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The “Couch to 5K” program got a lot of people into running. It starts off easily, has an easy-to-hold structure, and you finish with the ability to complete a common racing distance. But the plan has its downsides and isn’t the only way to start running. If you’ve tried C25K and it didn’t work for you, maybe you should try something else.
What is couch to 5K?
Originally published on the now defunct website coolrunning.com, the best place to read about Couch to 5K right now is this NHS website. You can download an app or a set of audio tracks to walk you through each workout.
Basically, it’s nine weeks of walk-run workouts. In week 1, “start with a brisk 5-minute walk. Then alternate 1 minute of running and 1.5 minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. ”In week 4, some of your running stints last five minutes. In week 6, you will run for 25 minutes without stopping.
The final week is a 30-minute run, which is enough time for a fit beginner to cover about three or three miles. If you’re slower to begin with, 5K will take you a few minutes longer, but if you can run for 30 minutes it’s a good bet that you can do 5K well.
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The good parts of couch to 5K
I started running myself with a timed walk-and-run program; It was from the Couch to 5K days ago, but the idea was very similar. The best thing about Couch to 5K is that it’s accessible. If you’ve ever tried to run and you blew up in a minute or two, don’t worry! In the first week’s workouts, you only need to run for a minute. You can do that.
The time-controlled rest intervals also help. You will quickly find that you cannot sprint everything for a minute and that you are good to go again after a minute and a half. This is how you learn to slow down. Ideally, this program will teach you the right pace. (That doesn’t always happen, but we’ll save that review for the next section.)
As you start up gradually, your body will also get used to running. Running is harder than walking for some tissues, including tendons, and beginners often get sore shins or knees if they increase their mileage too quickly. The run / walk plan is a decent way to increase your running volume while developing a habit of running consistently (each session lasts about 30 minutes, three times a week).
Another big plus is that taking part in a program changes your focus from “how fast am I?” or “Am I really a runner?” to “Okay, I just have to get through this next run.” You have to trust the process if you want to get ahead in anything, and participating in a program – any good program – gives you a tangible way to do it.
The cons of couch to 5K
Now let’s talk about some common pitfalls.
You could turn the runs into interval training
If you have to run and then walk, sprinting the runs and relaxing on the walks is easy enough. People often assume that the program is about increasing your cardio fitness so that your sprinting pace becomes your cross-country skiing pace on the first day at the end.
But that’s not how it works! Your cardiovascular system doesn’t adjust as quickly. The way you end up making it through the 30-minute run is by running slower than those one-minute runs. And if you don’t learn to slow down (Every beginner has to fucking slow down), you’ll just hit your head against the metaphorical wall.
Search any C25K forum and you will find people talking about how they had to repeat certain weeks or that they “couldn’t” all run intervals of a given week, even the first week. This is what happens when you don’t learn to slow down.
If you’ve really sprinted your first minute run on W1D1, you won’t be able to recover in time for the next. It’s not that you can’t, it’s just that you rushed it. And you may have done interval runs for the first three or four weeks, but that strategy will stop working when the runs get longer. If you keep failing or dropping C25K, this is likely the reason.
You might consider walking a failure
Since C25K is aimed at getting you to run more and walk less, people pay attention to whether and how much they walk during a run. And judge yourself for it.
In real life, nobody stops people crossing the finish line of a marathon to ask how many minutes they have run of it. If you covered the distance at a running or jogging pace, even if you had to stop on a large hill to walk or to have a sip of water, you will have run the distance.
You can’t tell the difference between a race and a training run
So the program takes you from completely inexperienced sitting on the couch to running 5 km or about five kilometers. Cool. But one concept that many fans of C25K have forgotten is that when runners speak of “5K” they mean a race. And a race is different from a training run.
Here’s the difference. Let’s say you are a casual runner. You can always do an easy five-kilometer training run. Let’s say this usually takes about 35 minutes. After doing a few of these you can sign up for a local race, a 5km. You pay an entry fee, get a t-shirt, maybe raise money for charity. You line up at the start, and since it’s a race, not a training day, you push yourself to be faster than your usual training run. Your heart rate rises, you puff and puff, your legs burn as you increase the pace to race across the finish line. Time: 30 minutes. Hell yes! What a good race you had.
