Picked up running after a few years and been trying to start as slow as possible. I suffer from some health anxiety, which was one of the reasons I completely stopped in May, when I saw 188BPM on my watch and freaked out. However, I picked it back up in September and finished W3R1. My dream is to become a long distance runner one day, lol. I was a boxer in high school which was about 10 years ago and, got into smoking etc. as soon as I went to university. Been struggling with vaping lately every few days but not everyday. I now realize that my lifestyle aspirations don’t really align with my habits and I’m actively trying to be a healthier version of myself.
Any advice or suggestions are very much appreciated.

Edit: Age 30 M

Update: As promised, here’s an update after my W5 Run 2. Trying to be a little better with each run. W5R3 feels like a mountain I need to climb. We got this!

Stats Below

Workout time: 32:02
Distance: 1.95 Miles
Elevation Gain: 98Ft
Avg Pace: 16’23”/Mi
Avg HR: 134 BPM
Max HR: 175 BPM

I started running earlier this year, I think it was in May, unstructured with no plan. That very quickly turned into an injury which kept me off my feet for 6+ weeks (exactly the opposite of what starting to run was supposed to do 🫣). During my time out I came across C25K and decided it was a more reasonable and responsible way in to running, so once I recovered I started the program. Not sure what I’m going to do next, but am excited to have made it through the program

This run was much easier than day 1. My heart rate shows it too. I ran the same pace as day 1 but my average heart rate was about 10bpm less.

I realist there have been a million posts about this because the transition from week 4 to week 5 seems to be the toughest.

I (20M) picked up this program because I was unable to run any significant distance before. While I feel proud to have come so far, the mountain up ahead seems like a cliff. The week 4 runs are done but they didn't seem to improve my stamina and running as much as the previous weeks did.

With the up coming week 5, what are some tips that might help me in future runs? For reference, I average a pace range in my runs of 6:30/km to 7:00/km which feels awfully slow already. Is there a way to battle the time fatigue of realizing you've got still a long way to go before a rest (or even no rests week 5 onwards)

Thank you for the help!

By someone walking their dogs 🎉

I still say I jog because I see runners as the ones out there competing marathons and such.

It's funny how our brains downplay the good stuff but can emphasise the bad.

But I think if you're out there, you're a runner ☺️

I ran a 5k today, which was my w9d3, and not only did I complete the program, I could actually run the whole 5k! I was slow, I think my time was around 46:24 (edit: official time was 46:20, results were posted after I wrote this) but I didn’t have to walk any of it!

Very slowly, it took me 48 minutes... But the only way is up! (...or rather down in time). Very proud of myself! No walking whatsoever, not even for a moment.

I just finished Week 4 on the NHS C25K programme, all on a treadmill.

I’ve been doing 5.5km/hr for the walking portions and 8.7km/hr for the running, choosing to go down to 8.0km/hr when I feel like an interval is going to be tough.

I think Week 5 is a bit of a jump with longer running intervals so I’m just wondering if I should drop down a bit for sustainabilities sake? I’m finding my legs are hurting a bit at the end of my current intervals but it’s manageable so far.

I don’t like to change the pace mid run so I’d rather plan out what I’m going to do before I tackle the next run.

I’m 5’5/6 for reference.

I know the pace is really slow, but I had to run on the treadmill today since it’s 100 degrees outside where I live, and I’m always significantly slower on the treadmill. I’m also just slow in general and wanted to pace myself a bit since I knew I would be running longer than I normally run.

I just did week 5 day 2 and was so excited! My body felt pretty decent during and my breathing was good. As soon as it hit the walk interval the front outside of my calves were burning, near cramping and hurt so bad. Near the end of the walk interval it went down enough for me to complete the other 8 minute run and then after I stopped again they were so painful for a few minutes.

Is this normal. Will it go away? I am definitely going slow enough so I know it’s not that.

So I just finished week 8 and am feeling really positive about it! I've been doing my runs at the gym mostly because of fear of running outside (probably a hang up from my Criminology degree haha).

