Beginning runner using C25k
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How awesome. I am a runner and I am so glad you're listening to your body.
The older I get the more my joints hate me . Instead of running 5-10 miles a day like I used to be able to do I have to switch it up with walking . I probably walk as fast as some run .
I started with a running coach when I was 22 yrs old. I am now almost 39. Running can become an addiction. Looking forward to seeing your progress!0 -
Follow the order! I just did W5D3 yesterday and it wasn't nearly as bad as I was dreading. In fact, it wasn't even that hard! Repeat the earlier week 5 exercises if you need to, but I wouldn't recommend skipping ahead without attempting W5D3. Plus, you'll feel awesome afterward!0
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Great stuff! Love reading your progress notes.
I completed the C25K programme in September and have continued to run (jog) since then. This week saw me run 10k distance (twice) - both round about an hour duration (and non-stop)
When I think back to mid July when I started C25K and struggled with the jog 60secs part, I would never have believed I would be jogging for an hour within 5 months.
Word of warning though....running/jogging can become quite addictive!
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it took me to week 3 to figure out that I was doing the running bits at far too fast a pace for me so well done to you for working it out. It took lots of dry heaving for me to go back and listen properly to what I should be doing. By week 6 I felt like a runner and by week 7 I stop using C25K and just went for it! Good luck you are doing fine0
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Program: C25k Week 5 Day 2
Date: 11/08/2014
Start time: 5:38 pm
Goals:
• Complete run portions of program
• Increase my pace
Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 51:19
Ave Pace: 16:33
Change from last attempt: +01:13
Change from W1D1 (Oct 7, 58:58): -07:47
Change from fastest time (W2D3, Oct 18: 48:28): +02:53
First, thank everyone for all the encouragement and support! I really hope that the struggles and epiphanies that I have here will help someone else along the way.
This day was two 8-minute runs.
So November 8th was my 40th birthday. A side goal I had on this day was to do my fastest time to date; unfortunately I wasn’t able to do so. One reason is that it is more important to me to complete all the run portions than to focus on time at this point.
I have had a bit of a revelation about my mind and my body on this run (I had noticed it before, but didn’t realize the significance). Both my mind and my body want to quit running around the 3 minute mark. Every time I get to about 3 minutes I have a solid minute of my calves being on fire and my brain trying to rationalize stopping to walk. I had pushed through this on the 5-minute portions and once I did the last minute or so wasn’t too bad. The same thing happened on this day. About three minutes in I had the physical and mental blocks go up, I pushed through them and the last 4 minutes were fine. This gives me hope for the next portions of the program.
I will follow the advice of those here and go ahead and do W5D3.
Goal Achievement:
• Complete run portions of program
o Completed all the run portions. 8 minutes is the longest I have run in once stretch in 21 years.
• Increase my pace
o Once again the later portions are faster than the first ones, my new warm-up didn’t do the trick. I will alter it again and see what happens.
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Whoooopppppp you're going good :-))))0
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Program: C25k Week 5 Day 3
Date: 11/09/2014
Start time: 8:16 pm
Goals:
• Complete run portions of program
• Increase my pace
Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 55:15 (13th out of the 15 I have done)
Ave Pace: 17:50
Change from last attempt: +03:56
Change from W1D1 (Oct 7, 58:58): -03:43
Change from fastest time (W2D3, Oct 18: 48:28): +06:47
This day was a 20-minute run.
First, WHOOHOOOO!!!! I ran/jogged for 20 minutes! I did it!!!
Ok, now that the patting on the back is out of the way, man I am slow. To be honest, in general I am not worried about my pace too much, but when I am almost 7 minutes off my fastest pace and only did it 3:43 faster than day 1, I will admit it does take a bit of the wind out of my sails.
Based on how my body felt at the end of the course I know that I could have pushed for a faster pace. I just have to figure out a way to slowly increase my pace while still completing all the run portions. One thing I have noticed is that usually when I do a run portion for the first time I am a bit slower, but as I get used to it and gain more confidence my pace increases. Hopefully this will happen.
On a side note, man are my legs fatigued. I think I may have overdone it a bit this weekend. On Friday I did 7.2 miles, on Saturday 7.49, and on Sunday 4.58. I am going to start W6D1 on Tuesday, that will give me 48 hours of rest and hopefully after that my legs won’t feel as fatigued.
