Back in February of 2009 I began a running program, having never been a runner throughout my life and always despising the whole idea of it. I searched the Internet and finally came up with a free program called the couch to 5 km program [C25K]. This program is designed to allow you to work from 0 km up to a 30 minute or approximately 5km run within a nine week program. It's one of those walk/run programs where you begin by running for approximately 60 seconds and then walking for 90 seconds. You do this repeatedly and the first training session is in the 20 minute range.
Having been active all my life I had first thought that this beginners session would be a piece of cake, how wrong I was! I actually found the first session quite hard and although I successfully completed it, the next day I was in quite considerable discomfort with stiff thigh muscles. The program itself is based on three runs per week and builds up very gradually adding a few seconds here and a few minutes there to the running duration. What actually happens is that you slowly, almost without realising it increase your endurance and the walking rest periods become shorter and shorter. You don't actually get to a 20 minute run until somewhere around the end of week five by which time, whatever you may think, you're ready for it.
I got through the program comfortably and completed my 30 minute run. It's amazing how proud you are of yourself when you do something that you never thought was possible. Following the completion of this program I continued immediately onto another free online program called the One Hour Runner. This takes you from the 30 minute run through to running for one hour without stopping over a 10 week period. This may sound daunting but was remarkably straightforward but challenging. After this program I continued to run and built up to approximately one hour and 45 minutes of constant running.
I have found however that I do not wish to commit that amount of time to my running schedule, so I'm now concentrating on 10 km runs as being the maximum distance I wish to take on. It's also widely recognised that a 10 km run is a very good distance to increase your fitness levels to a very high standard and that after running for more than one hour the returns on your time investment do start to diminish. I appreciate if you want to run a half marathon or more you do need to put in those extra miles but for general fitness the 10K is a great distance. I also run 5 km on a regular basis at a higher pace and this works very well.
I would earnestly encourage the non-runner who may be tempted, to look up the C25K program and give a go. It worked for me and I'm positive that it can work for you.
Author Resource:
I am a regular article contributor. I am a keen runner and have written widely on the best running program for beginners and also have a site that helps people source the best 60 Bathroom Vanity products and accessories for bathroom remodeling.
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