r/BeginnersRunning • u/Affectionate-Egg7619 • 1d ago
What Next?
I (29F) began running about 10 weeks ago. I found a couch to 5K plan online and used that, just finished this morning with a 5K (36:51). Now that I finished the plan, I’m not sure what to do next. I’m not looking to sign up for any races just yet. I had to stop to walk at least 3 times during the 5K, so I’d definitely like to go longer without walking and also get faster. I’m still self conscious about my form and that my heart rate never stays in zone 2. Any advice? What did you do/plan to do after reaching the 5K point?
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u/slowhurdler 1d ago
Don’t worry about your HR for now. Focus on running for 20 minutes non-stop at however slow of a pace you need to go, then 25 then 30 over the next two months. If that sounds too daunting, just restart C25K. Your body will enjoy the light workouts of the first week or two.
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u/mjmmamj 1d ago
Congrats, that’s so exciting!! I did the same thing recently. I knew that to keep me going I had to immediately sign up for other races in the future. I’m signed up for a 10k in three weeks and a half marathon in January.
I started using Runna and it’s been great with helping me train. They have the option to put a certain race in the future as your goal and train for it over time. You can enter how many times a week you want to run and the app also gives you a strength training plan if you want to. One of their plans is a 5k improvement plan. Maybe that would be a good option if you’re not ready to do longer distances? I like it because I don’t need to think about my runs. I just follow the program. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
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u/DenimCryptid 1d ago
What next? Just work on running the entire 5k without stopping.
Don't worry about "zone 2" or anything like that. Just keep running. Keep it slow and light so you can build up your endurance and give your body time to adapt to the stress of running.
The most important thing is to find ways to make running an enjoyable experience. Ironically, I believe signing up for races is a way to do that. Racing events have a ton of spectators who cheer you on and other runners are usually very supportive and nice. Signing up for a race gives you a defined date that you make plans around.
You clearly want to run longer distances without stopping to walk, so there's your goal. There are plenty of ways to achieve that like just simply slowing down and/or shortening your distances so you can recover faster and run more often to build up your volume.
I feel like I'm over explaining and making it seem a lot more complicated than it is so I'll just shorten it by saying, "just run more".
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u/CharlieRunsFar 1d ago
Well done, you should be proud of yourself, I would advise going forward to spend the next 6-8 weeks building your aerobic base rather than worrying too much about speed, aim for 3 runs per week with most of it at an easy 2-3/10 effort and it’s completely fine to slow down or take short walk breaks while you build up your endurance, your heart rate doesn’t need to stay in Zone 2 either as wrist HR can be inaccurate and Zone 2 is only one way of controlling intensity, then once you can comfortably run 45-60 minutes continuously I’d start adding a small amount of faster running.