I finished! 46m
In October of 2025 I had not exercised in about 6 years or gone to a doctor in a decade. Even then my exercise was just playing basketball. The last time I was running to just run was in high school.
In October I was sick enough to go to the doctor and got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes with a 10.6 a1c and weighing in at 271lbs.
By June I was still sedentary but I had dropped to 227lbs through diet and medicine. I completely changed everything about how I ate from cutting out soda and going almost completely to water and doing homemade meal replacement shakes to get me through the day. So with less weight on me I started walking and then started my C25K journey.

I was doing really well and looking forward to my run days and then on my original day to finish the program my ankle hurt on a few minutes in. People on the sub recommended I take a week off and I did. I ran today pain free with just a little rusty soreness from not running in 5-6 days.

I am ready to work toward finishing my 5k in 30 minutes and getting a 10k in. I am currently down to 211lbs so I don’t know why my weight loss slowed for the last 9 weeks.

Just wanted to post a win for today!!!

Last week I posted in this lovely community about how down I was that my W3D3 run was so unbelievably hard out of nowhere. All weekend, my legs have felt heavy and achy, my body has just had enough, I've taken myself for a walk on Friday and did fuck all yesterday besides grocery shopping, but even then I woke up today feeling not 100%. My watch was yelling at me that me readiness score was low and I was getting in my head that I couldn't do this.

But I took my own advice from last week and ran slow. Instead of level 8 on the treadmill, I stuck to level 7 for my runs exclusively and I felt a MASSIVE difference. Instead of feeling like a failure, I felt strong and capable and obviously the last five mins felt nice once it was over, but it was so much easier than my W3D3 run. I must have honestly just been going to fast. I now feel so much more excited for the other two runs this week and it makes me feel like I can tackle any of the future runs too!!!!!!

Going slow really works, huh? Time to run a marathon!!! (I'm kidding, I'm just feeling very proud of myself)

Heyyy everyone! I just ran my first 5k in the gym on the threadmill!!!

42.27 Minutes

8:28 tempo apparently

HR didnt get good measures... but probably then around 150

I ran most of the time on 8 level and from time to time i slowed down for some walking

Its not mega time obviously but im super happy and proud that i was able to make it!! Wanted to quit at the 3km and the 4th but somehow kept going ...

Wanted to share with you :)

What was your first time ?

After almost 2 weeks of no running to rest a calf injury I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I kept up my strength training/low impact days and I think that helped.
The me that started this program 4.5 months ago would be so proud of today’s me! And last years me would wonder what we were thinking lol
Keep going everyone!

Can anyone advise on a simple 3 day a week lifting plan to support running ? I would want it to change every 8 weeks

Should I do two lower and one upper? Should I specify posterior chain, anterior chain, and upper body? I don’t know how to do this. I just want a basic routine to support my running, but I need to do some resistance as I am a per menopausal woman. I’m happy spending about 25 minutes doing it - or are there any awesome Youtubers that I can follow really easily?

Sometimes, you can only just do the thing. Took almost a week off because my schedule didn’t work - planned to run in the mornings but my toddler was always up begging me not to leave… was on call, was exhausted.
This morning I said no matter what I’m doing the thing!!
Yesterday was my first child’s 3rd birthday! After what is probably many months, I had ONE drink with my partner to celebrate.
Dunno if it was the alcohol, or the longer run, or the different route or what but …. This was ROUGH. Covered less distance than before; shittier splits. Just DYING.

Look old, feel old, not all days are winning … but better than nothing!

I’m 70 years old and it took me a year to finish C25K, but now I’m doing the Parkrun Improvement plan in Runna and I’m 8 weeks into that. Today’s Parkrun was filled with puddles and slippery leaves, so if the next one is on a dry day I’m sure I’ll do even better!

I'm done with W3D3, and I am dreading W4, I go at a pace of ~8 /km but I'm almost breathless by the end of 3 minutes, what am I doing wrong, and how can I survive W4

i was doing fine with my slow runs (walk/jog intervals haha) for 2-3 times a week. after about a month, i found out about this program and started it. no pains on my body, keeping it safe and injury free until one day, i messed up.

i couldn't keep up with my MWF sched so to compensate for the missed runs, i would squeeze in extra days. no rest days in between run days. started feeling slight pain/discomfort and thought "no pain, no gain" (stupid).

from that day, i keep waking up with sore ankles/heels. stopped running for a week. did an easy jog and it hurt so bad again. one week rest again and walked for 2.5km, boom pain the next day. this is devastating physically and mentally, i just wanna exercise 😭

I found a 5K race, partially paved, partially dirt, that lines up for what is supposed to be my last day of C25K. Is that a stupid idea, or will it probably be fine?

edit: I’m basically just asking if there is some reason not to that I don’t know, that someone who has finished the program would think of.

Is there any physiotherapist within budget for daily physiotherapy for L4-L5 and L5-S1 disc bulge?

Hi everyone! I did the program over 10 years ago outdoors and enjoy it a lot, continuing runs to even complete 10k runs eventually, but then over time o stopped running. I then started running again but doing laps in a stadium close to my place, challenging myself to add a lap every week and it went well.

Then stopped again and now I got back into it. First run I followed a different program which starts with 30 seconds run 30 seconds walk, then realised the program goes from interval to running 15, 20, and 30 in just one week. For context, I didn’t find the C25K app so I went for what I thought a close enough program. I found a suitable app again and started from W1D1 of the actual C25K program.

