C25K Will I Die?

I’ve been planning on getting back to running for ages now and finally took the plunge tonight. Popped down the gym onto a treadmill and gave it a go.

Felt OK so decided to do week 2 and skip week 1. I may regret it later in the course but considering how unfit I really am I was impressed felt good ok breathing hard but not a wheezy mess.

Have I made a huge error of judgement jumping in at week 2?

Next session Wednesday.

I’d say that it’s obviously going to depend on how fit you are 🙂

TBH, I can’t get my head around 5K as a target distance – even for a novice runner. Having not run further than the bus stop since school (let’s just say 30+ years), I did a few runs with my wife last Autumn and jumped right in at 3k and was doing 6k within a couple of weeks. My first attempt at 11k a couple of weeks later resulted in a wee bit of post-run pain but I guess I expected that. I jacked it in after a couple of months and just started a couple of weeks ago – again just hitting 6k right away.

I think I am a little less fit than that. There’s a great little route by me that’s 4 miles which is my goal. I am 46 large and smoke so packed them in as well so should have significantly better cardio in a few days.

I am familiar with the pain though as I used to run 6 nights a week 8 miles a night until I was 26. Also at this age everything hurts and takes longer to recover.

Lets see how I am in a few weeks.

so my understanding of the build up was to strengthen joints since running puts more strain on your legs. Will you die, yes eventually everyone does. Will this kill you…. probably not.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I had a look argument the c25k out of curiosity a while ago and kind of thought the demographic that it’s aimed at is likley not to be from a biking forum. I know the stereotype of a singletrack forum. But most people here at least know what to be out of breath means. You won’t die.

Whatever happened to running through the woods or the park? Birds singing, raindrops pattering, sun/moon shining, the smells of the seasons, little animals running around, doggers dogging, dog poo under your feet, errant dogs chasing you, errant MTBers yelling “on the right” (does that mean they’re telling you to walk on the right or that they’re passing on the right), men hanging around the toilets, muggers hiding behind trees, professional ladies and trannies plying their trade, madmen not hiding behind trees… .

Although I’m not a runner, and never will be a runner, I totally get the concept of C25k. Being that it’s a tool to get people up from the couch and onto running 5k in a number of weeks, through a progression of walk-run-walk, through run-walk-run to run-run-run and breaking down the intervals. My partner is doing it, and she loves it, although she doesn’t stick rigidly to the instructions and ends up kicking herself for failing!

A chap who used to run frequently once suggested to me … run down a road with street lights at regular intervals. He said try to walk one, run one, walk one and run one. Then walk one, run two, walk one run two. Etc. He said slowly doing this will increase endurance.

Sounds good, but you still won’t get me running!! 😈

TBH, I can’t get my head around 5K as a target distance – even for a novice runner

I think its aimed at people struggling to walk to the fridge. Not active and healthy people who just fancy running.

I run 5k quite often, mainly because its a quick way to exercise the dog and there is a nice, mostly off road loop from my house that is pretty much that distance.

I did it about a year ago. In the grand scheme of things my fitness wasn’t too bad anyway, and the first few weeks certainly seemed far too easy. However, as someone who in the past had decided to start running again, gone out and run for an hour, then been unable to walk for a week and thought sod that, it was a useful way of not overdoing it. So if you’re a bit all-or-nothing it can be good plan to stop you overdoing it to early.

I did C25K at the start of last year. Started as a total non runner but sticking with the schedule did get me there, my first full 5k was 28 mins in week 8. I was also dieting at the same time and went from 14st to 12st 4. Unfortunately I started having problems with my knees and eventually had to quit.

Edit; it was the NHS one with podcasts, easy to follow.

how long roughly does it take to do it to begin with? i’m interested as it could be something to get me out the office on lunch breaks…

The one I did (NHS website) was always 30 mins, including the warm up and cool down.

C25k must be the fancy name for JogScotland that my wife does then. She went from being 46 and never done any sport in her life to running 10k races in not very long. She’s thinking of becoming a jog leader now. Any system that gets people out doing exercise gets my vote. Can someone tell all the women not to hang their jackets around their waists though, it makes it really hard to stare at their lycra clad arses. Thanks.

