Ok what next?

Hi All

New to this forum, and thought id give it a try, seems a little quicker with responses on this one.

Ok 9 weeks ago I decided to change my life, get fitter, eat healthier and loose weight as a bonus.  Well I looked and found a 9 week training scheduled called "couch to 5k challenge" which is a run/walk schedule for beginners.  I started off doing 20 x running 1 minute walking 1 minute and now at week 9 im running continuously for 30 minutes which is a big improvement for me.

I now need to know whats next, this schedule has finished and what to know where to go from here and is there a schedule as I find this easier to stick to.

I run 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday & Friday and have the other days as rest days.

Any help or advice appreciated. 

Hello.

Have a look in the training section (one of the tabs along the top on the homepage). They have loads of different schedules in there. I'm sure you will find something suitable.

Good Luck and Well Done!

hello colin well done for getting so far i would say try and join a local club which will keep you motivated and try and do some races so you always have something to aim for but most of all just enjoy it and remember how far you have come in 9 weeks and as ostrich said have a look on the tabs well done and keep going 

You need to decide what your goals are.  I would suggest aiming for a 10k race.  you don't need to enter a race if you don't feel confident enough yet, but it sets you an achievable target.

You can either get a 10k training plan and maybe miss the first couple of weeks if it would be a step backwards for you, or you can write your own plan.

The gist of any plan is that you do a long run at the weekend and two shorter runs during the week.  The long runs gradually get longer until your are running the full distance.  So I would aim to do 2 x 30 min runs during the week (I guess that these are probably about 4-5k) and then increase you weekend run by either a maximum of 1k a week or 5 minutes a week.

Peachy is right that a club will help with motivation, particularly now that the nights are beginning to close in.  Don't be afraid of clubs - you are certainly good enough for mine - and look for one that caters for beginners.  Most club runners are people with a shared interest who want a bit of company on their runs, and the elite runners are the minority.

Well done, and keep up the good work!