Couch to 5k - any good?

[J4CKO]

Went out today, managed less than half a mile and my left calf decided to give up on me.

[mgst170]

CrackTaxi said:

Well done @mgst170, it’s good to see people’s progress! Have you thought about going on to half marathon or are you stopping at 10k?

Thanks CrackTaxi!

Re half marathon - I really have no idea. I’m not inclined at the moment - probably look to get just a little faster at up to 10k.

Maybe some of the more experienced runners could comment if more endurance makes the runs become easier , or doing the same distance but faster, as that’s the point I would like to get to - being able to go for a 45/50min run, keep fit and burn some calories.

[No_Idea]

I'm starting the first training session on Jan 1st, no idea what to wear.. I don't own any running gear at all and don't know where to start. What do you wear when it's cold out as I guess you soon start sweating regardless of temp?

[Tall_Paul]

No_Idea said:

I'm starting the first training session on Jan 1st, no idea what to wear.. I don't own any running gear at all and don't know where to start. What do you wear when it's cold out as I guess you soon start sweating regardless of temp?

It'll depend on the person, but having just finished tonights run, my only body part that was cold were my hands. I went shopping at sports direct (oh yes...) and got some cheap karrimor tights, shorts to go over the top, and a bright yellow fluoro l/s jersey, for the total of £33. I wear a l/s merino wool base layer under this that I bought from aldi a few years ago. Used my decathlon £25 300lm headtorch tonight which was brilliant, pitch black lanes are actually runnable now vs the 30lm headtorch I had before!

On that note, week 3 run 1 completed, my first 3 minute runs. And a bit.



I was a little perplexed and dissapointed when the halfway bell sounded well short of my usual turning around spot, seeing the last 2 weeks total distance had been getting more with each week. I now realise that week 3 is 25 mins total, rather than 30 mins total of week 2, I'm guess they're easing you into running for 3 minutes. I had to stop and tie my shoelace right at the start of the 2nd 3 minute run, so continued for a bit to make up for it, and then just kept running. Got to a pedestrian chicane I have to go through and stopped running then, looking on strava I did 4:30 minutes on the final run, with 2:20 being uphill and the other 2:10 flat/downhill. I could have easily gone for 5 or 6 minutes, bring on the longer runs in the next few weeks!

Edited by Tall_Paul on Sunday 29th December 22:08

[CrackTaxi]

J4CKO said:

Went out today, managed less than half a mile and my left calf decided to give up on me.

Sorry to hear that mate, hopefully it’s not too bad and you can run again very soon!

Do you stretch at all? If not it might be worth doing, I used to have a bit of a pain in my left leg behind my knee so I started doing the stretches off the NHS website before and after (after I believe is the more important one) and the pain stopped.

[CrackTaxi]

No_Idea said:

I'm starting the first training session on Jan 1st, no idea what to wear.. I don't own any running gear at all and don't know where to start. What do you wear when it's cold out as I guess you soon start sweating regardless of temp?

I was the same mate, didn’t know what to wear so just ran in any old stuff that I could find! I’m on week 7 now and so far I’ve done all my runs in a regular Nike T-shirt, an old Nike hoody, and some old Nike tracksuit bottoms (the polyester sort, not the jogger sort), and just some old AirMax trainers.

I know they say cotton’s not the best to run in but that’s what I had at the time and it was fine!

They reckon when running you should dress as if it’s 10 degrees warmer because that’s how much you’ll heat up when running.

Granted I might be different because I run at 4am and I’ve seen -4 out so far so the hoodie does me well but even in the freezing temperatures I’ve been sweating afterwards. If you’re going in the daytime the T-shirt alone will be okay unless it’s freezing, but even then you won’t need much more unless you’re one of these that really feels the cold.

Since starting I bought a fully polyester ‘wicking’ running T-shirt and the same again but a long sleeve one, I haven’t used either yet though. I also use running gloves which are very useful! And don’t forget a head torch if you’re running at night!

I wouldn’t bother going out and spending loads on specialised stuff until you’re into it.

[J4CKO]

CrackTaxi said:

J4CKO said:

Went out today, managed less than half a mile and my left calf decided to give up on me.

Sorry to hear that mate, hopefully it’s not too bad and you can run again very soon!