Dunno if you’ll die but i couldn’t get into it. Maybe just coincidence but it seemed to make my knees hurt more than just doing a normal 20 minute run so id rather just do that :\

Personally I would follow the program properly and not jump ahead. Regardless of how fit you are. If you’re not a runner it will be all the little stabilising muscles in your feet/ankles/knees/etc that will need building up slowly. CV fitness/leg strength/etc doesn’t come into it. This is just from my own personal experience of C25k, YMMV.

I did a 5k ‘race’ having only cycled for exercise for about 4 years.

I used my hrm to judge how hard to push myself (I knew I could cycle all day at 160bpm so did the same when running).

Took me 25 minutes which I was quite pleased with.

I was walkign up stairs backwards for a few days afterwards, though, I’d used muscles that must have atrophied after years of playing no part in propelling me forward. The pain was unbelieveable getting out of bed the following morning.

My advice is to start gently however fit you are.

zilog6128 +1

IME it’s not just about CV fitness, but also about conditioning your body to the higher level of impact associated with running. Take it slowly, avoid injury, and keep running after you finish the 9 weeks 🙂

The reason I am doing the treadmill rather than road is lower impact. I agree with zilog as I packed in running after year when I was a lot younger due to stress fractures in both legs. I simply ran every day, snow rain etc except Sundays so my body never had proper recovery periods.

Additionally at 46 I have all the little niggles, or perhaps more than I should, dodgy knee etc.

Little but of pain in my right foot but I bought shoes for this that felt crap when I ran so back out for new shoes today. Its only for fitness cant see myself competing but would be great to get under 30 mins in 8 weeks for 5K. My best time when I was a runner was 17 minutes, I will never be there again sadly.

I know they get a bit of stick on this forum but I found “barefoot” shoes (Merrell Trail Gloves to be precise) completely eliminated all foot pain I was getting from normal trainers. As a new runner I had no old habits to unlearn so have suffered zero injuries from them. 8)

Assuming the cardiologist doesn’t say no on Thursday, my plan is to start C25K next week.

Over the past 18 months I have gone from riding 200 miles a week to an overweight, car-commuting, office-dwelling, health-stressed couch potato. Now that time is so limited, it seems a great way to ease back into regular disciplined exercise that doesn’t take hours to complete. And I want to encourage Mrs North to do the same.

There’s a nice hill near me that I want to get fit enough to run over, however slowly I complete it.

Funny to see this come up today, had my first run/walk/run/walk using the NHS c25k podcasts yesterday. Although I’ve been mountain biking for over twenty years I haven’t done any other form of exercise since school (42 years old now so quite a while ago!) Lately family commitments and this years “summer” have meant I’ve not been riding as much as I woul’d like so given it only takes half an hour a few times a week I thought I’d give it a go. Armed with a new pair of trainers off sports direct I set off to a local nature reserve, conveniently the five minute warm up walk away. It was great – I suppose the riding has helped as I didn’t find this first session too bad, slightly out of breath after a few of the running bits but no worse than riding up a steepish bit of trail. The only thing is my legs were killing me by the end! Especially the front of my thighs – I wasn’t expecting that my legs are probably the best bit of me after years of riding! Looking forward to tomorrows session and I would recommend the NHS podcasts to anyone thinking of giving this a go.

No practical advice for the OP as I’m new to this other than stick with it. Good luck with the smoking too-been battling with giving up myself, after a year of on/off success using willpower (or lack of) I’ve been doing well this last few weeks with nicotine gum – maybe worth a try if you find yourself slipping.

interesting, downloading the NHS ones now and on the advice page on the NHs site is advises heel striking only

yeah, ignore that bit. The rest of the podcasts are great though 😆

interesting, downloading the NHS ones now and on the advice page on the NHs site is advises heel striking only

I mailed them about that 😀

going to give this a go i think/hope

looking at the length of each podcast there’s no reason i couldn’t do it at work in my ‘lunch break’

oh dear god i’ve just thrown podcast 1 on in the background here at work…. what’s with the music? can’t they do a metal version?