<p>I’m a few pounds overweight and I walk (and jog a little) a couple of miles 3-4 nights per week, but I would like to try to “learn” to run. I have never had much success jogging as my side hurts and my nose runs and it’s just never seemed fun to me, but I’ve never had any kind of “plan”.</p>
<p>I have seen the “Couch to 5k” plan and it looks promising. I was curious if anyone here has tried it? I just got an android phone so I think I will buy the app. The hardest part seems to be the timing (especially while negotiating around my 55# Aussie who walks with me) the intervals mentioned in the training info.</p>
<p>I haven’t tried it, but now that you mention it and I have seen it, I am intrigued. I use to be able to run 10-15 miles, easily many years ago. What little I remember is that interval training is the fastest way to increase your ability to run “x” distance. Hopefully, someone who knows what they are dong will pipe up.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the ‘Couch to 5k’ plan, but I only started running 5ks in my 40s and am posting the fastest times in my life . (This includes college where I needed to run a 1.5 mile for time each semester). I found interval training on a treadmill works best for me. I start out with a 1-2 minutes warm-up, then push the mph up 1-1.2 higher for 1 minute (start w 30 seconds) intervals, then drop back to my comfortable pace for same time, then push it a bit higher, and so on. Do this for at least 10 minutes, preferably 20+ to build endurance. </p>
<p>I also attend a boot camp class weekly - when it’s reasonable (over 45F), we go outside and run around the gym parking lot, including lots of wind sprints. I’m typically the slowest, but I now don’t get lapped by the 35yo male triathlete.</p>
<p>I am lousy pacing myself on the road, so I got a Garmin 405 for Christmas. I’m still trying to figure it out, but I asked for it because of the pacing & GPS function.</p>
<p>The Couch to 5K program is AWESOME! I frequent RunningAhead.com, a great website for runners, and quite a few people have used the program. There is an entire forum devoted to people using C25K. I did it myself a few years ago. It was hard for me to run even 90 seconds when I started. After a couple of years, I even ran a half marathon!</p>
<p>My main advice is to stretch out the program if you need to. I remember that at one point, you’re supposed to go from running 8 minutes straight to 20 minutes straight, and that was too big a jump for my friend and me. We just increased gradually - 8, 10, 12, etc.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you have more questions or want more information about Runningahead.com. That website is to running what CC is to college admissions!</p>
<p>I didn’t like couch to 5K at all - started it a couple of times and made it maybe a week each time. That said, I did join a group where I trained for a half marathon - basically couch to 13.1 miles. It was a definite bonus having a group to train with as well as a good training regimen. It worked well enough that 3 years later I am still running and have completed several half marathons and a number of shorter races. I joke that I pay $100 to get my rear out of bed on a Saturday morning, but it works.</p>
<p>The program I’m with does full running training as well as intervals. I started as a casual interval runner and then moved to the formal interval training. My time improved by about 45 minutes last year. </p>
<p>I had weight to lose, but was one of those who didn’t immediately drop 50 lbs once I started running. Only in the last year with the help of weight watchers have I seen a difference. Running, like swimming, makes me <em>hungry</em>.</p>
<p>I’m such a loser. I did it and ran my first 5K several minutes faster than my goal. I hated every minute of it from the training to the race. Every day something would hurt, whether it be hips, legs, knees, calves, whatever. I had hoped to develop a love for running, but it didn’t happen. I was glad I stuck it out, was proud of achieving my goal, but developed no fondness for running.</p>
<p>My doctor had told me to go ahead and do the run since I was halfway there in my training, but said that given my back and neck problems, she did not encourage me to maintain a running routine. As it turned out, I recently had to have neck surgery for a very bad disc situation, so maybe she was right. I will now return to my speed walking/occasional slow jogging routine with my tail between my legs.</p>
<p>^^ Runners run. She’s already walking with a little jogging. I think C25K would be fine. My daughter and son in law did it a couple of years ago and now she is training for her first marathon. </p>
<p>
I’ve been told that because I run so much! :)</p>