Do you stretch at all? If not it might be worth doing, I used to have a bit of a pain in my left leg behind my knee so I started doing the stretches off the NHS website before and after (after I believe is the more important one) and the pain stopped.

Yeah, I do but must admit it was a bit perfunctory, so stopped as soon as it felt iffy, should be ok in a couple of days.

[CrackTaxi]

Just got in from week 7 run 2, decided to up the pace where I can and then go to slower pace to recover and then do it again. Not a good strategy really because I was absolutely knackered by the half way mark.

The first km or so was really quite fast (for me) but then dropped off, which goes to show it’s purely stamina at this point and trying to build it.

Again, I didn’t record the warm up and cool down walks, I only recorded the running. The run was 25 minutes as per all the week 7 runs.

Moving time was 25:09
Distance was 4:48km
Average pace was 5:37/km
Fastest split was 5:09/km

Quite happy with that, every km was under 6:00/km meaning it would’ve been a sub 30 minute 5km run were I to keep it up for 5 more minutes.

If I could’ve held my fastest km then it would’ve been a 5k time of around 25 minutes so hopefully that’s possible one day.

Like I said though, knackered afterwards so this was not even remotely comfortable, sinuses and throat hurting afterwards from breathing so hard!

Next run will be Tuesday night, but I won’t be doing that again so I’ll be expecting much less of a distance again.

[wjb]

OK so I started week 9 today after three weeks off, and let me tell you, that felt as hard as week one

I literally limped round for half an hour, cursing the time off, injuries, alcohol, food and sweets of the last couple weeks. I'm never taking a break again!

I did it though, 30 mins non-stop jogging.

[CrackTaxi]

wjb said:

OK so I started week 9 today after three weeks off, and let me tell you, that felt as hard as week one

I literally limped round for half an hour, cursing the time off, injuries, alcohol, food and sweets of the last couple weeks. I'm never taking a break again!

I did it though, 30 mins non-stop jogging.

Well done mate! That’s one hell of a break, I can imagine your pain I should’ve thought ahead and took this whole Christmas thing into consideration because the food is certainly messing with me!

Do you measure the distance covered too?

[Stu-nph26]

wjb said:

OK so I started week 9 today after three weeks off, and let me tell you, that felt as hard as week one

I literally limped round for half an hour, cursing the time off, injuries, alcohol, food and sweets of the last couple weeks. I'm never taking a break again!

I did it though, 30 mins non-stop jogging.

That’s a cracking effort to specially after such a long lay off congrats

[CrackTaxi]

Today I went to a running shop where I bought some new shoes, didn’t go on the treadmill as I’ve never run on one and the guy thought it could’ve skewed the results, but I ran on the shop floor and the guy said I over pronate. Picked some shoes I liked and bought them. The guy wasn’t pushy at all and was very helpful. The goal was just to get comfy shoes, the whole gait thing I haven’t read too much into but if it helps with comfort then it’s only a good thing.

My next run was meant to be tonight at about 2-3am but with it being New Year’s Eve I didn’t fancy doing it later after I’ve been drinking and probably some sort of food so I decided to go before at about 17:30, I’ve never run this side of midnight before, still dark though of course.

So the run I just did was week 7 run 3, the final 25 minute solid run before moving to the 28 minute runs of week 8.

The run went well, the shoes feel soooo much better than the ones I’ve been using up to now, comfort really is a necessity.

Last run if you remember I started out by trying to go quick and ended up getting decent enough times but in return I was absolutely knackered!

This run I put a lot less effort into it and wasn’t trying to race around, but I got into a comfortable rhythm and it stayed a bit more consistent than last time and contained less dying, this run didn’t have constant swear words like the last one

Anywho the moving time was 25:21
Distance was 4:44km
Average pace was 5:42/km
Fastest split was 5:24/km

So overall a lot less effort and a lot more comfort and I was only 40 metres less than the last run, down to a mixture of comfier shoes and going steady instead of being an idiot trying to be quick and trying myself out

Next run will be Thursday night

[Chozza]

Got to Week 4 run 1 a couple of weeks back.

Then i what i thought was xmas party induced hangover turned out to be flu. So i've not been out for a couple of weeks and am taking it easy tonight..

