C25K Week 07 Completed
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I completed Week 07 of C25K this morning. I decided to change my approach today and go a bit slower in the beginning and see how it felt. So I set the the treadmill at 9.5 kph instead of my normal ten and then increased it by .1 kph every minute. This meant that I did the first half slower than I have in the past but the second half slightly faster. I think they call that doing negative splits. I have to admit that I found the going much easier. I didn’t really start to tire until just past the 20 minute mark. I was very glad when my 25 minutes was up. Next week it’s 28 minutes. I suspect that I may be tempted to try and do 5km sometime next week as well rather than waiting for the week after. I’ll try and resist but we’ll see.
I’m quite pleased that I’ve managed to stick with C25K and I’m really surprised at how well it has worked for me. I’m running further than I have ever done in my life and that is great.
My gym membership came up for renewal today and I have to say it’s money well spent. I’ve been going to the gym most weekdays for about four and half years now. Most of the time I have focused on cardio fitness but for the last 9 months or so I’ve also been doing strength training. I think my general fitness is reasonable as I definitely work out more than most people I know. Eating the wrong things (and lots of them) has always been my main problem not exercise. That may help to explain why C25K has worked reasonably well for me.
Anyways, I thought I should get a fitness assessment done so I’ve booked one in at the gym. It should be interesting as I’ve never had an official assessment done. I’ll post the results up here.
Yeah, I’ve always been told that running slower to begin with and building pace is easier - I trained that way leading up to the triathlon, and I’ve been applying that approach to most of my runs (apart from the first attempt at 5km, which is well documented)
That fitness assessment will be interesting - do they make you do the beep test?
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No idea. Should be interesting. The gym offers beep tests for free every 2nd Monday of the month so maybe I’ll go do one on Monday. I’ve never done one before.
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Stick with the programme! Otherwise what do you do in the 9th week??
Fitness aassessment…. that’s good! Finally booked it in, eh!
I did go to the gym yesterday though…. shock horror…
Although I can say that’s one thing I won’t want to do right now
“Totally unfit! Move your butts and start exercising….”
Anyway, well done
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Wow when did you guys commented…
I used to hate beep test in school….
Have fun!
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Thanks for the note today. I’m flying high today.
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I’m sure you are. You are a legend mate.
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Great job. I have read that some people end up skipping week 8 completely since they are already running fast enough to complete the 5k, but I don’t know if that is recommended. Nice job at keeping up a good pace during your runs as well.
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Thanks Jeff. I guess it doesn’t matter in the end. If I manage to do 5K I’m still going to keep on running every week so one way or another it’s all good.
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It’s funny how you can think you’re running slow but you can actually run slower, if that makes sense. Better to run slower and longer
I have the same problem - it’s the food that lets me down. I read a great quote the other day - ‘you can’t outtrain a bad diet’ and I’m using that as my motto atm to keep me on track.
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What a great quote kathryn! I’ve adjusted my diet over the last 9 weeks and I’ve seen some great results. I’ll do a post on it later I think. Thanks for commenting.
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Hi, I’ve just popped over from Marshmallow’s blog and have been reading a bit of your blog. I’m so jealous you sound like you’re doing really well with your programme! I definitely agree that starting easier, and working your way up is easier, but no matter what, you still ran for ages at a really fast pace, that’s awesome! Can I ask where you found your programme?
Cheers,
WundaLucy
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Hi WundaLucy,
I’ve been doing the Couch to 5K program C25K. Thanks for visiting my blog and I’ll be visiting yours!
Thanks for the encouragement. It really helps to keep me motivated.
Cheers,
Andrew
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Thanks for the link! A friend of mine gave me a similar programme a while ago which I had difficulty with (mostly health wise, not fitness wise) but if i’m feeling better about running then I will definitely try to start something like this again. I’ve always wanted to be able to run and i’ve always been shiteous at it. But then I always thought I was shiteous at swimming and hey it turns out i’m not so i’m hoping for one of those surprise moments when I realise I can totally run after all!
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Well, 8 weeks ago running 90 seconds was a major life experience for me so I’m a great believer!
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OMG, 25 minutes of continuous running? That’s incredible, Andrew! I had to slow down my progress on C25K and am just about to start week 3 tomorrow. I’m going to heed your advice and run at a slower pace to avoid injury. As usual, thanks for the inspiration!
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Thanks Nancy. I still can’t believe it myself. I’m glad you are sticking with the program. Slow and steady wins the race as they say.
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[...] mentioned previously that I had booked in for a fitness assessment. Well, today was the fateful [...]
Guess I shoulda kept reading before talking about the negative split thing.
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