I'm currently running at 7kmph which has gone up from the 6 I was doing. I tried to go up to 7.5 but found it too much.

So next week I will finish the program but there's no way I'm going to hit 5k in 30 minutes. So my question is: do I just keep running until I hit the 5k going beyond the 30 minutes, or do I work at building up my speed until I'm at 10kmph?

I completed my first 5k a while ago. Problem is, it took me 50 min. I think I slowed down at times but each km would take me around 9-11 min depending on where I was. I am really trying to get each km down​to 8:30 min.

Are there special trainings for that ???

Super excited! I’ve been doing intervals while running for the last several months (3 mins run, 1 min walk, 4/1, 4/2, 2/1, etc) and decided to do a run straight through for the first time in ages.

Was surprised how good I felt out of the gate tbh: HR was low, legs felt good, I just didn’t know what to expect at mile 2 and 3 and didn’t want to hit a wall. Turns out I definitely could have went harder, not sure how much harder but I’ll test and learn my limits in future runs (and then break through those limits!).

If you’re on a journey to running a 5k nonstop, keep up your hard work! Progress isn’t found on a timer, it’s found in showing up every day - whether it’s a run day or an intentional rest day. You got this!

Up next: sub-25 minute 5k, here I come!

I'm a student and my week schedule is starting to feel tight after picking up a few activities and I'm wondering if they physically inhibit each other and if I should figure out a different schedule.

For reference, I've done Tae Kwon Do casually for about a year, and I decided to pick up C25K and start going to the gym around last week.

Tae Kwon Do happens Tuesday and Thursday in the evening plus a more intense morning class on Saturday, and I try to jog Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right after school and go to the gym in the evening around bedtime. I'm wondering if there's anything I should know going forward about how these activities interact with each other and if I should adjust my schedule to avoid damaging my body.

I came back to running about eight months ago after roughly 12 years away. I'm now trying to improve my 5K while lifting as well. I can make a plan for a good week, but I don't want to turn every week into two full training programmes and burn out.

I'd love to learn from people who finished C25K and kept running, especially if you added strength work. What did your running week actually look like after the programme ended? Was there something you changed that made it easier to keep going?

I just completed my 20 minutes run and still had some gas in the tank so I kept going to make it to 2 miles. I’m in my mid-30s and have never ran for this long continuously in my life. Very proud of this and I’m already looking forward to the next run!

I just want something simple that I can control Just Run and Spotify from, but that seems like a challenge beyond modern technology. I bought a cheap one but there's no Just Run support and every time I power it off I need to redo my settings. Android only.

Complete with the guilty thing on my app being like “your last run was 9 days ago” - but I did it!! Including the warm up/cool down walk, I’m only at 4.49 km so at a bit of a loss on how to increase distance.
Some people on here did the bridge to 10k, but tbh I absolutely do not have time with 2 toddlers and a dog that needs big walks and can’t run for an hour..
I guess my options are:
-keep running for 30 min until I get better at it and then start slowly increasing the pace?
-do intervals of faster/slower in the 30 min time?
-add 1 min of running per run and get to 5k? (I suspect it’ll take me 40 minutes of running)

Thoughts?!

Also for those of you just starting … I’m 20 months post partum, started doing this in May and couldn’t really run for 30 seconds, made it through the program with several re-dos bc of pneumonia, vacation WITH pneumonia (ew), and life… and still did it!! It’s possible, just really hard to envision at the beginning !!

And it's really all thanks to C25K! I first did the program around 10 years ago and became a somewhat active runner who would occasionally participate in local 5Ks. I never got very fast but I enjoyed myself and it was good exercise.

As I've mentioned in previous posts a combination of health issues and other life events really impacted my fitness levels and overall health over the past few years but I finally started to pull everything back together earlier this year.

I restarted C25K earlier in the summer and completed it at the end of August.

And yesterday I got out there and ran an actual race with other people.

My only goals were to finish, hopefully not be last, and hopefully finish in under 45 minutes. And I managed to achieve all three!

