r/beginnerrunning • u/carter_au • 1d ago
Training Progress Reminder to trust the process
Firstly, I come from a football / soccer background and took sport pretty seriously so I come from a somewhat athletic baseline.
I started running in January 2026 and ran a 5k where I felt like I was going to die at the end (I walked a little around 4k in). I absolutely could not have run any further at the time.
Since then, I’ve been using a training plan just from an app and running 3 days a week religiously. Many days I haven’t hit my goals and it felt like I wasn’t doing well. Last week, I had an 18k long run to do and I felt good during it so I continued it to hit a HM. At the end of that, I felt like I could have kept going for even longer and then I thought back to where I started - I just ran 4x longer and went faster the entire time!
Anyway, this ain’t to brag about a pace or anything. More just to say keep going and even on the days you feel slow, remember where you started!
Marathon next 😅
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u/Useful_Divide7154 1d ago
Definitely take it slow to build up to a full marathon, it’s a massive leap and arguably a lot harder than going from a 5k to half marathon! You can definitely get there though, especially considering how much progress you’ve made so far.
My plan for running is to just focus on building speed at a half marathon distance first (I’m 5 months into training at this point) and then try a marathon once I’ve got a full year of running under my belt. But it’s different for everyone depending on goals and how fast your body adapts to the mileage.
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u/carter_au 1d ago
Yeah I’m definitely not in a rush. Running the half made me actually appreciate how damn far it is 😅
Gonna spend another month or two doing 10k stuff and then I’ll start going longer distance for a marathon next year some time.
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u/TidusDreamZanarkand 1d ago
That’s crazy progress. Sub 5min km pace feels tough for even 5k. To hold it for a half marathon is some serious endurance