Couch to 5k thread

tenreds

Finished w3d3 today and really enjoyed it,next week sounds so much harder but there's a buzz when you finish a run that I haven't felt in such a long time.I think if I can do next week I'll be able to complete c25k as I thought I could never run for 1 minute let alone for 5:)

sentient_6

& i'm just finished w2d3! Feeling absolutely great exept for my knees which are starting to get pretty sore. Physio thinks im slightly over pronate & to get proper gait analyse done, im not fully convinced its the root cause myself, my body just isn't used to this sudden surge in activity, it's over 5 years since i did any proper running, but ill look to get it done & get the best runners for my feet anyway.

I changed the program this week a little bit, felt 2 minutes walking was going to be too much to i did 90 seconds run + 90 walk, i was happy with the intensity.

thumper10

morning all, so did W9d2 yesterday, went fast at the start and nearly wasnt able to finish but slowed to my usual pace and i finished it, knee /ankle were a bit sore, but i did it.......
thinking of doing an 8km race this weekend or 5km next weekend, i'll see how i get on this week with the running, might walk the last bit of the 8km....

also need to start practicing back on the road

tenreds

OK that's week 4 done and dusted,the 5 minute runs take a bit of effort,it's hard to think I'll be jogging for 20 minutes this time next week.From reading old post on this thread week 5 seems to be a milestone,I hope I'm fit enough

tenreds

OK yesterday I did W5d2 (2x8 mins runs) and have to say I found it hard,really out of breath at the end but then after smoking for 25 years what do I expect:( Found my knee's a bit sore before and after the the run as well so went and got gait analysis done and a new pair of Asics Kayano 17:D so hopefully that will help.Tomorrow is the 20 Min run and I'm not too sure if I can do it,just seems like to much of a leap from 8 to 20 Mins,why such a big jump?You would think 2x10 Min runs would be better. Well hope to post here tomorrow and will tell how I got on

RayCun

Remember to take it slow and easy. If you find yourself wanting to stop, slow down even more.

sentient_6

My sessions have been inconsistant the last two weeks. After w3d1 my knees where absolutely in bits from the wedges the physio had put in, she then advised me to take them out, thanks very much, another €60 ya? :rolleyes:

So i took the rest of last week off & decided to start week 3 again fresh this week which i did tuesday. Felt it a bit easier than i thought so today i jumped to week 4 where i should've been orginally & had a really good session. New proper runners helped with that lovely.

I'm cautiously thinking about one more run finishing up week 4(therefore technically being 1 session short) & moving on to wk5 next week.

mpdg

Things have been going badly for me on the running front.
Loads of college work, a consistent bad mood for a few weeks and a busy schedule have led to a few too many sleep ins!

When I do run, even when my running was consistent, I was having bad runs (feeling nauseated, unmotivated, too full, too hungry, full of water, overtired). How do you guys get through runs like that? Put your head down and keep going? Take breaks? I try and put on songs that I know give me a bit of get-up-and-go when I feel a bit horrible during a run, but sometimes even they don't work!

ManofStraw

Hey quick question for everyone, I have just finished w5d3 today but to be honest I have found this week pretty easy and I have felt that I had a lot in reserve. So today I kept going past the allotted 20 mins and ended up doing a complete 5k in 33 mins, found it fine I just stopped when I reached the 5k. So should I stick with the program or should I jump ahead a week or two ?

fizzyorange

After reading through a fair bit of this thread I have been inspired to try this again. I tried and failed last year, using my asthma as an excuse, but no excuses this time round. Might post in a while after a few days to try keep myself motivated.
Good luck everyone.

RayCun

ManofStraw wrote: »

So should I stick with the program or should I jump ahead a week or two ?

Might as well jump ahead - just go to 3 runs a week, 20-30 minutes each one, and gradually increase the time (no more than 10% increase a week)
Or start looking at a 10k programme.

sentient_6

mpdg wrote: »

Things have been going badly for me on the running front.
Loads of college work, a consistent bad mood for a few weeks and a busy schedule have led to a few too many sleep ins!

When I do run, even when my running was consistent, I was having bad runs (feeling nauseated, unmotivated, too full, too hungry, full of water, overtired). How do you guys get through runs like that? Put your head down and keep going? Take breaks? I try and put on songs that I know give me a bit of get-up-and-go when I feel a bit horrible during a run, but sometimes even they don't work!

Too full, too hungry or full of water are things you can try control better by putting a plan in place to structure your day in terms of when you work, eat & train.

For instance i try to the same thing every day, get up & eat porridge for breakfast, wait 45 minutes before hitting the road to where i like to run so that its then an hour since i ate, do my session, by the time im home again im just getting hungry so its straight on with the eggs & brown bread. I work an evening shift then, plain meat & veg dinner on first break & sandwich i made earlier on second break. Same thing every day.