My current plan is to re-start tomorrow .. or am i better off making sure i'm properly recovered ? ( Part of me wants to get out and run .. which is a real mindset change from where i was even a few weeks ago )

[CrackTaxi]

Chozza said:

Got to Week 4 run 1 a couple of weeks back.

Then i what i thought was xmas party induced hangover turned out to be flu. So i've not been out for a couple of weeks and am taking it easy tonight..

My current plan is to re-start tomorrow .. or am i better off making sure i'm properly recovered ? ( Part of me wants to get out and run .. which is a real mindset change from where i was even a few weeks ago )

It’s down to how you feel mate, I’d say if you feel up to it then go out and give it a go carrying on from where you left off. But if you still feel too weak then give it a miss for another day or two, either way you’ll get back to where you were, just make sure you feel good enough to do so

[No_Idea]

Week 1 run 1 complete.. 7 degrees, pissing it down and ran in shorts n T-shirt. Soaked to the bone but funny enough quite enjoyable! Feeling it in my legs now though, was nearly crawling up the stairs

[bristolracer]

Last year I got to week 6,on a gym running machine.

Life gets in the way and now we have moved house.
No gym within 7 miles and dont really want to spend the cash,and drive there 3 times per week.

Now live in the Devon countryside,should be good for running but,
Do I road run or park/field run?

I can see roads will have higher impact,but fields have the risk of a foot landing in a dip/hole and possible injury

What would be best?

And to all of you starting out,keep it up, I was amazed by the fact I was running for 20 minutes,Im late 50s now and havent run at all since school.

[mike80]

I run on fields (village football and rugby pitches) when it is dry and daylight, otherwise path.

[RizzoTheRat]

No_Idea said:

I'm starting the first training session on Jan 1st, no idea what to wear.. I don't own any running gear at all and don't know where to start. What do you wear when it's cold out as I guess you soon start sweating regardless of temp?

Proper "Technical" clothing is definitely better than the alternatives, it wicks sweat away and won't stick to you like a cotton shirt when you get sweaty or it rains. Decathlon and Trespass do decent stuff pretty cheaply.
I find at the current 7-8 degrees I'm fine in shorts and long sleeved top, or better yet a t-shirt and separate arm sleeves (they're usually aimed at cyclists but great for running), but thin gloves can be well worth it.
I bought a cheapy pair of running tights from Lidl when I first started but found them way too warm. If it gets really cold now I wear shorts and knee length socks.

If you find running is for you, the one thing IMO it is worth spending the money on is decent trainers. A proper running shop will put you on a treadmill for a couple of minutes to look at the way you run and tell you if you need a supporting shoe or not.

[No_Idea]

RizzoTheRat said:

Proper "Technical" clothing is definitely better than the alternatives, it wicks sweat away and won't stick to you like a cotton shirt when you get sweaty or it rains. Decathlon and Trespass do decent stuff pretty cheaply.
I find at the current 7-8 degrees I'm fine in shorts and long sleeved top, or better yet a t-shirt and separate arm sleeves (they're usually aimed at cyclists but great for running), but thin gloves can be well worth it.
I bought a cheapy pair of running tights from Lidl when I first started but found them way too warm. If it gets really cold now I wear shorts and knee length socks.

If you find running is for you, the one thing IMO it is worth spending the money on is decent trainers. A proper running shop will put you on a treadmill for a couple of minutes to look at the way you run and tell you if you need a supporting shoe or not.

Thanks. Will give it a couple of weeks to make sure I don't bottle out before spending on proper kit.

Got the first run done tonight and currently sat filling my gob with chocolate

[johnwilliams77]

bristolracer said:

Last year I got to week 6,on a gym running machine.

Life gets in the way and now we have moved house.
No gym within 7 miles and dont really want to spend the cash,and drive there 3 times per week.

Now live in the Devon countryside,should be good for running but,
Do I road run or park/field run?

I can see roads will have higher impact,but fields have the risk of a foot landing in a dip/hole and possible injury

What would be best?

And to all of you starting out,keep it up, I was amazed by the fact I was running for 20 minutes,Im late 50s now and havent run at all since school.

A mixture of both surfaces is a good balance.