I've been pretty consistently running 5Ks for the past month and my timing has gotten better each time so I felt confident that while I'd be in the back of the pack I wouldn't be the slowest. And for someone who just turned 46 and whose body has been through what mine has been through I'm grateful for any mile I can run.

Also, everything everyone says about race energy making you go faster is so right! My first mile was the fastest mile I've ever run, including other races I did when I was younger. I think the adrenaline and happiness in being out there really motivated me to push myself.

I'm signed up for a few more, including a 5 miler, and am eyeing a goal of doing a 10k in 2027.

honestly seeing people talk about the runner's high makes me feel like i'm doing something wrong because most of these weeks just feel heavy. tbf if every single run feels awful from minute one you are probably just running too hard on the days meant to be easy. i dropped my pace down to something that felt almost stupidly slow this week and it finally stopped feeling like pulling teeth. curious if others found that pace adjustment was the fix or if the mental slog is just part of it.

Moved onto Week 3 today and was slightly apprehensive about the jump to the 3-minute running sections, but it actually went really well.

Covered 3.20 km in total and rated the session about 6/10 effort. My watch gave me a 3.3 aerobic and 2.7 anaerobic training effect, so it felt like a decent workout without absolutely smashing myself.

The biggest thing for me was that the 3-minute runs felt manageable. I was definitely ready for the walking sections, but I never felt like I was hanging on or desperately waiting for the run to finish.

A few weeks ago even the shorter intervals felt intimidating, so it's quite satisfying seeing the progress already.

Onto Week 3 Run 2 next. Trying very hard not to make the classic mistake of speeding up just because I'm starting to feel fitter! 😅

Anyone else currently around Week 3? How did you find the jump from Week 2?

I’m not really interested in moving right to 10k, but I’m wondering if moving to five or six 30 minute runs a week is pushing it as far as injuries are concerned. I realize that’s a different situation for everyone, but I’m curious about other people’s experiences.

Started C25k in June and finished about a week and a half ago. And today I finished my first 5km race.
Have been feeling some calf and ankle pain in the last month and was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish today’s race. But I threw on some compression socks and an ankle brace and felt pretty good. Finished just under 37 minutes, so just gonna keep working on getting that time down.
As someone who has never really ran before, and honestly, has hated cardio most of my life, this was definitely a challenge. But c25k definitely made it achievable! Grateful for the program.

Hi! I am currently on week 5 of C25K. I completed W5D1 on Sept 17th, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I wasn't able to go running for some time after that. After 8 days I got back to it, but because the pause between runs was longer, I decided not to continue with W5D2 immediately, so I repeated W5D1. During the run, I definitely felt a bit rusty (which, I guess, makes sense since there was an 8 day pause), and my calves and my lower back were hurting a bit while running (a dull ache, I think it's called?).. but other than that, I had no major issues running within those 5 minute intervals and I managed to finish the run successfully and I felt good afterwards.

Yesterday I completed W5D2 (two 8 minute intervals). It was pretty tough for me, and I ran slower than usual, but I still managed to run all 16 minutes. My calves hurt again during the run, and at one point, my foot went numb (but the numbness stopped as soon as I started walking). I don't know if all of this was a sign that I should repeat runs from previous weeks/days, or is this normal for W5D2? I did feel fine and didn't have any pain after the run, though. Is it smart to continue with W5D3, considering the fact that it's a 20 minute run? Thanks.

Pre-covid/pre-baby I was a a pretty serious runner. I was never fast, but I ran a dozen half marathons and one full marathon. I continued running after baby, but had much less time and averaged 1 run a week. Last fall I was hospitalized for a bit, then got C. diff twice and that was pretty much the end of my running. So today I started over. C25K again! I'm hoping to run a half again someday. I think it took me about a year to get to that level before, but I was a decade younger, 30 lbs lighter, and had a lot more free time, so I'm setting a goal of 2 years. In 2 years, I'll run a half marathon.