No matter how hard I try, looking after two kids full time I just can’t get the regular riding time in so thought about running as it’s far less time consuming. Anyone done this Couch to 5k plan? Does it work? When I tried taking up running last time I just ended up injuring myself, though I think that was the wrong shoes and doing too much too quickly. I haven’t run properly for about 25 years!

Easy to do it, just start slowly (no more than 10 minutes for the first few runs) and ignore all that guff about wrong shoes. For 5k any trainers will be fine.

Build up slow.
Try to run on grass
Suggest shorter achievable runs at a pace that allows you to recover and run regulalrly.
Stop if its more than a little muscle soreness.

Another one to look at is
http://www.djsteveboy.com/intervals.html
Stick in your mp3 player and they take you through from run walking to full running.

I tried it and failed dismally, I just hate running so it is more of a personal issue than the C25K programme being pants. Having said that, I think they expect quite a lot at the beginning, and modifying the programme to suit you as an individual with shorter runs if needed might be required.

Avoid the podcasts available on the website, you get some born again runner droning on & playing his perception of exercise music – pants!

Strange theres no “run till your eyeballs pop for sub 30 min 10k” medley!

For what it is worth, I did a ‘couch to half marathon in <1hr45m’ plan.

(A friend died of Meningitis so we all did the GNR in his honour).

Trained from Jan to Sept to do it, but it was fairly easy really.

(And trainers were bought off the internet)….

I did the couch to 5k iPhone app, started on day one but it was too easy so moved it to two weeks. I highly reccomend it, you can use it easily with your own playlist and the audio ques between run/jog are clear. It works I can easily run 5k now without pausing. Great app if your busy.

i thought this was about buying an expensive sofa..

Christ, I thought you were looking for validation in spending £5k on a sofa!

I’ve done it and recomend it. Always struggled with running but with this being a very easy start to running I found I grew to enjoy it and found I can run after years of saying I couldn’t do it. It is very easy so I jumped to week 3

I’ve started and stopped a few times with my own C25K program. Mainly involving leaping off the couch and running 5K followed by hobbling around for 3 days afterwards with a mixture of sore hip joints and DOMS. Swearing never again, and then repeating (remembering to allow just enough recovery time so that any conditioning caused by the initial run has entirely worn off)

I’m not a totally novice runner, have several 1/2 marathons to my name from years gone by, which is why starting off with a month of brisk walking is intolerably slow, but me feels a bit more measured approach to this might be in order next time.

I feel your pain but my knees are too shot for running. As soon as I can I’ll be back on the dull-as-dishwater turbo trainer.

start off slow, and keep it brief.

walk to the shops / post box / end of the lane – and run home, slowly. total about 10mins from couch to couch.

see how you feel over the next 2 days.

increase the distance from there – a little at a time – see how you feel over the next day or 2 each time you run a little further.

stretch afterwards, and the next day.

if it hurts, slow down, and or don’t run so far.

easy.

before you know it you’ll be running 5k in half an hour.

I did a 10k in the summer with virtually no training and didnt find it too bad until the next day and about a week after that. Not just muscular but my knees, ankles and shins were in agony.

Going to be running my first marathon next year so should really start the training plan now, but it is so hard to find the motivation…being on the bike even when working hard still feels fun and like playing, running is more like a chore.

The wife started running 6 weeks ago & is now doing 5k 2-3 times a week having never run since leaving school nearly 30 yrs ago.She starts/finishes every run with a 4-5 minute walk & hasn’t suffered any discomfort, other than feeling the muscles have been worked.Started doing intervals of 1 min running to 3 mins quick walking,slowly built up the running bit & lowered the walking bit each run in 15 second jumps.Once it got up to 4 minutes running she upped it 1 minute each run & had a 30-60 secs rest afterwards.To break it up a bit once a week she does speed intervals where after a 5-10 min warm up she jogs for 30 secs,runs flat out for 30 secs,then jogs for another 30 secs after that she has a 1 minute rest of quick walking.
TBH I think the key is to keep the walking quick on the rest bits as it keeps your h/rate from dropping too much,but still feels much easier than jogging…
Oh, the reason I know so much about what she’s done is because I’m her unpaid personal trainer… 😕

just go and do 5k it’s not that far I just went and did one in 24 minutes which I know is crap even though I had not run in years.Mind you I could hardly walk for 3 days after

& thats exactly why not to just go & run it straight off 🙄

I recommended this to some folks at work

Getting started

Its seems to have worked for them – 6 weeks in and still going out 3 times a week

It was on a whim !! I had visions of getting fitter off the bike for the 3 peaks .Trouble is I hate running as it bores me rigid

I jogged to work this morning, first time in about 3 years. 7km, but did a mix of walking/jogging for the last 3, and tried to take it slow so took about an hour. I tried to run on my toes not my heels as some people recommend – what a difference that makes.

Just ‘going and doing it’ isn’t an option as I tried that before and I ended up injured. I am pretty heavy so I need to be more careful than most. I am going to try the iPhone app and see how that goes but try running on grass too. It’s something that has to be done at the minute as half hour four times a week is doable but I can only manage to get out on the bike once or twice a week if I’m lucky at the moment. And lets be honest, as I live somewhere totally flat, I need a couple of hours ride to feel like I’ve had some decent excecise. I realy wish we had some decent hills locally…

Going off how the wife was at the start I think you have to change your mindset as well mate.She does or rather did no exercise at all & kept saying at the beginning,”oh I’ll never be able to run that far”.After a couple of weeks of steadily improving she said, “think I could run it in non-stop now”,& she did…

Loddirk I hope you will get on well with the app, I’ve recomended it to a few friends who all have had sucsess, from proper lazy fatties to people in reasonable shape. It does instruct you to warm up first and warm down, never had any aches pains from it.

Worked fine for me. I went from overweight inactive lump to 5 mile runs in 4 months. “By the end of the C25K app |I was running 6.5k in the time. I’m not the fastest. I’m just getting back into it again as I’ve had 6 months off running due to learning new dog how to behave in a civilised manner.