c25k week 1 day 1. doing again with a friend.

also doing week 4 of Ease to 10K.

AYE!

My knees have been giviing me trouble since the race on sat so have been using the elliptical for about 30 min a day a walking a couple miles doing my weight traing it the indide of both knee caps letting them rest don't hurt on elliptical .......

Just popping in to say hi and great job everyone! I've been crazy busy but getting all my training in. I'm totally freaking out about Sunday's 18 miler and I'll be sure to report back with more on that. In the mean time happy running!

Ma: Thank you very much!! I'm very happy to have completed c25k and to continue!
Ncuneo: You will do fine! I can't wait to hear how you do!!

Today (technically yesterday) was another HIIT day. I'm happy to say that I surpassed my previous speeds on the elliptical, so that's cool. Tomorrow (well today..) is a run day. I did get different shoes. I went with Adidas' cool climate shoes.. whatever they're called. They're lightweight, minimalist and comfortable!

Have a good night chickies!! :carrot:

I joined a 5k running club here at college! We have practice 2x a week, where we run a 5k. It's really fun!

Hi folks! Maybe you runners can help me with something.
Last summer I started c25k but after week 5 I stopped. So I am starting back up at week 2 now. I can't run long runs yet, but I know with c25k that in a bunch of weeks I can. However - I really badly just wanna run myself silly and tired. The plan is great because it builds up slowly, but I don't want to wait till 7 weeks from now before I can start burning some serious calories. I just LOVE being outside and moving and am tired of the gym.

Any tips on how to get the most out of running already (and not in 7 weeks) and not ruin a perfectly good plan for building up stamina?

What I've done is just lengthened the time for doing the intervals.


So C25K week 2 is 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes right?

Just lengthen it. Go for 30-35 minutes, or whatever feels like a challenge and gets you feeling tired. If anything it will help your stamina, and help you burn more calories.

devadiva- Thats a great plan. Gotta let the body heal when it hurts! That's awesome that you are still moving and keeping the aerobic health going :).

philana- I am totally unfamiliar with C25K, besides I know it mean "couch to 5 K". When I first started running I would just pick points to run too, when outside it may be a landmark or X number of telephone poles. On the treadmill I would try to a certain distance. Like I want to run "1/2 a mile without stopping". Then I'd walk to catch my breath and try again.

That being said if you are following a proven program maybe its best to stick with it. But if you feel that you physically in better shape than what the program ascribes you can always do intervals maybe? I am doing interval on an incline lately. It's totally kicks my butt in such a short workout time.

ncuneo- Wow! Good luck on the 18. Your such an inspiration. Makes me feel like I want to start training for a whole marathon. Maybe after the summer half races are over....

Did a 4.25 mile run on the treadmill yesterday. Kinda a tempo run I guess. I had a 2.5 incline and ran at 6.0 for 30. Then took off the incline for 5 and added .1 speed every 30 seconds the remaining 40 mins of the run. So the last minute was ran at 7.0. I had planned to step up the speed while on the incline, but the 6.0 was so hard at that level that I decided instead to try to do 30 mins there. It was hard, but after taking the incline off, 6.0 felt as easy as walking. Crazy! Definitely going to keep adding the steepness. It seems like theses hills are starting to pay off.

philana - I've never been a huge C25K fan. It isnt the only way, or necessarily even the best way--although running yourself into the ground isnt either

One of the biggest problems I have with C25K is that the very regular and very short interval set encourage what is already the biggest mistake most new runners make....running too fast. It is not good at teaching the slow steady jog. which means it DOESNT build stamina well, but it is accessible. Plus it teaches dependance on a gadget instead of listening to your body

So if you want to go longer, go longer. Go for time or distance and focus on jogging as slowly as you can maintain a jog. Walk when you feel the need, resume jogging when you feel you want to. You should ALWAYS be able to talk during these runs

i.e
Pick a route you can briskly walk in 45 min. Jog walk it with no regard to when you jog and when you walk, go by feel. Do not try to go fast, try to go steady. When you can cover the route in under 30 minutes, expand the route.

Once a week do a shorter run, maybe 20-30 minutes doing the structured intervals

Once a week if you want to, stick to the shorter route, but try and jog it steady the whole way....find whatever pace needed to keep jogging, even if it is barely above walking speed

thank you so much for the tips. Especially ennay, that seems like sound advice to me. Especially as you say I start to listen to a tape instead of my body. I am very bad at being aware of my body so the running would be a good place to learn to be aware and also prevent trouble for once I eventually a thousand years from now run a long one, such as 10k or more.