That’s a 5K run. This is what a runner means when they say they’ve run 3 miles for 30 minutes. This does not mean that you routinely cover five kilometers in 30 minutes on every training run.
But C25K runners (and many beginners, to be honest!) Often focus on the 5K distance and their time for a 5K distance as a measure of their training. You shouldn’t treat your training runs like races. That would be like trying to get a better grade on a test by just taking tests over and over. Students need to open a book and study; Runners must run training runs at training pace.
If you didn’t like Couch to 5K, you will think that you don’t like running
This is probably my biggest beef with the popularity of C25K: it has become synonymous with learning to walk and even walking.
The sense of progress of many C25K runners is tied to the app rather than running in general. If you’ve tried the C25K and missed a certain week, or if you’ve graduated and are sad that you’re still a “slow” runner, you may think that you just hate running, or that you weren’t meant to be are to be good at it.
But C25K is just one of the many running programs out there. You can also start differently. (More on that in a second.) Also, when you’re done, you can leave it out.
I see too many people quit C25K and then think the next step is to run C25K again but run faster, or look for a similar run-walk program that will get them up to 10K. But gradually increasing run-walk intervals are not the only way to exercise! And traveling longer and longer distances is not the only way to move forward.
Sure, it’s cool when you conquer the 5 km and then decide to do 10 km and a half marathon and a full marathon. This is a great way to go if you love distance running. But what if I told you that you can stick to small runs and just get better at 3 miles? There are many runners out there, including college and professional runners who specialize in short and medium distance runners. You don’t run C25K over and over; they use other exercise programs that better suit their goals.
Alternatives to couch to 5K
Okay what else can you do?
First of all, while programs are great, it’s okay not to be on one at first. You can absolutely easily go out for half an hour (or whatever feels good to you) and run and walk however you like. We have a post here that explains this as “intuitive walking”. But a lot of runners have started something like this without ever naming it.
You can run alone, do a little research on running, and decide what to do next. Hopefully you will come across the idea that the key to running sustainably is slow enough that you don’t run out of breath all the time. Do you remember how I said I started a C25K-like program? After about a month – and I assure you that at this point in my life I was not fit and not exercising – I realized that I was running slower and slower and I wondered if maybe I could make it, my usual Running distance without conquering if I jogged slowly enough, I stopped. I did and shocked myself by running for 20 or 30 minutes straight, even though I had never walked for more than five minutes or so.
Once you’ve unlocked this little revelation, you can run on any schedule you like. And if you need a break from hiking every now and then, just take one. My first race was a 10k and I had a lot of little 30 second breaks just to catch my breath when I realized I was going too fast. I still coped with a respectable amount of time (for me).
Okay, are you ready for a program? Good news, there is a lot out there and you can choose the ones that make sense for your schedule and goals. Hal Higdon’s plans are free (or available in a paid app if you prefer). Here is his Construction plan for beginners basewhich would be a great alternative to C25K. The first week has two 1.5 mile runs, a 30-minute walk, and two 3-mile runs. Our editor-in-chief Meghan Walbert started with that when she wanted to learn to walk. You can add as many walking breaks as you want to the runs.
Or maybe you’ve completed C25K and want to take the next step. This 5K interim plan adds some speed training (quick laps on a track with breaks in between) while keeping most runs short and simple, and extending a run over the weekend (it ends up being up to 7 miles long).
There are tons of other programs out there. If you have a fitness tracker like a Garmin or Fitbit, it likely has customizable running plans that you can follow. Apps like Runkeeper and Nike Run Club also offer virtual trainers and one-time workouts.
And don’t forget the local running clubs. Your local Road Runners club or running shop likely has a group that trains together. They may be able to connect you with a coach or provide you with a written program to follow. Spending time with other runners is also a great way to learn the ins and outs of training runners instead of having to figure it all out for yourself when starting over.
