Is 3 x 5km a week enough exercise?

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Been running (or jogging, I don’t feel I go fast enough to call it running) for 8 months and enjoy it once I’m out. But, Im an inherently lazy person so find it hard to get motivated to get out the door and to push myself further. I can comfortably run 5km now and wonder if this 3 x a week is enough exercise to keep fit? Also do 1hour Pilates 2/3 times a week.

I kind of feel like it isn't and wonder what more I should do without putting myself off (again lazy and easily give up).

Should I strive to run more times a week, or keep it 3 x a week and just longer each time or just faster over same distance?

Depends what you want to achieve really. If you want to just tick over and keep fairly active then 3 5ks a week, plus Pilates, is fine. If you want to become fitter, build your stamina and become a faster runner then you can keep at 3 runs a week but just increase the length and intensity of your sessions.
One speed or hill session, one long run and one tempo session a week would be ideal.

I would suggest adding a couple of weight sessions in, even if it means reducing your Pilates down to 2 sessions a week. Lifting weights will set your body up for later life when muscle mass naturally decreases, it helps to burn calories and is great for runners to prevent injuries. Some big compound moves like squats, deadlifts, overhead press and chest press would be great.

Not sure what I want to achieve really... I definitely want to get fitter as although I feel fitter than when I started I don’t feel that strong and I want to be at a level of fitness that promotes health. Also changed up my diet and try hard to be healthier on that front too.

I guess I was just worried my three times a week was my lazy nature at play and was way off the mark. But maybe I should just up the intensity in those 3 sessions rather than try and fit more sessions in. Wish I didn’t always default to the bare minimum! Thanks.

Never thought of weights @Rgy3250999. would that be easy to do at home with little equipment? I don’t live close to any gyms and with young kids and work I don’t really have time or funds for the gym.

What about starting with body weight exercises.
There's hundred on YouTube that you can do at home from beginners to advanced

You can obviously buy weights but you can also use household things to lift. Large milk cartons filled with water are great as arm weights. Try raising arms to the side and in front of you. You can press all kinds of things from a hoover to a side table or even a baby if your children are small. Same with squatting, get something with a weight to it, hold it in front of you and squat, or grab a mop/broom pole and slide your milk bottles over the ends and squat with it on your back. Another good one would be glute bridges with anything weighty held over your lower abdomen.

If you have a little spare cash, resistance bands are inexpensive and can be wrapped round chair legs, table legs, tops of doors etc and used to replicate weight machines in the gym. Google is your friend as band workouts are so popular right now.

Recommendation advice (NHS) is to do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity a week so you're probably not reaching that at jogging pace. I would try and mix up your runs so you do a steady paced run and start to build up the distance and some hills or speed intervals to help improve your strength and pace. If you keep jogging along for 5k 3 times a week you're unlikely to see much improvement.
I'd add in some strength and resistance work (bodyweight is fine) to help prevent running injuries.

My thinking would be to aim for 4x/week as the 'normal'. Then if you occasionally miss a session because the weather is foul or some family emergency comes up, then you'll still achieve 3x/week as a consistent minimum, and you will reach the govt advised activity levels no matter what.

@emmathedilemma, how do you believe OP should identify 'vigorous'?

NHS defines jogging at any pace as 'vigorous'.
I thought there was some 'how out of breath are you' way for people to identify 'vigorous' but I am not finding it quickly.

My understanding is that the guideline is 150 mins of walking a week as a base level, not 150 mins of running. Running (even jogging at a moderate pace) is obviously more vigorous than walking.

What OP is doing sounds great, and more than many people manage.

Thanks for the replies. I must admit I thought 150 jogging/running sounded like a lot as an NHS guideline. But then I wouldn’t called walking a moderate exercise unless it was long hike up a mountain. So a bit confused. I’m definitely out of breath at the end of my 5ks! I live in a hilly area so naturally fine myself puffing up hills at least once a week. But could force myself to take the hilly route more often. But I agree that the pace I go probably isn’t increasing my fitness. As said in the OP my default is lazy and do the least possible and the answers here have shown that I could be doing more.

I think it’s unlikely I will get to increase the number of times I go as I’m a terrible for ducking out at any excuse especially now it’s winter. so I will aim to up the intensity when I do go and try and push myself more. I’m going to try and switch a Pilates for a more strength building workout and see how I go!

