Couch to 5k Running - Part Three

Chickvic

Hi all, just after a bit of advice. I am jogging for 30 mins now although only doing about 3.4 k. I will stick with this for a couple of weeks but was wondering is it better to try and increase the speed or time? Do I want to jog faster or longer? Don't know which way to go! Any ideas/help gratefully received!

iammumtoone

Chickvic wrote: »

Hi all, just after a bit of advice. I am jogging for 30 mins now although only doing about 3.4 k. I will stick with this for a couple of weeks but was wondering is it better to try and increase the speed or time? Do I want to jog faster or longer? Don't know which way to go! Any ideas/help gratefully received!

I suggest jogging for longer, that will build your stamina up. If you do that for a while then go back to 30mins you will find that you can go quicker. Well done on achieving the 30 minute mark. I think there are a couple of podcasts on the NHS C25K to do once you have completed the plan, not tried these myself so hopefully someone else will be along to advise about them.

1940sGal

Chickvic wrote: »

Hi all, just after a bit of advice. I am jogging for 30 mins now although only doing about 3.4 k. I will stick with this for a couple of weeks but was wondering is it better to try and increase the speed or time? Do I want to jog faster or longer? Don't know which way to go! Any ideas/help gratefully received!

It's up to you I suppose. Do you need to go faster? Running alone is great for you, and I don't think there's anything to say that running faster is better for you. I think running for longer is more a personal challenge. You might get to the point where, after 2 miles for example, it'll get easy and standard for you, so to run longer would be a challenge to keep you going and stop you getting bored. I suppose speed could be that also but if you've no particular reason to try to up your speed I'd be inclined to go for endurance.

I'm trying to increase my speed for when I go for my army selection and I need to be as fast as I possibly can. But aside from that I do now also want to increase my endurance just to keep things interesting.

And yeah like iammumtoone says, you'll probably find that your speed increases over time anyway. Mine has, not very much but it has. I've gone back to doing speed intervals to improve on that, which helps if you do want to work on your speed.

heartbreak_star

REALLY didn't want to run today - feeling a bit sicky and have a sore ankle...but did it and now feel achey but proud!

HBS x

CupOfChai

Well done HBS, still going out when you didn't really fancy it!

Well I was pretty slow but I did it! I jogged for the whole 20 minutes, and it was fine, I was even sort of spurred on at the end that I had got that far and felt like I could have done a minute or two more. It felt GREAT once I'd done it. Never thought before that I'd be able to do that, I've always been rubbish at running. Now onward and upward to 30 minutes!

Kiwisaver_2

Woohoo CupofChai, well done that's excellent :beer: it is a great achievement and amazing what we can do if we push ourselves.

I did Week 3 Run 2 tonight and struggled a bit, however the itchy leg problem seems to have gone away - yay! I will see on Tuesday how I feel, I may have another go a week 3 or might step up to week 4 again.

heartbreak_star

Well done everyone!

HBS x

RichardD1970

C25K Completed :j:j

Jogging for 4.5k so now going to reach the 5k at the same speed, then slowly increase speed to reach 5k in 30mins.

Then see where I go from there.

Eyeore

Well done Richard!

Wk 3 run 3 completed today, bit nervous about wk 4!

kjmtidea

I did my first 5k race today, my time was 31.26 - not a personal best but there was a lot of congestion at the start of the race so I just couldn't get started but never mind. It was great fun and I loved every second, will definitely be doing more now that I have the running bug!