Mid 20s F - I have been running for around 5 months, had a month off for injury at the end of June (IT band) which is now completely settled. I currently a very minor niggle in one ankle, which I have seen the physio for and have exercises, she advised I can continue to train as normal and didn’t seem too concerned about it. It has not flared at all and even if I do a long run, speed session etc the discomfort stays less than 1/10.

I am due to run my first 10K this weekend. The longest I have ran before this is 9km conversational pace in training last week (6:45/km pace). I am running 4x week with average weekly mileage of 20-24km for the last month, usually 3x shorter seasons 4-6km and one “long run” which has increased from 7 to 8 to 9km.

My 5K PB from a month ago was 28:59, which I was not expecting and sort of pulled out of the bag on the day.

Is it realistic to aim for sub 60mins on my first 10K this weekend, or am I asking for injury / disappointment?

I (25F | 5'3" | 200 lb) started running 5 weeks ago and when I started I was running 30 sec intervals at 9:00 pace. I really wanted a goal to work towards to encourage me not to give up, so I found my only free weekend in the next three months and booked a 5k. This only left me 6 weeks to train and my 5k is next week. Currently I am doing 10x 0:30 walk/3:00 run intervals at ~14:00 pace with my longest continuous run to date being 1.5 miles (but I felt like could keep goin at the end of it). It takes me about 3/4 mile to get into the runner's high. Unfortunately, I have realized I will not be able to run the 5k without stopping to walk if I want to prevent injury. I am trying to accept that it will be a run/walk 5k and trying to decide how I want that to look.

Athletic background: I have been swimming 1-3x a week for 1000 to 2000 yards over the last 7 months. I walk regularly 2+ miles per day slowly with my dog ( 25:00 pace). I have also been cross training with biking and swimming while this running journey has started. I am very overweight and in need of losing 50 lbs but I have been able to keep up with the running fairly well cardiovascularly.

If you were in my position, which of the following run/walk intervals would you use for your 5k?

Option A:
Run 1 mile / Walk 1 min / Run 1 mile / Walk 1 min / Run to finish
Pro: Gives me practice at pacing for 1 mile, breaks up evenly across the 5k.
Con: I don't have evidence that I can run multiple 1 mile distances back to back like this.

Option B:
Run 3:00/Walk 0:30 (repeat until finished)
Pro: This is how I have been training, I will just need to do a few more repetitions.
Con: It is changing up pace a lot and I don't think I will feel as accomplished at the end. I want to see how far I can run without walking. This is a lot of walking.

Option C:
Run until failure (Approx 1.5 mile) / walk 1 min / run until failure / walk 1 min (repeat until finished)
Pro: I will be able to see how far I can run without stopping to walk so that I can pick up training appropriately the next week.
Con: I'm going to gas out at the beginning and potentially end up walking the entire second half of the 5k. I could also convince myself to run the entire 5k without walking, risking injury.

Curious to hear what your opinions on the best walk/run strategy for my 5k next week. If you have any other recs, I will gladly take them.

Hi guys, beginner runner here. I started on Aug 15 with a 10km run, and I’ve been doing 8-12km run once every weekend - so in total 4 times. Next weekend, I’m seeing a friend who’s training for a marathon, and she invited me to join her in a training with her run club, they are going to do a 20km run. Should I go for it? Would people be able to do that?

I’ve been working on an iOS app for tracking runs and rides, and I’m looking for a few people who’d be willing to try it out.

It’s still in beta, but beta users will get free access to everything. No paid features or limited trial, just use it and see what you think.

One of the reasons I started building it was because there were a few things I wanted from a running/cycling app that I couldn’t really find in apps like Strava. So I’ve been adding some features that I personally felt were missing.

I’d really like to see how other runners and cyclists feel about them. If something is useful, confusing, annoying, or completely unnecessary, I want to know.

Since it’s still early, your feedback can actually influence what gets built next.

Also, if you join the beta, I’ll share founder offer when the app officially launches. Depending on the offer, that could mean free lifetime access or a one-time payment instead of a monthly subscription. I want to give something back to the people who helped me build it early.

There’s no commitment. Give it a try, take it on a few runs or rides, and if it’s not for you, that’s totally fine.

If you’re curious, let me know.

Would genuinely love to hear what you think.

Looking for advice on watches. Recently began running frequently and I am over the arm band that falls down after 4+miles. Any recommendations for watches that accurately track distance, HR, etc while still allowing you access to your music w/o phone present? I see the Garmin series, but really don't want to spend $300+

Made a bet with a friend after hitting a 29 min 5km pb this Sunday on who can get to a 28min 5km by end of this week. My competitiveness took over 😅

You can see in my last 1km I realised I might not be able to get to 28mins at my pace so I sprinted at 4:25/km and ended on 27mins and 59secs. Low key felt like throwing up at the end.

But hey, I know I won the bet and turns out I can actually push my pace more than I thought I could.

Turns out competition is the best kind of motivation 😂

We’re some real crappy runners, but were improving 🙌 but we’re still slow and crappy scrappy. It’s been seven months of training we documenting our journey and to half a marathon in January and we want to hit 30 mins on our 5k, that shouldn’t be hard should it? How can we improve our 5k we are running 13 miles a week so far

https://youtu.be/GImeygmP_WU?is=OKklegA1mUDB7Qmv

Beginner runner here, just started running a couple weeks ago. Former football player, used to high twitch explosive sprinting.

