What now?

G-Money

I'm on Week 9 of Couch to 5K and should have it finished by Sunday. My question is, what should I move to now?

A couple of pieces of information that might be a factor. I'm still quite heavy (226 lbs) so I've a fair bit of weight left to lose. I've entered the Jingle Bells 5K in December and from looking at my current pace, 5K is going to take me about 40 minutes. I haven't actually done a 5K distance yet on that programme, but I can do the 30 minute jogs.

I was thinking on moving to the Bridge to 10K programme next week, however I've looked at week 1 and it starts out with 4 x 10 min jogs with 1 min walking between them. So that's a total of 40 minutes jogging whereas now I'm doing 30 minutes. Is that too much of an increase too soon?

I'd also like to get my 5K time down so I thought about fartlek training, but I'm not sure what's the best split, how many mins easy-ish pace v hard pace?

Also I was thinking did I even need to worry about the 5K distance as the 10K programme looks like it will have me doing 5K anyway almost from the start.

Cheers.

tHE vAGGABOND

Loosing some of the weight will make things much easier for you.

I was in the same position a few months ago [indeed I was much heavier than you]. Its just a matter of loosing the weight, and keeping running. the more you run, the more your body gets used to the stress running puts on your body, and therefore it will get easier for you.

Also doing some weights will really improve your resting matabolic rate and burn some of the extra fat - and make life much better for you when you are running. [No need to go mad with weights, just start working the key areas of your body, and working them out]

RayCun

How about this novice 5k programme?

You might have to skip a few of the early weeks to finish it in time for the race, but that shouldn't be a problem for you.

RayCun

If you want to add fartlek sessions, do them on the 'Thursday' run. Don't worry about exactly how far you run in the fartleks, just pick a target in the distance, run fast until you get there, and then run slowly or walk until you get your breath back.

G-Money

I kind of hate doing weights and I'm not currently a member of a gym. I've a few dumbbells and the like at home but from my past attempts, I never really enjoyed the workouts.

Perhaps there's some sort of body weight movements I can do at home? I guess I could do push-ups as my upper body strength is non-existent, and perhaps some squats too.

I'm not planning on joining a gym anytime soon.

ecoli

grandmaster wrote: »

I kind of hate doing weights and I'm not currently a member of a gym. I've a few dumbbells and the like at home but from my past attempts, I never really enjoyed the workouts.

Perhaps there's some sort of body weight movements I can do at home? I guess I could do push-ups as my upper body strength is non-existent, and perhaps some squats too.

I'm not planning on joining a gym anytime soon.

There are plenty of exercises that can be done without the use of gym equipment:

Push ups
Squats
Lunges
Tricep dips
Calf extensions
Back extensions
Crunches
V ups (crunches raising upperbody and legs at the same time)
Burpees (jumping squat thrusts)

Between these and other exercises you can easily plan a routine that can be done at home with no equipment and can provide great benefits