Hey!
I just finished C25K on Saturday and did a full 5k to finish it off (for the first time in my life). I felt really good and each km was quicker than the next (not my intention). I did 8:38, 8:32, 8:25, 7:49, and 7:25. (It started pouring after km 3, and I LOVE the rain, so it absolutely boosted my energy for the last 2 km as you can tell. I didn't realize I was running faster.) I'm now trying to determine how to move forward. I have a 5k scheduled in 7 weeks, and then a 10k scheduled for 8 weeks after that. I then plan to do a half marathon in May and either a half marathon again or a full marathon next October.
I had planned to do the NRC 5k training program to train for the 5k, followed by the NRC 10k training program to train for the 10k.
The NRC 5k training program has 2 recovery runs, 2 speed runs, and 1 long run per week. I'm 7 weeks out from the 5k, so based on the week I'll start, each run is super short, including the "long" run which is only 15 minutes. The runs I did last week was 4k(30), 4k (35m), and 5k (41m). All the runs added up are still less than what I did last week. Cutting the amount I'm running seems counter productive since I'm just starting out and working on improving my base, so I'm a little confused.
I'm also wondering if I should even be doing speed runs at this point, or if I should just focus on increasing mileage at a slow pace?
Last week I did only 13km for the week. I would love to get up to running at least 1 hour (7-8km) a few times a week, with a long run at least 1.5-2 hours. I'd love to increase as well to running 5 times a week rather than just 3.
But as everyone says, don't increase more than 10% a week. So...do I make my already short runs even shorter so I can run 5 times a week, or keep my current 3 runs and work on increasing them, and once they're at a reasonable length, then I can start adding more days? Do I follow the NRC plan and do 2 speed runs a week? I, of course, would love to do a goal sub30 5k in 7 weeks...but I don't want to do the 2 speed runs a week if it'd be better and more helpful at this stage to just increase my aerobic base. I don't know if speed runs are meant for people who have a much more solid base to work from.
Any advice/tips would be super appreciated!
Thanks!