Anyone NOT do C25K? (Read 2303 times)

I read a book. The beginning runner's handbook. It pretty much follows the same idea. Run some walk some. Increase the running portion slowly.

I entered a 5 mile race to start, just to see how fast I was. It was a stupid idea, and I walked partway. Then I ran a half marathon a month later, then I got a book, and learned about what I should have done to not have large amounts of pain in my knee from training too fast all the time.

 

If you can already run 5K easily, do so 3-4 times a week slowly, as a good way to start. Gradually build one run a little longer, and go from there.

 

If not, C25K is a great program, it is aggressive enough that you get to 5K in a couple months, and gradual enough that it is achievable for many people without repeating weeks, even though most probably do.

I never did and I actually dont like it as a starting point for a lot of people

 

 

I started by walking a 2-3 mile loop and then running bits and pieces of it and each time trying to run one  lamp post or mail box farther until I could run the whole thing.  Then I made the route longer. 

 

I had played ball sports in hs, but didn't do any voluntary running until about 15 yr later (late 70s), when I just started running around sports complex at grad school.  Not far, not  fast. It was about 22 yr after that, that I wanted to do "a little more," bought a HRM with training pgm (Roy Benson), followed that for a few months, then started planning my own running. Benson's pgm was time and intensity based - just run outbound x min and back in same amt of time, basically. Very much like Lydiard suggests.

I did the first 2 or 3 weeks of c25k, but hated the whole idea of staring at my watch or figuring out how much longer until the next walk interval, etc.  I caught myself cheating many times, slowly building up to a run when my walk interval was over!

 

I then decided to start walking to the middle school track (3/4 a mile), running a mile, then walking home, and every 3rd time out I would add a lap.  The fact that I could run a mile straight on the first day of that showed that those first c25k weeks helped for something!  Eventually I tried running to the track, doing a lap or two, then running home, and once that happened I knew I was a runner.

And then I ran some more.

 

When was this?

 

 

(emoticon because it isn't the Swamp)

I ran until I couldn't run anymore (was a half mile on my first outing) then I stopped and walked home. Tried to go farther each time. Worked just fine for me.