Goal Achievement:
• Complete run portions of program
o Completed all the run portions. At the 10 minute mark in the program I got the chime and the lady said “You are half-way.” I realized then that I had run for 10 minutes in a row. That was the longest I had run since 1993. I also realized that every second I continued to run became the longest I had run. When the final chime sounded for my cool down, I will admit that I had a smile on my face.
• Increase my pace
o I think I found a good warm-up for me. I just need to refine it a bit as my timing was off. I will work on it today to have ready for Tuesday. I am hoping that getting my warm-up dialed in will increase my overall pace. But as I was much slower today (this run ranked 13th out of the 15 I have done) we will see. I felt better when I started my 20-minute run, I think maybe I was just a bit too conservative.
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Also, I appreciate the friend requests. I opened up my diary to be public so that everyone can view it. However, I have a policy that on social media that I only “friend” those that I know IRL (in real life). Please do not take offence to this, it is nothing personal, just a policy that I adopted long ago for all social media (MySpace (shows my age), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.).0
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Congrats on week 5 day 3! I started C25k in april of last year having never run for more than a minute before. I am on week 13 of the C210K now! I think your strategy to focus on your run rather than speed is spot on. After I completed the C25k I was able to run a 5k in about 40 minutes (I'm not overweight though). I then moved on to an app called 5k forever, which is an interval training sort of like C25k but instead of run/walk it's run slow/run slightly faster/walk. Once you can actually do the 5k without stopping, no matter how slow, I recommend either starting from like week 4 and trying to do it faster, or moving onto the 5k forever app. I finished the 8 week program of 5k forever and shaved almost 10 minutes off of my 5k.
I'm rooting for you!0 -
So proud of you! You totally rock!!!! Happy birthday to you too! Great way to celebrate your birthday is a new personal record, definitely a reason to smile.
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spikrgrl503 wrote: »Congrats on week 5 day 3! I started C25k in april of last year having never run for more than a minute before. I am on week 13 of the C210K now! I think your strategy to focus on your run rather than speed is spot on. After I completed the C25k I was able to run a 5k in about 40 minutes (I'm not overweight though). I then moved on to an app called 5k forever, which is an interval training sort of like C25k but instead of run/walk it's run slow/run slightly faster/walk. Once you can actually do the 5k without stopping, no matter how slow, I recommend either starting from like week 4 and trying to do it faster, or moving onto the 5k forever app. I finished the 8 week program of 5k forever and shaved almost 10 minutes off of my 5k.
I'm rooting for you!
Thanks for the tip, unfortunatly that app is iPhone and I am an android guy. I will look to see if they have something simular for andriod. Sounds like that is the next step for me. I have 4 weeks left on this program which should take me up through December 6th. The 5k I have signed up for is on December 20th. I would love to do a sub 40 minutes.
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Goal Achievement:
• Complete run portions of program
o Completed all the run portions. At the 10 minute mark in the program I got the chime and the lady said “You are half-way.” I realized then that I had run for 10 minutes in a row. That was the longest I had run since 1993. I also realized that every second I continued to run became the longest I had run. When the final chime sounded for my cool down, I will admit that I had a smile on my face.
That really IS something!
As someone who hasn't run longer than a minute since I was in school (I'm in my early 30s), this is a point that I'm SO excited to get to, though it's a long way off.
This evening I do W2D1, so running 90 seconds, which will already be an 'adult PB' for me I guess.
Thanks for the updates, they're definitely both interesting and encouraging!0 -
Congratulations on your progress! I'm doing C25k also, but am taking it very slowly (repeating days when I need to - currently on Week 3), and doing it on the treadmill for now. I know the treadmill isn't optimal, but my first attempt a couple years ago had me tripping over a rock and spraining my ankle so badly the doc said it would have been better if I'd broken it. Accident prone as I am, I think the treadmill is a safer bet for the time being.
I'm really enjoying following your progress. It's very inspiring. Keep up the great work! 0 -
LazyButHealthy wrote: »
Good luck to you!
I will admit that every time I increased the run time I did it with trepidation. But in a way I will admit that it became me vs. C25K, and when my calves would start to burn I would just think "I can do anything for 90 seconds (3 mins, 5 mins, etc), this stupid program is not going to beat me!"
I'm not insane (i think) . But it did (and does) help me through some of the portions when I run. 0 -
IndigoSue13 wrote: »Congratulations on your progress! I'm doing C25k also, but am taking it very slowly (repeating days when I need to - currently on Week 3), and doing it on the treadmill for now. I know the treadmill isn't optimal, but my first attempt a couple years ago had me tripping over a rock and spraining my ankle so badly the doc said it would have been better if I'd broken it. Accident prone as I am, I think the treadmill is a safer bet for the time being.