<p>I second MaineLonghorn’s plug for runningahead. </p>
<p>When people hate running, it’s usually because they are trying to go too fast. Slow is fine. You should be able to talk on the easy runs. If that is a 13:00 mile, so be it. Speed will come.</p>
<p>When I met my husband at age 20, he was a fanatical runner. I really liked him and decided I would run with him, despite my previous dislike of running. I ran with him for a couple of months, until one morning as I was lacing up my Nikes, I decided that I hated running so much I was willing to risk my fledgling relationship. I pulled my shoes off, tossed them in the corner and told him how much I hated running. All’s well that ends well, we have been married for almost 30 years. And I still hate to run. I can walk for hours, hike for hours, bike for hours, swim for hours, but I absolutely hate running! The only time you will see me running is if there is a dog chasing me and it better be a BIG dog! </p>
<p>Running is definitely not for everyone. That said, I know lots of people who have successfully used the C25K program. I have coached (swimming) several triathletes who got their start from C25K. Another thing you can check out is Team in Training. Sometimes it helps to have a training group, someone else to be accountable to. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I believe this. I really do believe there are runners and there is everyone else. I think most runners are drawn to it and don’t need to do be lured into it by training for a race. I’m sure there are exceptions (people who never knew they would love it until they trained for a race), but it seems to me that people who love running were compelled to run at some point and just love it whether or not they are fast runners or slow runners. They are the ones you see running in bad weather, the ones who get grumpy if something keeps them from running, the ones who almost seem to meditate while running (in contrast to me, who is constantly thinking about when I can stop running), etc.</p>
<p>I wanted to be one of those people, but I just wasn’t. I envy people who truly love running.</p>
<p>I second this. I was a runner in high school and my 20s, but stopped for about 25 years. When I restarted, it took me 3 years to get to 5K shape, but I did it by starting with 3 miles a day walking, then run-walking, then running more than walking, then running slow the whole way. You can do it.</p>
<p>People call me a runner and I laugh at them. I do 5Ks in 28 minutes, which I do not consider running - it’s exercise so I can eat the foods I like. I would rather lift weights and grunt around a gym for an hour rather than run any farther than a 5K. I did a sprint triathlon in September, so I consider myself an athlete!</p>
<p>My goal for my one and only 5K was 35 minutes. I finished it in 30 minutes and 20 seconds! But that was because my runner daughter flew down from college to run it with me and my younger daughter. D1 was purposefully pacing us and urging me on for the last half mile. It really helped me. I was so shocked and elated by my time, but sigh, it didn’t inspire me to continue on with my running. I guess I kind of felt like I didn’t really earn it since I KNEW that had my D’s not been with me, I would have probably ended up walking for part of it.</p>
<p>99.9%+ of Americans can’t do a 28 minute 5K. Most Americans go into a panic when they lose the remote control for their TV and have to try to get off the couch to change channels.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4,
I don’t love running either, but I do it everyday, because I love how it feels when I stop running, and when I think of how I am benefitted because of it. </p>
<p>When I first started running, I decided to enter a one-mile race in our small town. Naive, I thought, “Well, I know I can run that far!” What I didn’t factor in was the fact that everyone else would be sprinting compared to me. I have ONE speed, whether I’m going ten yards or ten miles.</p>
<p>So I took off and everybody left me in the dust. I was next to last, beating only a six-year-old whose father was literally dragging him along! A lot of my friends and acquaintances cheered me on. I felt bad at first, until I realized I was running and they were NOT!</p>
<p>Army standards are a good guide for fitness levels. 40 y.o. males in Army need to run 2 miles in at most 18.18 minutes which at same pace for 3.1 miles (5K) would be about 28.18 minutes. 40 y.o. Army females have to do 2 miles under 22.42 minutes which at same pace for 5K would be around 34.75 minutes. Active U.S. military are indeed in better physical shape than most of us. Most of US military is of course much younger in age, but most readers on this CC parents’ forum are closer to 40.</p>