The reason I was so excited about c25k before is that it took my fear of running away. I followed the plan for a few weeks and learnt that I did not have to die at every attempt to run. You start out so easy and with so many pauses and you notice change in how long you can go so quickly it's comforting. But now that I've learnt that lesson and know that I am not one of those people that just can't run.. I could do it on my own again. I've learnt the lesson of not going too fast all at once.

How many rest do you think is necesary? I'd love to go just every day. Aslong as nothing hurts and I feel I am healing just fine, do you guys thing that will be okay? It's not like I'm gonna be running a marathon on a daily base anyhow. Hihi.

You're sure to hit a plateau running daily.
Strength training every other day and running every other day is optimum.
Maybe 3 running days, 2 strength days (lifting or core), and 1 yoga day. Then, 1 complete rest day.

I haven't ran all week due to chiropractic therapy, massage therapy, and rest for my lower back.

Hoping tomorrow for a 3-4 miler.

Injury SUX!

How many rest days depends on your goals and how good you are about doing other things in addition to running and varying your intensity on the days you do run. I know people who have run every single day for 10+ years without an issue. The key is some of those days are very very very very very easy.

I personally weight train and run on the same day often so I do not find that one excludes the other. I typically run 5-7 days a week. I take a rest day when body or life dictates (i.e. kiddo is puking his guts up and needs me to cuddle him on the couch most of the day) I think the longest I've gone without a rest day was 100 days and I felt fantastic.

Since you are just returning to running I would start with 3-4 days per week. Make the back to back run your interval followed by your short "take it as slow as necessary to run 20 minutes straight". On the 'rest' days, take a 20-30 min brisk walk in place of the running. Every 4 weeks or so if you have been consistent, then you can evaluate where you are and what would make the most sense for your next step - adding time or distance to your existing runs or adding another day.

Just popping by to say hi.

Did a slow 8K yesterday in 54 minutes. I wasn't going for time, just distance. It was first time I have run at all in 1 month and I'm glad to know I still have at least a bit of endurance :)

Rest is an EXTREMELY personal thing IMO. When I started running I ran 3 days a week and then as I goy into it I jumped upped to 4 days with a few shorter runs thrown in sometimes maxing out at 6 days a week at one point. Then as my weekly milage kept increasing and my desire to go longer kept increasing, my body decided that that was WAY too much running for me and injuries started popping up. I've settled in at 3 days a week (2 shorter runs and 1 long run), 2 days of spinning, 2 days of weight training with yoga and walking thrown in as well.

For weight loss it is important to vary the types of cardio you are doing, vary your caloried expenditure, and vary the type of exercise you are doing (stregnth vs cardio). You body adapts to exercise and becomes more efficient over time buring less calories doing the same activity. Additionally, running everyday or doing the same of any activity everyday increases your chances for overuse injuries.

Also, if you plan on being a runner, strength training is VITAL for injury prevention and balancing out your body's strength resulting in becoming a better more efficient runner.

So long story short, yes there are people who run every day with no issue, but IMO unless you are an elite runner, this isn't a good idea. Mix it up!

So today is the day...18 miles!!!!! I'm stoked, nervous and exhausted just thinking about it. I keep telling myself it's only 2 more miles than the 16 miler I did two weeks ago. I'm kinda bummed because it also means that my training is speedily coming to and end. The race isn't until March 18th, but I only have 2 20 milers after this mixed in with some cut back weeks and I think I'm really going to miss training to this extent...

After my first half my weekly long runs went from 5 miles to 8-10 miles, I have a feeling that after this marathon my long runs are going need to be 12-15 miles for me to feel complete LOL! I really feel like I'm going through a transistion in my running and I have no idea where it's going to lead...it's actually kind of weird...I don't really know how to describe it.

I'm really hopeful for this run, I've eaten awesome the last two days, no binging hitting just at my maintenance cals and I even lost a little weight last week, so I'll be going out light and clean. The only thing that is bothing me is my hips. Taking the hills out of my training and slowing down has helped tremendously, but not cutting miles has not allowed the real healing to take place. So I'll just have to take it slow today.

The biggest bummer is we are slammed at work right now and I'm going to have to head to the office afterwards missing my post long run nap ritual...this really sux! Oh well! Anyway, gotta finish up my pre-run prepping, I'll report back later.