Run, walk, repeat: the simple plan millions have used to start exercising, and lose weight, and my experience of C25K
- It’s something almost anyone can do if they want to get active: use a mix of running and walking on alternate days to go from nothing to running 5km nonstop
- Nine-week plan Couch to 5K was created 23 years ago by a lapsed New York runner who had an epiphany. I gave it a try. After six months, I was running 8km
New Year’s resolutions are usually made to be broken, but this plan that aims to turn you from a couch potato to a lifelong runner might just be the best gift to yourself this holiday season.
After abandoning swimming and badminton – which had been part of my weekly routine for years – I was desperate to find an exercise plan to ease me back into an active lifestyle after a couple of relatively sedentary years.
I discovered the “Couch to 5K” (C25K for short), a nine-week running plan used by millions of people around the world. The aim is to do as its name suggests – to get anyone off the couch, onto the streets or trails, and running five kilometres (3.1 miles) nonstop, in a little more than two months.
C25K runners don their running shoes three days a week, with a rest day in between. Each week builds on progress from the previous one, but always starts with a five-minute warm-up walk.
In the first week, runners do eight cycles of a minute’s run and a 1.5-minute walk each day that they train. In their second week, they alternate six times between a 1.5-minute run and a two-minute walk.
Alternating between short runs and brisk walks for about 20 minutes carries on until the third day of week five, when runners are asked to run 20 minutes without stopping. Later weeks incrementally lengthen the run, until the runner can finish a 30-minute run without stopping by week nine. At this stage, the runner can typically run 5km.