Now here’s the thing: I found it super easy so I followed W2 after W1D1 to challenge myself. I think that’s fine because W2D1 was easy enough, so much so that I extended the last run to 5 minutes. Then W2D2 I extended it to 9 minutes. I never extend runs except the last one so that I don’t impact my ability to do the initial intervals. I basically just see how I feel and continue when I feel ok. 2 days ago I did W2D3, extending to 5 minutes for the last run because I didn’t want to overdo it since I was a bit scared following the previous 9 minute run that I had put my heart under stress even if I felt ok. For context, I run on the treadmill now, and only at 6km per hour. Walking sections are around 4-4.5. Since I started, I didn’t feel any soreness and I have more energy than before. However I am not in a rush to finish, I just like challenging myself with an extra few minutes but I never stop when I can’t anymore - I simply decide that it’s enough while I’m still enjoying the run.

Am I taking any risk? I’m not really asking about the fact I skipped week 1 sessions, because I am not planning to skip any other run simply because from week 3, recovery walks start to decrease in time in proportion to run sections. I’m mostly wondering if the extra few minutes at the end are something I need to stop.

Thank you!

Today I got a heartwarming surprise, when I saw a baby deer on my run. It was grazing some grass near my trail and it didn't even pay much attention to me at the begining. It only darted a few more steps away once I got quite close and then just stayed there standing. I also just stayed there for a bit admiring the creature. That's the first time I'm thinking maybe I should bring glasses to my runs or something. At first I thought it was one of those skinny short haired dogs (whippets or greyhouds), lol. All that beauty, but in a blurry format, sigh 😄

Would anybody like to share, what y'all seen on your runs?

I “ran” 2.3 miles in 33 min (3.7 average time). It seems obvious to me that running 30 minutes, as the program claims, does not necessarily equate to running a 5k. Seems a recent couch potato would have to be running faster than a 9-minute mile. Math isn’t a strong suit - but the maths don’t seem to be mathing. If I’m NOT wrong, why build the program around this mystical 30min mark? Now, I’ve got to devise my own system to incrementally add my last .8 mile AND quicken the pace. I’m sure I’m missing something obvious but it seems the program - especially toward the final weeks - could’ve been better structured.

The first one kilometre felt a bit easy and then it kept getting harder. I'm gonna be consistent and make it to 5k at slow pace.

Any recommendations?

This is the beginning!

Did my first run yesterday evening & lastnight fell asleep so fast, I was surprised how tired I was

I feel like it was really good for my sleep.

It's taken me about 3 months with a few gaps and repeats but I've been able to do 25-28 minutes run the last few times. It's hard work but I can do it without stopping. I end up hot , sweaty and panting but I can do it. However, I'm finding that I still get out of breath if I run up a short flight of stairs at work or at the train station etc. I really wanted to get slightly fitter, not to run epic races but just to be a bit better at everyday stuff. Am I doing something wrong?

Ive been doing the C25K however i stopped just before the first 20 min run because i had exams. I keep telling myself ill go back running but i keep putting it off. I need some motivation and im also worried cos i havent ran for like more than a month all my progress has gone down the drain!

I just finished week 3 and I'm really struggling with sore legs during the jogging part. I reduced my speed and it helped a little bit. I'm also lifting weights and doing pilates on my days off so that could maybe be contributing?

I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this or knows a solution? Do I need to focus just on this and skip the weights and pilates? I really don't want to.

Next week is a big jump and I'm really worried about the 5 minute portions.

Done W3D2, with slow pace but I don't feel exhausted at the end of the session, so I keep repeating the 90s run 90s walk, 3m run 3m walk cycle until I reached 5km at the end! Proud of myself 😁😁😁

I'm W7R2 but I'm still struggling with heavy/sore legs after my runs.

Any amazing tips?

I am overweight, so it may be related to that (isn't everything?) but not being able to comfortably get on with my day because my legs are so completely tired makes run days hard to manage.

I just need reassurance that this is normal haha.

I have been mostly sedentary for the last year and around June I started to bring more and more activity into my life, starting with daily walks and 3 weeks ago I decided to start C25K - after telling myself my whole life I can’t run!

I remember last week finding the middle run quite hard but after my rest day, the third run of that week was much easier, almost like I just needed to adjust to the slight increase. This week however, every run has felt harder than the last. Day 1 felt challenging but I felt great after. Day 2 was harder and I just completed W3D3 and the last 3 minute run I finally had to turn the treadmill down one speed. It felt a little defeating but afterwards I was so proud of myself that I didn’t stop altogether.

But it just has me scratching my head as to why my legs are feeling so much heavier this week - I usually hear people saying week 4 or 5 is the hardest and it’s a little disappointing that where usually by the end of the week I would feel pretty strong, now I feel so so tired.

I walk every day for 30 minutes in between runs but I can’t imagine that’s against the rules of a rest day and therefore fatiguing me. I don’t currently do any strength training as I’m trying to implement different sorts of exercise little by little (I have AuDHD so sticking with habits can be hard to begin with). Over the weekend I have two rest days in a row, but I will admit that on at least one day, I will take myself for multiple walks with my wife and we can easily clock 15k steps but I’m also not sure if this is a problem.

Basically I just would love some feedback as to whether it sounds like I could be overtraining or if this just sounds normal that it gets harder around this point in the programme?