The FastDay Forum

Is anyone else out there training for a 5K? I've done it a few times before but I've never been really successful and haven't stuck with it. I'm going to do the Bronx Zoo 5K at the end of April.

In the past I've done C25K, but have always had trouble once the intervals stopped. I met a girl in November who uses intervals (Inspired by Jeff Galloway, I think) and she even did them in the NYC marathon. With her we started doing 30 sec walking/30 sec running, which was a bit too much for me, but I was able to keep up with her doing 1 min walking/30 sec running.

But that was when I'd been walking regularly which I haven't been now for a few months. So I thought I'd start with 2 min walking/30 sec running and decrease the walking until I get to the 30/30 and then try to increase the running. I think I'd like to get to 5 min running/30 sec walking and possibly even just do that for the 5K. We'll see how it goes!

For those thinking about doing a 5K let me say that walking every step of the entire event is perfectly fine and very common. There's no reason nor expectation that anyone run all of it; rare in fact.

The idea is to celebrate getting outside, to possibly support a favorite charity, to experience something invigorating and completely new (yes, at any age). To laugh with and encourage the efforts of those other "crazy people" along the way. From the beginning to the end you'll meet other first-timers who - like you, now - hesitated, with similar concerns. Nearly all enjoy it; most discover that it ends too-quickly as they chatted their way to the finish line with new friends.

I've actually done a number of 5Ks and run them, albeit not well. I want to keep trying to run it better. I think most people know they can walk a 5K if that's all they aim to do, but I think that most people sign up for 5Ks to give themselves a goal to aspire to and a way to start running. I was interested in seeing if there were any other people training to run a 5K!

Good luck with the 5k training. I've heard about a lot of people using the run/walk method (Jeffing!), it sounds quite effective.

We're very lucky to have so many parkruns in the UK, it makes it very easy for people to start out on their 5k journey with walking the event.

Thanks @Egduf! I hadn't heard it called Jeffing, that's funny!

Yes, saw it on twitter, and thought it was someone running with her husband until she explained this to me!