I'm really enjoying following your progress. It's very inspiring. Keep up the great work!
You are moving and you are trying, that's what is important.
Injuries are a terrible thing, especially when you are exercising. Back when I was in tip-top shape I pulled a muscle in my shoulder and couldn't lift more than 5-10 lbs for over a month. It took me even longer to get back to exercising (and in a way I never really did).
Now I am very careful when I am out because I understand how fragile my newfound exercise habits are. I understand that if I hurt myself, I may never get back to it, at least not for a while.0 -
I really like the idea of finishing the rest of the 5k at a walk after the official "c25k" training is done. I might try this tomorrow. 0
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You did it! Congrats!
The program really does prepare you for it, and then you get to feel like a total badass after doing it. I thought there was no way I could go for 20 minute straight, but alas...0 -
XX_Miss_RoseMary_XX wrote: »I really like the idea of finishing the rest of the 5k at a walk after the official "c25k" training is done. I might try this tomorrow.
My word of caution for this is listen to your body. My wife emulated me in this and ended up pushing herself too hard and hurt her knee (and wasn't able to exercise at all for 2 weeks). Granted, I think she tried to jog after she finished the program, I think if she would have walked she might have been fine.
One thing I pointed out in my LONG intro (i know TL;DR
) is that prior to me starting the c25k program I had walked for over a month every day, I think I was around 62 walked in September before I started this program in October.
Having said all that, I do think finishing the 5k every time I go out has helped me with my endurance. I thank my wife for taking care of dinner and putting the kids to bed so I can go out and do this. Love ya baby.
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Hit my 90 seconds x 6 rotations. Whoop!0
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LazyButHealthy wrote: »Hit my 90 seconds x 6 rotations. Whoop!
Good Job! One of the best things about this program is the feeling of acomplishment once you complete a day.0 -
Definitely. I think if I were to repeat the same thing, day in day out, and have to wait weeks to see any physical impact, I would have given up on week 1.
Guaranteed.
Having other achievements to measure gives a wonderful feeling of satisfaction.0 -
LazyButHealthy wrote: »Definitely. I think if I were to repeat the same thing, day in day out, and have to wait weeks to see any physical impact, I would have given up on week 1.
Guaranteed.
Having other achievements to measure gives a wonderful feeling of satisfaction.
Absolutely true. In a very real way, it makes me excited for my next workout because I like the challenge of the timed run. Once I complete a day and whether I felt it was easy or hard I look at the next challenge with anticipation.0 -
The running slow thing is what got me when I first started running. I was always running too fast, even following the C25K program. End result was shin splints and no running.
I learned a proper pace for me through trail running. I used to live in the mountains and there was no such thing as a flat trail. This forces you to go slower since you are essentially climbing up a mountain.
One thing that I don't think you touched on is the importance of stretching after you run. My muscles get tight and stretching is paramount for not being sore the next day and allowing me to continue running. Also tight calves contributed to my shin splints, by stretching them after a run I am preventing the return of them.
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I love your posts! I have done C25K. Twice. The first time, I was 234 lbs, so I know it is definitely do-able when you are overweight.
Your goals are fantastic. I had done similar. I added another shortly after starting when I realized I was running w a grimace on my face. When I made a conscious effort to wipe that look of pain off my face, it really helped. And I remember well that realization when I was running 3 minutes IN A ROW lol.
I also made my workout the full 3.1 miles each day, adding a good walk when the "official" workout was over. It's a good measurement of progress. Just don't be afraid to repeat days (or weeks) as necessary. Not everyone can move forward at the same rate.
Friend rec coming your way!
Thank you for posting! I am about 250 pounds and I was wanting to start the C25k but I thought I might just be too heavy to get through it. I was about to post a question asking how heavy people were when they started but I can see anything is possible if you put your mind to it.
Good work to the OP too! Your doing a great job!!0 -
rachael1415 wrote: »
Thank you for posting! I am about 250 pounds and I was wanting to start the C25k but I thought I might just be too heavy to get through it. I was about to post a question asking how heavy people were when they started but I can see anything is possible if you put your mind to it.
Good work to the OP too! Your doing a great job!!