Try sipping water regularly through out the day rather that gulp it down less often, i dont change this around training sessions too, still only small sips regularly.

tenreds

AS the title say's,I was meant to do my 20 Min run on Friday but had to work instead so that was my first excuse to get out of running.Also my knee's felt a bit sore so I thought another days rest would do them good (excuse no2).This morning got up and it was raining so another reason not to run,but really I was afraid of just failing.Then around 11 it stop raining and I knew if I didn't go then I would never go so off I went
The run started OK but by the 5 Min was felling a bit tried,so slowed the pace down a bit the next 5 were OK, then at that point I started to think I might be able to do this.The next 5 Min just felt great and by the time I reached the last two Min I even picked the pace back up again.I felt so good at the end and can't wait to move on to week six.:D
The new runners felt great as well no problems with the knee's today so no more excuses I now believe I can get to the end of c25k cause if you can run for 20 Min it's only another 10 Min to go

iPink

Hi all, I'm fairly new to this running lark!

I'll be 40 this year & quite overweight- I've never run before our been fit by any means but for some reason running has been calling to me!
I started this programme a few months ago... I'd say 7 weeks maybe and been getting through it slowly but surely!
I am now on week 5... Never ever thought I would make it this far but here I am.... And loving it!
My progress so far has been like this...

Week 0- I decided to just go out and run... In very cheap and nasty runners and did myself and my shins terrible injury... Could barely walk for 2 weeks after that!

Week 1- I learned from my mistake lol downloaded the c25k programme & bought myself some decent runners! Running 8 times for 60 second at a time almost killed me...I thought I could never keep it up, thought I'd never survive after each run... This was BY FAR the most difficult week to date! But yet I kept it up and kept going,I felt good AFTERWARDS LOL even though my new expensive runners were eating my feet too! Breathing was very difficult...I repeated week 1 days 5 times!

Week 2- I was so nervous about the longer runs! But in the end it was much easier as though the runs at slightly longer there are less of them lol so it wasn't as boring! At this stage I was doing some serious research into blisters and wearing 3 pairs of socks potter run as I read that can help. Up to then I'd been running at a local house racecourse but decided to brave the roads on St. Patrick's day as it was so quiet... I managed to time it perfectly for everyone coming home after the parade lol never again!! I also realised I would need new runners and that's all there was to it... I did struggle a bit this week but not too bad... I think I'm still going painfully slow but didn't mind as I was still doing 100% more exercise than before...

Week 3- I knew this would be impossible...it want just an extra 30 seconds but DOUBLE what I had done before.. I just knew I couldn't do it...I actually headed out (on a new route) to repeat week 2 but ended up saying feck it I'll just try it! And I did it!! The feeling was amazing...I did something I never ever thought I'd be able to... I ran for 3 minutes!!lol I also had new runners (Reebok run tone) and had turned all but the basic command off on the app...I found it a lot easier to not know I was 'halfway there' etc, each walking part was a nice surprise lol still struggling with my breathing tho.. Someone said it would just click eventually...and it did! Somewhere in week 4!

Week 4- my last run of week 3 was a tough one so I was planning on only doing week 3 again (had repeated 2 days already) but just decided to keep going after the 3 minutes & I did the 5 no problem! This turned out to be a long week due to women's stuff going on... I only did it 3 times but over the course of 2 weeks I think! The first day I ended up doing almost 8 minutes instead of 5 and managed fine but then had a bit of a setback due to my cycle (sorry if TMI!) Got through the week anyway, had planned to repeat a few says as I didn't feel I had done it properly!

Week 5-so this brings me to week 5...as I said above I had planned to repeat days of week 4 on Saturday... I was so oooo scared of week 5-day 3 looming! But when I went out yesterday I already knew I could do as much as 8 minutes so when the walking interval came I just kept going... And going....I ended up doing 21 minutes straight! Honestly, I couldn't believe it...thought it was a fluke so I had to go out and do it again this morning to prove it to myself lol...did it again!! And I feel ok! So I basically skipped week 5 day 1&2 and went straight to what I was most scared of!

I have to say that I am really loving this now and I am SO feckin prod of myself! I've never done anything like this before or kept up an exercise regime!! I do belly dancing and love it but its not hugely taxing and its always been on & off!

I know everyone says this but if you are reading this wondering if its for you or not.... Try it, you have nothing to lose & EVERYTHING to gain... I really really mean this... IF I CAN DO IT ANYONE CAN! Anyone who knows me will confirm :-)

iPink

Please excuse all the typing errors due to doing this on my Fone and using predictive text!! Lol

Ladjacket

started this last night, felt great afterwards - session 2 is tomorrow evening. Looking forward to it!

