the couch-to-5k program. Now I am trying to decide what to do after I have completed. My first thought was to just keep running 5k regularly until it's less of a struggle of sorts then move onto the 10k training app. I also thought that I could just continue on the 10k training app, because the first 8 weeks of that are equivalent to the 5k program. I am thinking that immediately continuing on the 10k program might be rushing it and may lead to injury... At the same time, I thought parts of the 5k program seemed ludicrous when I first saw them and I have finished every workout without a problem, so maybe I just need to keep pushing.

Any advice? Thoughts on whether going from never running to running an hour or more straight in 3 months is a good idea?

Others have given the good advice that you might want to chill for a bit and keep your current mileage for a month or so. That's a good idea.

Mind if I ask what your time was? Now if you rolled off the couch and ran a 21 minute 5K, then ignore the following....

You might want to try adding in one "speed" session a week to try to get faster. A lot of newer runners tend to think "farther" is the only way to move up, and decide they are destined to be "slow" runners. That's not the case for most people - I've heard most people can make improvements in their speed for EIGHT YEARS before age starts to catch up with them.


Increasing your speed can do a lot for you. First, if you run superfast for every single run, you can injure yourself, so keep "fast" runs to once a week for now. They can change your race experience immensely. It's super awesome to come in near the front of the pack! It will open up more races to you - some 10ks and half marathons do NOT cater to slower runners, and you might find aid stations closed up. It will open you up to being able to run with more people and different groups. You can run with a really fast person when they are on an "easy run" day, and run easy with a slow person when they are doing their "fast day". Your runs will be faster. This sounds dumb, but it starts to add up when you're out for 6 or more miles. You can get more miles in with the same amount of time.

I did c25k between last June and August. Once complete, I just adopted a policy of running 2-3 times a week ,and never running less than that 5k. Once a week, I do a longer run, and I gradually increased the length of that (assuming I felt up to it), from 5k up to 10k. It took me a couple of months and I booked myself to do a 10k race to give me a focus. Once I'd done a couple of 10k races, I continued with my own plan, doing 1-2 5k's a week, plus one longer one (7-10k one week, then a gradually increasing longer one every other week). Again, I set myself a target by booking to do a Half Marathon, and I did that last week. I've really not found any problems with this plan at all and it got me from couch to HM in 9 months.