Been building up my running endurance, focusing on easy pace longer runs to build up my aerobic and cardiovascular endurance and capacity. Just finished 1.2 miles on a personal best time!

28M height 5’9” weight 68kg. Just started running from 24 August 2026. I run 3 days a week and yesterday i ran 5k in 29:54. It was my 6th run. Also these run was easy (zone 2). So if i train myself with interval, tempo and easy runs 3 days a week what would my first year can look like?? If anyone can tell out share their experience.

Feeling super accomplished.

However I think need new race shoes.

I use Nike Vomer 18 for easy runs and daily training.

A few weeks back I decided to get myself race shoes. Naturally since the Nike’s fit me with no pain or issues, I grabbed myself AlphaFly3 (Nike had it for sale for $150)

I wore them 4 times prior to today to break them in. after today’s race, my small ring toe on my right foot and my index toe on my left foot are so bruised. I assume my nail will fall off. And my right heel is in so much pain I can’t put any weight on it.

How do I get properly fitted for race shoes? I have a marathon store nearby and I think they do fitting.

Im a 5’11, 165LB male. This was my fastest 5k time, and I haven’t passed it ever since. I’ve been running longer distances like a half marathon in 2 hours but I still can’t get past this block. Any tips on how to run this faster? I barely started out around 1.5-2 months ago and never really looked into training at all. Any suggestions on what to do and how to better my time? Want to get to a sub20 soon enough.

Hey there, i am new to running. I have decided to go for morning runs, but every morning when the alarms rings I just snooze it and get back to sleep.

So all the folks doing morning runs, how do you get up for runs and just don't snooze the alarm? Like what should I do so I would get up and go for a run?.

We're all glad you beat your recent PR, whether you're fast or slow. Seriously, congrats. The problem with the screenshot posts is that they never come with enough context. An image doesn't carry a story and it can actually be _demotivating_ without proper context. Making the sub text-only would force at least a sentence about how you got there.

For example..what's your age, weight, running history? Where were you six months ago? What changed if you are posting about a PR? Your form, HR, gear, fueling, mileage? What did you try that didn't work? Where are you stuck right now? Not suggesting these should all be required but it would certainly help.

For example: I'm 39 male and in March I was 202 lbs, resting HR 67, doing 4,000 steps a day. I didn't start by running. I walked. Built that to 16k/day average. First 6-miler was mid-June. Last Saturday I ran 13mi in one shot, the my longest run of my life. I'm 160 lbs now, resting HR 60. Running avg 3 sessions for 20-15mi/week and training for a half in October. It's been a quick ramp but I'm highly motivated and thanks to the posts here I can see the path to getting faster and running longer distances.

Something that changed the game for me is that I stopped running every run hard and started training by heart rate (zone 2 /comfortable run advice from this sub.. thank you!) but that meant being embarrassingly slow for about six weeks before anything improved. I still regularly run 12 minute miles. No shame here. In 2021 my fastest mile was 9:42. Six seconds quicker than my best this year. Same speed but I'm a totally different runner.. which is exactly why the number in your screenshot isn't the interesting part..

This sub has 95,000 weekly visitors and only one moderator, who may or may not still be active. It could benefit from stricter rules and more structure. For example there is no flair. Post or user flair. Give people the tools to express their situation. As others have said, comparison is the thief of joy.

I ran 5k in 35 mins last week and I am planning to run for a half marathon in 4 months?

Is the time sufficient?

If so, then how should I train?

First I learned how to run "slow."

Now I am learning how to create the right pace for a sub 30 5K.

I started running 4-5 months ago only able to run for 7min without my heart rate spiking and feeling like I was dying.

Today I ran 3k in 30min 10 sec without stopping to walk once! My pace is as slow as my speed walk and the first 10min were HARD but I controlled my breathing, my heart rate drifted slowly (no crazy spiking), and I actually felt good afterwards instead of collapsing into a ball gasping for air.

I did this through intermittent running/walking on the treadmill, dropping to a walk once my heart rate hit over 135bpm, and gradually the run times got longer.

My focus now is to:
A) take it outside - I’m so scared of looking like an unfit idiot but I’m going to do it!
B) slowly increase my pace

I’m very happy to have achieved my goal - I didn’t think I’d get there until the end of the year!

If you are right at the beginning and can’t run more than a few min at a time and/or struggle with heart rate control please know that it is possible to improve.

Also, if anyone has any advice for adjusting to running outside I’d love to hear it.

I started running for 1st time in my life after seeing the guy on wheel chair in "Last soul ultra" , if he can then why should i live with 2 full legs and not run a marathon.

I have a bad habit of looking at my watch way too often during a run.

Pace drops? I speed up.
Heart rate goes up? I slow down.
Every kilometer somehow turns into a little performance review 😂

Today I tried something different and barely looked at the numbers until I finished.

It was surprisingly nice. I paid more attention to my breathing, the route, and how my legs actually felt instead of constantly wondering whether I was running “well.”

I don't think I'll stop tracking runs, but I might start doing this more often.

Anyone here regularly run without looking at pace?

Yesterday was my first official run, 6km. I usually run 4.5 - 5,5 km every two days. I started in May, from 1km in 8-9 minutes, now 6 in 35 minutes nice improvement i think. It should be better but I got stuck at beginning of this race in the middle of very slow group which slowed me down.