Just try and add plenty of walking as well and you'll be fine. I don't run at all but walk 4 to 5 miles a day on average, which includes about an hour a day walking the dog, as I find walking easier to fit in than running and less tiring. I also do about three hours of yoga a week. It's definitely enough exercise AFAIC.

How long does it take you to run 5k, OP?

31 minutes @fellrunner85 So slow. I do have some pretty big hills to contend with (South Wales). But I know I could run faster if I tried harder....

31 minutes isn't slow!
Jogging pace i'd say is still being able to hold a conversation. Most people train too fast, every run shouldn't be a race!

I run 5k about the same time as you OP and my Garmin registers it as vigorous exercise (of course it depends on your heart rate). Also vigorous exercise minutes are doubled when calculating the 150 mins guideline so you'd only need 75 mins of vigorous compared to 150 mins of moderate. At least that's the data my Garmin tells me anyway!

31 minutes is a good fast pace, especially if you are going up hill and for 31 minutes straight (no breaks to walk). If you want a bit of extra oomf, add another 30 minutes of fast walking to it, and then you get a solid 1 hour of a high heart rate.

An hour of Pilates 2 to 3 times a week is good too, like someone said, maybe switch it up for some weights once a week.

If your goal is too be fit, you will achieve it with this, unless by fit you mean instagram fit.

Haha definitely not Instagram fit @IamTomHanks I’m waaaay to lazy for that. Just healthy fit. I’ve grown up seeing my mum complain of being overweight and suffering painful back and hips. She never did exercise and decided that I really didn’t want that for myself. So I gave myself a kick up the bum to get fitter.

Glad to hear that 31mins is an ok pace and counts as vigorous. It certainly feels vigorous! But I thought I was crawling and it just was my fitness level. I always go alone and don’t use strava or anything just a basics tracking app, so I have no reference really.

I don’t run up hill all the way, I’d say it was 50/50 on my hilly route but it undulates so up then down then up again etc. But I can start to pick different routes that have longer up hill bits. Thanks again for all the tips. Inspired to keep at it.

Do you use Strava or Nike run club to track your running?
I've been challenging myself to do 100k a month and other challenges on Strava (just the free version) which motivates me
I also live in the hills so my normal 5k is fairly slow - looking forward to the chance to do some flatter ones next year and really see what I can do!

It's all comparative though, isn't it?

Purely objectively, 31 minutes is not a "good fast pace." Presuming the OP is around 35 years old, it would be an age grading of 47, which is below average in running grading terms. Compared to average Parkrun finishers at my local parkrun it's also 3 minutes slower than the average (though it must be remembered that most people run a parkrun harder than they would an ordinary 5k training run).

But ... on the flip side, if that pace is getting the OP out of breath then it counts as vigorous exercise, and three sessions a week is a decent effort. If the pace feels comfortable then adding more hills or sprint sections would help to increase the training benefit.

As a pp said, you shouldn't do all yours training runs at the same pace either. I vary between 9 min miles and 6:30 miles - whilch is a pretty massive difference really - depending on the session.

I used to be a devotee of weight training and a gym bunny but my body is the strongest it has ever been in my life from doing yoga and I don't lift weights any more. So if you are doing enough pilates and getting stronger with it I don't think weights are necessary. "Switching up" one of my yoga sessions for weights would be switching down afaic.

And as for running, just enjoy it and don't get hung up about the pace at all. You don't have to go fast, you just have to go. And if you don't enjoy it, don't do it and go for a nice walk instead.

Why don’t you focus on really improving what you’re currently doing before introducing extra.

So - you say you don’t run up all the hills. What about setting yourself a challenge to make every run one that you run solidly and don’t walk any part?

Then work on getting below a certain speed.

Then... introduce more, if you want to.

@fellrunner85

* Purely objectively, 31 minutes is not a "good fast pace*

Don’t you mean subjectively?

9 minute miles for cross country with hills is seriously impressive in my book. I don't know how old the OP is, but the fastest pace I ever managed in my early 20s when I was all of 9 stone was 8 minute miles over 10k (in a race, once!) and that was on a flat road. It is certain more than enough to maintain fitness. As is walking at a good pace for an hour a day.

Yeah that's fine but I would make 1 a east slow run , 1 a threshold run and one a session like 2 mins on 2 mins off, or 5x 1k at 5k pace 2 min recovery

Much more beneficial to do that