When I started exercising by walking on September 1st, I weighted 272 lbs. When I started the C25k program on October 7th I weighed about 259. I am 6' tall and this is about 80 lbs overweight for me. I am down to about 248 now. So with C25k I have lost 11 lbs in 5 weeks.
Originally I didn't plan on running until I got to 240. I was worried that running with all this weight would really mess up my knees and hips. But as I was doing so much walking I felt I could push it to the next level. I found the C25k program and started it up. Luckily enough, my body has held up.0 -
Program: C25k Week 6 Day 1
Date: 11/11/2014
Start time: 6:55 pm
Goals:
• Complete run portions of program
• Increase my pace
Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 52:36 (8th out of the 16 I have done)
Ave Pace: 16:58
Change from last attempt: -02:39
Change from W1D1 (Oct 7, 58:58): -06:22
Change from fastest time (W2D3, Oct 18: 48:28): +04:08
This day was 5-mintue jog, 8-minute jog, then 5-mintue jog.
I have to admit that from the very beginning I was not feeling this one. My legs felt tired before I even started and I think my warm-up was a little too much. My feeling is that I am still tired from everything I had done over the weekend. I am now back to my normal routine, which gives me about 48 hours of rest between runs, so hopefully the fatigue will go away.
I still completed all the run portions and my pace was in the middle of what I had done previously. Considering how tired I felt, this isn’t too bad.
On to W6D2 which is two 10-mintue jogs. The funny thing is that before I completed my 20-mintue run this would have intimidated me a bit, but after that, I feel confident in my ability to complte this day.
I just wanted to point out that as much as I talk about my pace, it still isn’t my primary focus. My primary goal is completing all run portions, and the end game is to run an entire 5k start to finish, regardless of how long it takes me.
Goal Achievement:
• Complete run portions of program
o Completed all the run portions. Like I said above, my legs were very fatigued, but I pushed past it and was able to complete all portions.
• Increase my pace
o I think I over did my warm-up a bit which increased my fatigue. Looking at my ½ mile split times, they aren’t too bad (for me). Even with the walk portions my slowest was 18 min/mile and the fastest was 16:21. Those were for 1/2 mile splits, if I look at my fastest times within those, some are under 10 min/miles, which I will admit I need to slow down on right now, my goal is for running to be around 14 min/mile or so right now.0 -
Hey guys,
I'm doing W2D2 today..it's almost 1a.m in Kenya. I was just looking through your posts and really. .I'm grateful for the motivation I get from you all. .it's been raining hard in Nairobi so outside runs are a bit tricky.... treadmill it is.. keep it up people 0 -
Keep going strong! I enjoy following your posts.
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Thank you for your post. Your experience sound a lot like mine and it was very discouraging. I too would find my self quitting before the run was over then reaching for an inhaler. I will take the advice and slow it down. BUT the good thing was when I got off the treadmill and felt guilty for not running as I wanted I got on the elliptical (which I hate and usually kills me) and it was surprisingly easy compared to trying to run anymore that day.0
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tropic80girl wrote: »Thank you for your post. Your experience sound a lot like mine and it was very discouraging. I too would find my self quitting before the run was over then reaching for an inhaler. I will take the advice and slow it down. BUT the good thing was when I got off the treadmill and felt guilty for not running as I wanted I got on the elliptical (which I hate and usually kills me) and it was surprisingly easy compared to trying to run anymore that day.
I always take two puffs off my inhaler before I go out. The few times I forgot I regretted it. I do not know if it was psychological or truly physical, but it always seemed that my breaths came harder and my lungs felt heavy (if that makes any sense).
Slowing down was a huge thing for me. I was always more of a sprinter than distance runner, so when I started C25k I was running at an 8-9 min/mile pace… weighing 270 lbs., which is about 100 lbs. overweight for me. I would go about 30 seconds and just collapse with my lungs gasping for air and my legs burning. So I slowed it down (WAY DOWN) to about 18 min/mile and was able to complete the first day and every day since then.
Over the last 5 weeks my average running speed has increased, when I look at my splits for when I am running I am usually around 14:30-16:00 min/miles. I know my run times are not consistent but I am not a trained runner and sometimes I get a little intimidated by the longer runs (although after doing W5D3, the 20-min run, I know I have the ability to do this).
I have never really been a treadmill guy (for some reason they always kicked my keister, probably the same reason as above, running too fast) but I have always loved the elliptical. For whatever reason I could crank the elliptical up and while my legs would burn and I would sweat buckets, it never bothered my lungs, and that was awesome.
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