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I'll check the link--don't know if I can make it all the way over there--how many days/week should a person usually be able to meet up to run?
You definitely need to allow a day of rest between runs (or walks in the beginning), so probably 3 days a week, maybe 4.
You could even skip a couple of days, but it will just make it take longer to get to 5k. I would not regularly skip more than 2 days though, at least until you get to where you are doing 5k runs regularly.
Even if you did some runs with a group and some by yourself in between it would work fine. Though, by yourself, some kind of app on a smartphone really comes in handy as it is somewhat of a pain trying to keep up with running 90 seconds, walking 2 minutes, running 3 minutes walking 3 minutes, etc back and forth. You would spend more time looking at your watch than exersizing, whereas the app just has a voice to come on and tell you to walk, run, walk, run, etc and you can listen to music.
There are lots of good places to run in Morrisville, between the park, which you can get to right out the back of Savannah and also along Town Hall Drive, which is a nice flat road with a greenway paralleling most of it.
There are also plenty of 5 k runs in Western Wake in the fall once you get up there. Morrisville has done a Halloween weekend run the last few years on Town Hall Dr.
I also ran my first 5k right about the time I turned 40. When I first started doing the C25k in June of last year, I was about 240 pounds and was huffing and puffing just trying to make it to the end of the 60 or 90 second runs. In September, I was 210 and ran my first 5k race (I had done them a few times before already). I ran in a couple of more and gradually began extending my runs on teh weekends and one day I ran 9 miles, then crazily decided that if I could run 9 miles, I could do a half Marathon and did that 2:04 in March and weighed 188.
Last edited by Sherifftruman; 06-14-2011 at 08:30 AM..
Highly recommend the NC Roadrunners beginning running group. My wife did this a few years back and loved it. Some of the afternoon meetups were difficult to make, so she had to just run on her on here in Cary a few times, but the Sat. morning meetups at Shelly Lake were great for her. Knowing she needed to be up and out there at 8am or whatever really helped with getting up and out the door (no traffic then, so we got from here in Carpenter Village to SL in maybe 20 minutes. I went with her most mornings and would run the opposite way the group was running.
The group would divide up in sub-groups and go at different paces. There was always a group of fairly large women that would end up walking much of it, and a volunteer would stay with them at the rear. At least they were out there trying.
Wife ran her first 13.1 earlier this year. Very proud of her.
You definitely need to allow a day of rest between runs (or walks in the beginning), so probably 3 days a week, maybe 4.
You could even skip a couple of days, but it will just make it take longer to get to 5k. I would not regularly skip more than 2 days though, at least until you get to where you are doing 5k runs regularly.
Even if you did some runs with a group and some by yourself in between it would work fine. Though, by yourself, some kind of app on a smartphone really comes in handy as it is somewhat of a pain trying to keep up with running 90 seconds, walking 2 minutes, running 3 minutes walking 3 minutes, etc back and forth. You would spend more time looking at your watch than exersizing, whereas the app just has a voice to come on and tell you to walk, run, walk, run, etc and you can listen to music.
There are lots of good places to run in Morrisville, between the park, which you can get to right out the back of Savannah and also along Town Hall Drive, which is a nice flat road with a greenway paralleling most of it.
There are also plenty of 5 k runs in Western Wake in the fall once you get up there. Morrisville has done a Halloween weekend run the last few years on Town Hall Dr.
I also ran my first 5k right about the time I turned 40. When I first started doing the C25k in June of last year, I was about 240 pounds and was huffing and puffing just trying to make it to the end of the 60 or 90 second runs. In September, I was 210 and ran my first 5k race (I had done them a few times before already). I ran in a couple of more and gradually began extending my runs on teh weekends and one day I ran 9 miles, then crazily decided that if I could run 9 miles, I could do a half Marathon and did that 2:04 in March and weighed 188.
Congrats to you! I'm gonna start my C25k tonight, and I'm excited.
Don't be put off by being a beginner. You will find a ton of support. I ran my first 5k at age 40 at a rate not much faster than a brisk walk. I even got passed by a lady pushing a stroller! I was struggling at the finish but there was a line of already finished runners cheering the slow folks on. It was pretty cool.
I'd recommend getting a cheap watch to time yourself. You WILL see progress over the first few weeks and seeing your time drop is very good encouragement. Also, spend the appropriate amount on running shoes: try several brands and decide which is the best fit for you.
Thanks for all the encouragement, folks!! I actually bought some $125 running shoes back in January and have been doing ok on the treadmill, but the hard pavement is a whole other story. But now my shoes are worn out I've emailed the folks at Raleigh Running since they have a Cary store, and hopefully they'll be able to provide a local source; I'll post if I hear of anything!
Thanks for all the encouragement, folks!! I actually bought some $125 running shoes back in January and have been doing ok on the treadmill, but the hard pavement is a whole other story. But now my shoes are worn out I've emailed the folks at Raleigh Running since they have a Cary store, and hopefully they'll be able to provide a local source; I'll post if I hear of anything!
Hey Anne,
Let me know what you wind up doing. I've been threatening to do the C25K for a couple of years now, but can never seem to get started. Would love to have someone else to do it with!
Me too. I'll try it on Friday (I ran this morning). I'm somewhat of a beginner and know I need to start setting time goals instead of landmark goals (as in "I'm going to try to make it to that fire hydrant") if I want to run a complete 5K.
Hey, Sheriff~~ can you tell me more about the C25 App? I have an iPhone and usually just set the stupid timer on it and it's a huge pain. What does the app do that will help me? What does it cost?
And, workingmomof2, I'd love to train with you--we could always do it at the Morrisville community park, right? Also, I think Town Hall Drive in the 60 or Morrisville parkway would be good places to walk/run....
There are a few Couch to 5 k apps out there, the one I used is called C25K and is $2 or $3 IIRC with an extra $.99 in app purchase to turn on the gps/ mapping capbility. Here is their website. C25K - Couch to 5K app They also have a 10k version as well as half marathon. The Couch to 5 K is of course a well known program and these apps just take the basic principles of it and automate it. I ended up on this particular one because the people who wrote it are users of it and not some faceless company grinding out apps. Because of this, it is easy to use and quite nicely done.
The main reason I likedthe idea of using an app for this is due to the voice feedback you get. So, you can set a playlist and it will play your songs either in order or randomize them if you want. It then will have a voice come over your music telling you when to walk, run, etc. It accounts for 5 mintues of warm up and cool down time on either side of the workouts and can let you know when you are halfway done, when the next run coming up is the last one, etc, through very simple configurations. It tracks your progress each day so no need to try to remember when you did week 2 day 2 or whatever.
Thats the main thing. You can just concentrate on running and let the app do the work. No need to worry about how much distance you cover or constantly watching your stopwatch, just work out. You can even do a different route each day to combat boredom and its no problem.
The app even has a 30, 45 and 60 mintues run setting built in, so you can still use it after you have "graduated" to doing 5ks at will. You can also have it automatically post messages to Facebook and Twitter when you complete each workout if thats your thing.
Thanks!! That sounds perfect--I have used the timer on my iphone before and it's a huge pain to set it, reset it, etc. I'd love an app that interrupts the music and tells me what's next without any action on my part. Off to check it out
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