C25K advice.

[Miljea]

Never done it, unlikely to. Encouraging 2 late teens/young adults who seem keen to 'av a go.

YY it's MN therefore I need to list the caveats; social distancing, no licking anything etc 🙄😂

But. Do they need to plan a 5km route first? Which they then use, and use again? With other alternative 5km routes, obvs, as needed! But Is 'lesson one' do 5 kms? However they do it? Gentle jog/walk/ gentle jog or however C25k works! Or should they plot 2kms, 3kms, or whatever, first?

Note: I don't care if you think it's their problem, not mine. They're now all under my roof. I need this to work for all of us. I will help and encourage it. I'm looking for advice as to how C25k works.

You start off mostly walking, but for a similar time. So you won't cover 5km at first. Your idea of planning a 2km route is probably about right.

Each run also has a 5 minutes warm up walk at the beginning and a 5 minute cool down walk at the end. So eventually the run will be 5km plus a bit of walking.

It lasts 30 minutes each time but you up the amount of running you do, and therefore distance covered, each week. Perhaps you/they could find a nice 20 minute walk near you. When you are half way through a bell rings so you know it is time to turn round and head home if you’re not doing a circular route and want to retrace your steps back home.

Read this:
www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/couch-to-5k-week-by-week/

it has all the info on how the running is built up week to week. It's a gentle build-up. 5k is just part of the slogan but in reality the program is all about the end goal of running for 30 minutes without stopping, in which a fair amount of people can achieve 5km.

You can do whatever routes you wish for each run and there's a helpful bell that will chime halfway through the workout so if you start heading back home direction when you hear the bell, you will make it back home by the end of the workout (if you maintain a steady pace throughout the session).

I'd recommend pairing it with a sports watch and/or fitness app so you can monitor things like distance run and/or heart rate per minute, etc. and track your progress over time.

I'm mid-20s - started it in January and I'm on week 7 now.

there is a c25k app and website (NHS) with plans on.

I would still recommend now is not the best time to be taking up running, but can see you've decided. So long as it's an isolated area, logically the risk should be low. Do encourage people not to over-exert themselves, as this can significantly reduce the immune system, leading to worse responses to the virus, as well as increasing the risk of injury.

Initially in first weeks you will barely cover 2 km or 3...at the end 4 km rather than 5 km unless you quite fit. So just go round the block or local park to start.

query I'm an HCP and can entirely see how 'government guidelines' need to be seen to be enforceable due to so many people ignoring them. But where we live, everyone can be safe from each other very quickly.

For the first week or so, get them to think of a route of 1-2km.

They key is to listen out for the "well done, you're have way through" then TURN round. Or just have a circuit of 4 or 5 streets.

It is worth persevering. If they find it tough, it is okay to repeat a week. If they haven't really exercised much, please stress the importance of the warm up and warm down.

I hope they enjoy it.