Popsy

W8D1 last night- I felt totally deflated. I didn't have any energy or enthusiasm and nearly gave up a few times. When I got home I didn't get my usual buzz, I just felt that I'd ticked another box. I think I need to find a new route to spark my interest again.

I'm curious as to how soon people signed up for a 5k run after finishing the programme. Theres a 5k on 20th May but at present I don't feel I'd be capable of running it.

RayCun

Popsy wrote: »

I'm curious as to how soon people signed up for a 5k run after finishing the programme. Theres a 5k on 20th May but at present I don't feel I'd be capable of running it.

Of course you can, no trouble at all. Is it the Lucan Harriers 5k? If you look at last year's results you can see there's plenty of people finishing in over 30 minutes, some in over 40! You'll be grand.

(I ran a 5k as soon as I finished the programme, so did my wife when she finished)

Popsy

Hey RayCun,

Thanks for the response. Yes its the Tom Byrne Memorial. I haven't had the bottle to physically sign up yet though. Maybe I should, that can be my motivator to get me through to week 9

RayCun

do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it

iPink

Hi all, I finished week 5 yesterday.. in the cold & rain!! On to week 6 tomorrow... weather permitting! I've heard a lot of people say that week 6 can be the most difficult...??

I ran up at the race course here and I remember starting week 1 and thinking I would NEVER be able to run the whole course... yesterday I ran around it one and a half times!!

It really is amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it!!! Don't think I've lost much weight yet but my whole shape is changing..

I want to start some upper body training and was looking at the 7 weeks to 100 push ups programme... has anyone every tried it? as it stands today I can't even so 1!!!

MLC_biker

Popsy wrote: »

W8D1 last night- I felt totally deflated. I didn't have any energy or enthusiasm and nearly gave up a few times... I'm curious as to how soon people signed up for a 5k run after finishing the programme. Theres a 5k on 20th May but at present I don't feel I'd be capable of running it.

Everyone has good and bad days, running's just like life
If you're in Dublin there's the Docklands 5k at the end of May and the 8k at the end of June, flat course, over 1500 runners in each so plenty of help

...and then you can head for the Dublin city Marathon Race Series - 10k at end of July, 10mile end of August, 1/2 marathon mid-Sept, who knows where the fun ends !!

sentient_6

I've w5d2 done today. Both bricking it & looking forward to day 3, this week as a whole is a massive jump in intensity.

iPink

sentient_6 wrote: »

I've w5d2 done today. Both bricking it & looking forward to day 3, this week as a whole is a massive jump in intensity.

You can do it Sentient! I've just finished week 5, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... I mean it was worse in my head then actually doing it!!
Good luck :-)

tenreds

hey sentient just remember to take it slowly at the start and you'll have no problems,I was thinking the same last week about w5d3

I just did w6d2 today and I found it hard running into the wind,nearly stopped on the first 10 Min run, just didn't feel like doing the run as much as normal,but it was long day at work and I would normally run in the morning time so hopefully Saturday will feel better.I can't believe I'll be running for 25 MIN on my next run and no more intervals from now on :eek:

sentient_6

W5d3 done. I wasn't in the best condition for running today after ridiculous amounts of food, drink & bouncing castles at a confirmation yesterday, my body felt battered this morning, but i went for it anway.

Brought in slightly over 3km in 20 minutes, very happy!

Ladjacket

W2D1 just finished, i know its only week 2 but you can already sense the difference in the 60 second jog to the 90 second jog.

Roll on Thursday night!!

allym

Started again after trying and failing miserably last year.

W1D2 finished and I'm not finding it anywhere near as tough as last time! Dunno what's changed but I'm feeling good

Popsy

I bit the bullet last night and decided to run again. As I've already said I lost all motivation on W8D1 and haven't been out in well over a week.

I changed my route, changed my music and managed my best distance yet. I completed 4k in 30 minutes, which is amazing considering I couldn't run for a bus. I decided to run without the lovely Laura from NHS C25K and it made such a difference. I wasn't clock watching while waiting on her to tell me how far I'd gone, I just jogged and jogged.

My thighs are very sore today, but I don't care it was worth it. Can't wait for my next run. Also its time I signed up for my first 5k run, as I feel I've the confidence to do it now

davenewt

What the hell, I'm going to throw my runners into the ring on this thread too. Started the C25k thing (the 5k Runner app on iPhone) this week, today was W1D2.

I previously tried the intermittent jogging thing to get fit (a couple of times in the last couple of years) but it never stuck.

Have just joined mapmyrun too - if any other beginners around Dublin are on there, shout if you want to connect to help the motivation

Let's see if a mixture of regular exercise, fancy iphone apps and posting to boards can keep me going this time!